Event Surveys
From conference preparation to planning a fundraiser, surveys are integral to event management.
Surveys for every step of the way...
Event surveys useful to all stages of event management; whether you’re choosing a venue, collecting guest information or developing future events based on feedback.
Event Planning
Arrange event dates, locations and speakers to estimate your budget.
Event Registration
Collect guest RSVPs and menu choices, and register attendees on the door.
Pre-Event Surveys
Learn a little more about your invitees to plan agendas and networking events.
Live Feedback
Survey guest experience mid-event to evaluate progress and identify any problems.
Post-Event Feedback
Gain valuable insights on event proceedings and guest satisfaction for future planning.
Event Recall
Determine the most memorable and successful aspects of your event.
Pre-Event Surveys
What are pre-event surveys?
There are two main functions to pre-event surveys; to plan the details of your event and to learn as much as possible about your invitees. Then you can use this information to set KPIs and ensure the event meets the expectations of your guests.
What should you ask?
Whether you’re planning a conference, a party or a fundraiser, you’ll need to contact invitees to settle a few details for the event. These could include date availability, collecting RSVPs, choosing entertainment, picking a venue or noting any dietary restrictions.
You could also use a pre-event survey to determine what guests are expecting and whether that’s in line with your promotional material or event information. If you find their expectations vary wildly, you still have a chance to manage those expectations or make last minute changes. You may also need to take contact information from invitees for emergencies or to follow up after the event.
If your hosting a fundraising event, you should also ask how likely a guest is to donate (and if not why).
Pre-event question examples
- Why are you attending the event?
- What aspect of the event are you most excited about?
- Was the cost of the event good value for money?
- How do you feel about the location/ venue of the event?
- Is there any information you couldn’t find or access easily?
- How could we improve the registration process?
Mid-Event Surveys
What are mid-event surveys?
Live feedback is essential to making your event a success. During a break, or between events, ask guests to provide some feedback on their experience so far.
This will give you the opportunity to measure satisfaction and address and make any off-the-cuff changes. Avoid sending out a mid-event survey during the lunch break, as you’re likely to get a low response rate. You should give your attendees that time to rest and prepare for the next half of the event.
What should you ask?
First and foremost, you should ask attendees how the event is going. By identifying your wins and losses, you’re able to keep your happy guests happy and win back those who aren’t enjoying the event.
These surveys can also give speakers feedback on their presentations or talks whilst it’s still fresh in your attendees’ minds. It could even be comments on the room temperature. Any feedback is valuable.
If you want to do something a bit different, you could use the mid-event survey to engage with your attendees. For example, put together a fun quiz on some of the topics covered so far and offer an incentive (like a free drink or coupon) to get people involved.
Mid-event question examples
- How was the check in process?
- Have event staff been helpful and friendly?
- Have you been able to find your way around easily?
- What has been your favourite aspect of the event so far?
- Who has been your favourite speaker so far? (and why?)
- Do you feel others are enjoying the event?
- How would you improve the event so far?
Post-Event Surveys
What are post-event surveys?
Now your event is done, it’s time to highlight its successes and failures. Get in touch with attendees to find out what they liked, what could use improvement and what didn’t meet their expectations.
This information be used to determine your even ROI, measure attendee satisfaction and inform the planning for your next event.
This is also an opportunity to re-engage with contacts. For example, you could include a CTA for a donation (if you’re event was a fundraiser) or plug another event they may be interested in.
What should you ask?
Here you need to cover all aspects of your event, from speakers and entertainment to refreshments and amenities. You don’t have to litter respondents with a load of open ended questions, it’s better to keep these short and simple, but do find out what they thought was the most valuable or rewarding.
You should ask a few event evaluation questions but, most importantly, you’ll need participants to rate their overall experience.
Keep your questions as neutral as possible, you don’t want to lead attendees to a specific answer, this will only create response bias.
You’ll also want to ask for suggestions on how to improve future events. This open feedback will highlight issues or frictions that may have been missed in your list of questions.
Post-event question examples
- On a scale of 0-10, how would you rate the event overall?
- What aspect of the event (speaker etc.) were you most pleased with?
- Did you get everything out of the event you expected to?
- What was missing from the event?
- How would you suggest we improve next year’s event?
- Were there ample breaks between events?
- Was there enough time to network/ meet other guests?
- On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to return to next year’s event? (if below a certain number ask why)
- On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend this event to friends or colleagues? (similar too Net Promoter Score)
Features for event surveys
Customization and branding
Customize our prebuilt themes and exit pages to align with your event branding or include logos from sponsors and affiliated organizations.
To fully brand your survey, enable white labelling on projects to remove all KwikSurveys brand and host your survey on a custom domain. (White labelling and custom domain are only available with the Business Plan.)
Personalization
Use Page Logic to filter attendees to pages relevant to them, i.e. if they don’t intend on eating at the event, they don’t need to go to a page for menu choices.
Our Hidden Fields (custom variables) feature allows you to pass attendee information into reports. For example, guest names, registration numbers, emails to help you identify them
Filter and compare
Filter your results into separate reports based on attendee demographics, answer choices and satisfaction (and more). This will enable you to identify your successes and key areas for improvement for future events.
KwikSurveys also give you the ability to compare responses between individuals or sets of respondents. So, you’ll be able to compare all of the marketing staff’s reviews against those from HR.
Customize survey reports
Your results are automatically collated into a professional (and customizable) report. You can use filters and comparisons to create multiple reports, each focusing on a different aspect of the event or segment of attendees.
You’re also able to share the digital report with stakeholders via a URL link or export the data as a PDF or spreadsheet.
Benchmark performance
Run the same survey for multiple for a reoccurring event and use the comparison tool to compare feedback for each. This will allow you to bench mark how your events have improved over the years and which problems resurface each time.
This information is key to improving your ROI year on year.
Live results
All data is collected in real time, meaning feedback will be available immediately in your report. This is crucial for mid-event surveys, where you’ll want to act on feedback as soon as it comes in.
Mobile surveys
It’s essential for event surveys to be mobile friendly, especially if you’re launching a mid-event survey. Attendees aren’t going to have access to a desktop and so will need to respond via mobile, tablet or kiosk.
Our surveys work flawlessly across all devices, meaning attendees can give feedback anytime and anywhere.
6 Tips for Event Surveys
1. Results should be measurable
Ask questions that deliver clear and actionable results. Don’t ask what attendees thought of an event, ask what its strengths and weaknesses were.
2. Keep it short
The longer a survey is, the more likely a respondent is to suffer from survey fatigue. Only ask what’s necessary and relevant for your research.
3. Make responses anonymous
Respondents are more likely to be honest with complimenting and criticising an event when they know they’re response will be anonymous.
4. Send post-event surveys ASAP
Recall of events isn’t very reliable after a period of time passes. By asking for event feedback straight away, your data is likely to be more accurate.
5. Give as much context as you can
Include pictures, videos and text to remind attendees of speakers and content to ensure they have all the context needed to give feedback.
6. Key questions go first
All surveys have a natural non-completion rate. By placing your most important questions first, you’ll always collect the most valuable data.