After a conference, the attendees pack their bags and go home – excited and inspired! Meeting managers take a few minutes to high-five their team and then, well, they have a lot more work to do. Here is your After-Event-Wrap-Up List.
Feedback: Collecting feedback from attendees helps the team determine what worked, didn’t work, needs to be tweaked and added into the next conference. Utilize online surveys, email and phone call follow-ups to ensure your next conference is on track for greater success.
Financials: Meeting managers will certainly need to report back to their organization about budget. Was the budget in alignment with event requirements and outcomes? This includes revenue generated, expenses incurred, and any outstanding invoices. Determining the ROI of the conference is paramount to addressing the changes necessary for future improvement.
Performance: Ask how the team, vendors, venue, speakers, entertainment, a/v personnel, security and all other critical members performed. This evaluation will answer if there are any budget changes to be made, which members to re-engage or replace and more.
Data Review: This may include attendance rates, engagement rates, and other informative metrics tracked. Not only does the data help determine the success of the conference, it also provides insight into what attendees found valuable and engaging.
Debrief the Team: Schedule and hold a meeting with the entire conference team, including staff and vendors. Meeting managers cannot be everywhere at once, it’s important to learn from other “eyes and ears” that were in the room. This meeting is also a time to recognize the hard work and dedication of the team members and to thank them for lending their talents.
Thank You to Attendees: Always thank the attendees for their participation. This is also an ideal time to provide them with any additional promised resources or materials like slides from presentations, event pictures and videos and save-the-date information for the next conference. This follow-up is also another opportunity to collect additional feedback and attendee satisfaction.
Meeting managers are always looking to improve their events. If you have some super amazing advice to share be sure to let me know. I will post your guidance on my social media – and make sure to tag your organization in the post!
