会展闭幕之后：为何会后调查对主办方很重要

CHICAGO — For organizers, the post-event survey is an important bridge that wraps up one event and provides a roadmap for the next one. Attendee feedback on the surveys is invaluable to organizers, who gather that information in different ways.

Some encourage attendees to complete surveys in real time while the experience is still fresh.

“Survey fatigue is real. Once you get home, some of that information may be stale for a lot of reasons,” Nick Aldinger, Founder and CEO of Pomarium.ai and former CEO at IBL Events, said.

Many organizers have shifted to digital for assets like programs, agendas and surveys, frequently using apps or their own proprietary software.

Aldinger was surprised to find there’s still a demand for paper surveys.

“We often offer both solutions at an event. We make it easy for them, whether it’s asking them to use a kiosk or piece of paper. We’ve had a higher amount of people filling out the [paper surveys] than those purely based on technology,” Aldinger added.

Organizers should emphasize that they are only looking for event-related feedback and will not share attendees’ information other than perhaps adding their email addresses to a distribution list for future event announcements.

Candice Batts, CMP, MMP, HMCC, Meeting Manager with Medical Leverage, uses digital surveys almost exclusively. Besides her client events, Batts is an active member of her local Meeting Professionals International (MPI) chapter. Post-event surveys frequently guide their education committee.

“I haven’t seen a paper survey in some time,” Batts said. “There’s definitely a preference for electronic surveys. For the MPI meetings, they’ll either be in the event app, or there will be a QR code the attendee can use to access the survey, or it will be emailed, typically 24 to 48 hours after the event. I make sure it gets to them somehow, someway, to encourage them to fill it out.”

Surveys help start the next planning phase.

“We want to know what happens next. We want to know if the attendee enjoyed themselves,” Batts said. “You always have your goals and objectives, and the survey is the direct feedback of whether the audience got what it wanted. It tells you how to start the blueprint for your next event.”

Likewise, conferences and trade shows place different values on different elements. Vendors, extracurricular activities (depending on whether it’s a B2B or B2C event) and ticket prices are what matter for trade shows.

It’s all important when assessing value for the attendee.

“The more data you can collect without being a burden on the consumer, the better,” Aldinger explained. “Your sample size is really important — a sample size of 20 is not as useful as a sample size of 500.”

He also suggested revisiting the data a few years in the future to see if there is a correlation with some of the trends.

Keep the survey short and concise. Include a mix of multiple choice or “rating” questions for elements like venue and food, and space for the attendee to speak their mind and write out their responses. Sometimes, the best ideas come from the attendees themselves.

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