As we always say at Hippo, an event doesn’t conclude after the last delegate leaves. It’s easy to forget the post-event debrief and its importance.
Post-event debriefs are a vital step in analysis and feedback. Taking an objective view of the event, both in terms of the pre-event and on-site stages, it’s important to look at both the events strengths and weaknesses to ensure learnings are had and to streamline the event for the next time around.
Honest and accurate feedback allows you to make better decisions about each event that you organise. A debrief produces a concrete list of what worked, what didn’t, and what relevant people (your attendees, sponsors, suppliers, etc.) want to see at your next event.
It’s also important to conduct debriefs within the days following an event to ensure it is at the forefront of your mind. Leaving it too much longer means you’ll miss those little bits of information you needed to correct if you hadn’t written it down before.
Also, don’t forget to document the debrief – write it all down so you have it as a reference point for your next event.
Below are some critical questions to ask yourself during your debrief.
We tend to like to break it down into different sections:
Overall:
- What were your event objectives?
- Did you achieve them?
- How did we do against budget?
- Did we meet deadlines?
- What did we learn?
- What ideas do we have for next years’ event?
- Were we sufficiently staffed on-site?
- Etc.
The Venue:
- How did the venue work for the event?
- Was it the right location?
- What was the attendee feedback?
- Did it work logistically?
- What were the room sizes like / did you need more rooms?
- Etc.
Catering:
- What was the general feedback on F&B?
- Was there enough F&B provided?
- Quality of the F&B?
- Layout and labelling of F&B?
- Dietary requirements adhered to?
- Etc.
Registration / Attendee Experience:
- Was it an easy process?
- Did you ask the right questions in registration?
- Is there anything you could add / remove?
- What were the comms you sent out – was anything missing?
- On-site badging / any issues?
- Did your timelines work?
- Etc.
The above is just to get you started, but then you can add additional headlines if there were off-site dinners, multiple locations, on-line elements and so on.
Debriefing an event is a crucial step in gathering the feedback necessary to keep your events innovative and efficient. Conducting both an external and internal debrief will ensure that you know exactly how everyone involved feels about the event produced. You will establish a working knowledge of what worked, what didn’t, and how you can build on that information to keep yourself, your clients and the attendees coming back for more.
Hippo offer Event Project Management and Global Venue Finding services. Contact us today on 01372 460 100 or events@hippoevents.co.uk to see how we can assist.