Event Debrief Questions You Must Ask After an Event

It also involves post-event insights that can greatly improve your subsequent events. Understanding what worked in your favor, what didn’t, and how to improve your future events requires a thorough event debriefing.

This blog will look at the key questions you should ask after an event, to ensure its sustained success. 

What is an Event Debrief?

Let us first define what an event debrief is. An event debrief is a structured review process that takes place after the event has ended.

To measure the event’s performance input is collected from a variety of stakeholders including attendees, team members, sponsors and partners. The purpose of event debrief is to identify strengths, problems and opportunities of your event for improvement.

Why Conduct a Debrief?

Conducting an event debrief allows you to learn about attendee satisfaction and engagement, assess the effectiveness of event logistics and technology, evaluate marketing strategy performance, identify challenges and areas for improvement, and improve future event planning and execution.

What Should You Include in Your Event Debrief?

To gain a complete view of how your event went, it’s critical to assess all essential components of the event in your debrief, such as:

• Review if or not you met the objectives you set out to achieve. Do the event KPIs look promising? Did the ROI, engagement and attendance meet your expectations?

• Look into your event platform’s data analytics to identify what worked and what needs improvement. These tools help in understanding the hits and misses through your entire event journey.

• To get candid input from your audience, use polls, surveys and session analytics. The strongest indicator of success is their event experience.

• Ascertain the seamlessness and impact of your event platform. Did it function smoothly throughout the event? Were there any bugs or technical problems that caused delays or interrupted sessions?

• Assess the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns by looking at social media engagement, email open rates and registration conversions.

• Ensure that your external partners received the assistance and benefits they anticipated from the event.

What Questions Should You Ask During an Event Debrief?

Some of the essential questions you should ask are:

1. Did the event meet its objectives?

Start by going over the objectives that were established during the planning stage. Ascertain if the goals set during the planning stage were met or not? Evaluate indicators like revenue targets, lead generation, engagement rates and attendance numbers. Understanding if your event achieved its goals or not will serve as a basis for assessing the overall success of the event.

2. What aspects of the event were most successful?

Identify the aspects that struck a chord with the participants. Was it the networking possibilities, engaging workshops, or the keynote speaker? Acknowledging effective elements facilitates their replication in subsequent events.

3. What challenges or issues arose during the event?

Every event has its share of difficulties. Keep track of any problems you run into, like scheduling conflicts, technical difficulties or complaints from attendees. Gaining an understanding of these difficulties enables the creation of future mitigation plans.

4. How did attendees engage with the event content?

Examine indicators such as session participation, chat activity and Q&A involvement to assess attendee engagement. While low engagement could indicate that the content needs to be adjusted, high engagement shows that the information was interesting and relevant.

5. Were the event’s logistics and technology effective?

Assess how well the registration systems, virtual event platform and other tech tools performed. Were there any technical problems? Were they easy to use? Technology and efficient logistics are essential for a flawless event.

6. How effective was the communication before and during the event?

Evaluate how promptly and clearly communications were made to sponsors, speakers and attendees. Good communication guarantees that everyone is informed and able to take part completely.

7. What feedback did attendees provide?

Gather and examine comments received on direct communication channels, social media and post-event surveys. Feedback from attendees provides insightful information about their experiences and demonstrates the degree of event satisfaction.

8. Were there any unexpected outcomes?

List any surprises that took place throughout the event, both good and bad.  Unexpected events can provide insights and chances for creativity in subsequent events.

9. How did the event perform financially?

Examine the event’s spending, earnings and budget. Was the event’s budget adequate? Was there sufficient return on investment? An important consideration when evaluating an event is its financial performance.

10. How did the sponsors and partners perform?

Evaluate the partners and sponsors’ satisfaction and involvement. Did they accomplish their goals? Did they get what they expected from your event? Future partnerships require strong relationships with sponsors and partners.

11. How did the team perform?

Consider the roles, duties and internal coordination of the event team. Were tasks completed effectively? Were there any problems with communication? Gaining an insight into team performance facilitates better future cooperation.

12. What improvements can be made for future events?

Create practical suggestions for upcoming events, based on the information acquired. This could involve adjustments to the team’s coordination, logistics, technology or content. The secret to a successful event is constant development.

13. How strong was post-event engagement?

Evaluate the effectiveness of your post-event engagement by following:

• Did participants interact with the recordings, summaries and follow-up emails that were sent out, after the event?
• After that, did they still engage with your brand or network?
• Did website traffic or social media mentions increase at any point?

You can better grasp the lifespan and long-term worth of your event content by keeping track of this.

14. Were accessibility and inclusivity addressed adequately?

Attendees are increasingly demanding inclusive event spaces. Here are some things to look into.

• Were there sign language interpretation, captions or subtitles available during the event?
• Could users with varying skill levels easily navigate the platform?
• Were people in other time zones able to access content on demand or not?

In addition to guaranteeing compliance, accessibility broadens your prospective audience and shows consideration.

15. Was the content aligned with audience expectations?

It’s important to assess whether the audience found the material engaging, even if the sessions were well-organized. So, ask questions like:

• Was it too simple or too sophisticated?
• Did participants leave early or did they stay to the finish of the sessions?
• Were certain topics preferred more than others?

You may improve speaker selection, agenda creation and session styles for your next event by having a better understanding of content alignment.

16. How well did the networking features perform?

Networking is frequently a top priority for participants in virtual and hybrid events. So, ask them questions like:

• Did a lot of people attend the networking sessions?
• Were the networking sessions interesting or helpful to the participants?
• Were services like 1:1 video calls, chat rooms and breakout rooms easy to use?

Future events can benefit from analyzing these factors to enhance participant pleasure and connection.

Implementing Debrief Insights

1. Prioritizing Feedback

Not every piece of feedback will be given equal weight.  Sort feedback according to how it affects the event goals and the attendee experience. Concentrate on areas that need major improvement and that need to be addressed right away.

2. Action Planning

Create a thorough action plan that outlines what needs to be done to address the areas that need improvement. To guarantee accountability, assign tasks to team members and establish due dates.

3. Continuous Improvement

Review and update event strategies on a regular basis in light of debrief findings. This process will foster a culture of continuous improvement. To promote creativity and development, encourage candid comments and open communication among team members.

Engaging Stakeholders in the Debrief Process

Your review will be more thorough and balanced if all important stakeholders are included in the debriefing process, as every group contributes a different viewpoint like:

• Participants can discuss their overall experience, lessons gained and areas for improvement.
• Members of the team can discuss internal communication, coordination and behind-the-scenes difficulties.
• Hosts and speakers can emphasize audience participation and the experience of delivering content.
• Feedback on audience engagement, ROI and brand awareness is given by sponsors and partners.

To get their opinions, schedule formal debriefing sessions or deliver tailored questionnaires. Their input will improve the comprehensiveness and actionability of your debrief.

Importance of Event Debriefs

Despite being one of the most important aspects of the event lifecycle, event debriefs are frequently disregarded. Here are some reasons why event debriefs are critical to long-term event success:

• Debriefs enable you to gather unfiltered input and transform it into enhancements for your subsequent events.
• You may make better budget choices and enhance overall event performance in the future by knowing what worked and what didn’t.
• Holding a review meeting with your team increases openness and facilitates learning from the experience.
• By recording lessons that you have learned, you can make a blueprint that will help you duplicate your successes and steer clear of prior blunders.

To put it simply, an event debrief turns your event from a one-time occurrence into a source of continuous enhancement and value.

Best Practices for Conducting an Event Debrief

To get the most out of your event debrief, adopt these best practices:

• Host your debriefing a few days after the event, while the details are still fresh.
• Get a 360-degree view by including team members, presenters, sponsors and even selected attendees.