How can you improve post-event debriefs with your team?

And stick to it! I can’t tell you how many meetings I’ve sat in that get de-railed on topics that take up the rest of the meeting time resulting in items being overlooked or forgotten. We know the importance of moderators in our panels — if your leadership needs help sticking to the schedule during meetings — encourage someone else to take on the role of moderator! You’ll save time and get more done.

I agree! In addition, our team has debriefs with our clients first so that we can incorporate a true customer evaluation while we do our internal debriefings. It’s great to have that outside perspective - it allows you to address client feedback first which will help drive the direction and discussion with your internal teams.

Structured discussions. It's like following a musical score; it keeps everyone on the same page. Use a predefined agenda to cover key aspects like what went well, what needs improvement, and action items. This ensures that important topics are addressed. Rushing through the debrief. It's like ending a concert abruptly; you miss the chance to savor the music. Take your time to delve into details, allowing team members to share their perspectives and insights fully.

Many team members view events as a "jolly" and a night on the town, not mentally prepared for the long hours and hard work ahead. Remind them of the KPIs that you will counting, monitoring and measuring and what the clear accountabilities and responsibilities will be and why. Whether it's collected qualified business cards, badge swipes, conversations with walk ons, attendees to your talk, stand or booth be preparaed to hold staff accountbale. How many stands will they visit, whar research, competitive research will they gather, what insights, what innovations wil lthey/did they see that will enable you to improve next time? Hold your team accountable and be clear on the KPIs ;)

Let's say you're leading a marketing campaign for a new product launch. As part of the debrief agenda, include a "Lessons Learned" segment. During this portion of the discussion, encourage team members to share their experiences, both positive and negative. For example, someone might highlight the success of a particular social media ad that generated significant engagement, while another team member might discuss a misalignment in messaging between the product's packaging and the online content. By openly discussing these experiences, you can distill actionable insights. Perhaps you realize that a specific ad format resonated well with your audience, and you should replicate it in future campaigns.

Our debrief drill is called "Bs and Cs" - Benefits and Concerns. The format is mandatory. (1) Start with Benefits. "What did you like about it" - "What went well". (2) Then Concerns. Statements need to start with "How to" or "I wish I knew". How do we reduce/increase the time. I wish I knew how we can be more engaging. This drives a constructive, forward looking environment.

We like to use the "Stop-Start-Continue" framework. Stop: What didn't work, and should we stop doing or re-work? Start: Something that needed to be added, and we should add. Often, these ideas come from entirely unrelated events or projects. Continue: Something that worked well and we want to keep. Often, these get further optimised for the next event.

For our debriefs we find it important to make a statement at the beginning to setup a safe environment. Let everyone know that the goal of the debrief is to identify were we did good and what areas we need to grow, so that we can improve as a team.

Absolute agree! Be objective, understanding, and a chance to explain any limitations. Allowed not perfect in events. Time management is important too if the debrief is just after the event and let team members can take rest soon. Arrange someone to jot down the main points and send to all later on.

Wait to have your meeting until you have feedback from your attendees. Sure your teams thoughts and feelings are important, but we do these for the attendees so that feedback should be paramount over anything else.

This is my favorite part. You'd be surprised and at times impressed at the data you can get from attendees, vendors, your clients, and other stakeholders. This helps in future collaborations with not only the client you are executing for but also for yourself: take that data into consideration when executing other events you have in your pipeline.

In collecting data, it's always good to have a re-evaluation session with the larger team to ensure that the metrics tracked are still relevant to the event/organization's goals. This is also a good point to test what marketing strategy or communication channel is most effective with your audience.

Add a variety of sources for data beyond the anecdotal. Avoid binary data points of pass and fail. Consider passive data collection like facial analysis and active like post-event surveys. Get more from post event surveys by running sentiment analysis on their output with generative AI. Make sure to survey those who saw your marketing and did not convert to attendance in order to avoid survivor bias. This will help you grow your event. Lastly, consider a focus group or experience audit with different personas represented as real people to get feedback from different lenses.

If it were me - What were your key takeaways from the marketing event? How well did our team's objectives align with the event's goals? Can you share any meaningful conversations or connections you made? What strategies or tactics from our pre-event planning were effective? Did you encounter any unexpected challenges or opportunities? How did our team's performance compare to competitors or industry peers? Were there any noteworthy feedback or suggestions from event attendees? What valuable insights can we apply to future marketing efforts? Did the event contribute to achieving our short-term and long-term goals? What specific actions or follow-ups should we prioritize post-event?

Review who did what and why, and what the impact and effectiveness was, for example - Did our team members fulfill their assigned roles effectively? Were there any gaps or overlaps in responsibilities? Were team members clear on their roles and objectives? Did the assigned roles align with individual strengths? Were there any unexpected tasks that arose? Did role assignments adapt well to changing circumstances? How did the delegation of responsibilities impact our overall success? Should we make any adjustments to role assignments for future events? Did everyone feel supported and empowered in their roles? How can we optimize role assignments for improved performance at future events?

Our organization asks for feedback from every staff member involved in the event. We have a set meeting and we are all able to break down the great things that happened or the things to keep for the next event. We then give the things to improve on. Suggestions on how to fix those items are helpful but not needed at the time.

To gather valuable feedback and opinions from my team after the marketing event, I would: 1. Start with open-ended questions: "What are your thoughts on our overall performance at the event?" 2.Encourage constructive criticism: "What aspects of our approach do you think could be improved?" 3. Ask about individual experiences "Can you share any specific challenges you faced or successes you achieved?" 4. Enquire about lessons learned: "What key insights did you gain from the event?" 5/ Explore event-specific feedback: "What were the highlights and low points of the event for you?" Hope that gets you thinking ;)

I encourage my clients to manage the feedback from the perspective of the attendee. The attendee experience and engagement are what should be used as a guide to measure the ROI. Looking at how the attendee experienced registration to how they engaged with speakers and content during a session will allow the event team to really acknowledge wins and areas of growth for an opportunity to create a better experience next time.

Keeping this document and reviewing it on a quarterly, semi-annual, annual basis (whatever interval makes the most sense for your team/work) gives a good glimpse on how best the team/relevant stakeholders are effectively responding to needed changes and if the team is adequately equipped to adapt when needed.

Lets not forget the reason why we invested all the time, people, attendance fees and marketing so consider: Share and analyze the return on investment, considering costs vs. gains. For example, "What were the tangible outcomes in terms of leads generated or sales closed?" Discuss the quality of leads acquired and any noteworthy prospects. "Were there any promising leads we need to nurture further?" Share successful networking experiences. "Can you give examples of impactful interactions with potential clients or partners?" Review effectiveness of marketing materials. "Did our brochures or presentations resonate with the audience?" Discuss post-event follow-up strategies. "What's our plan to engage with leads and contacts we made?"

How people communicate is important to understanding the meaning behind feedback. Consider not just what they say but how they say it, based on body language cues such as tone, gestures, posture and facial expressions. As the facilitator of the debrief, you can improve the results when your able to apply emotion intelligence in how you engage everyone. For example, some people need time to prepare their thoughts beforehand. Others will like debate on logic or opinions, while others will want to ensure everyone’s feelings are shared. Exceptional facilitators have the skills to ensure everyone leaves the debriefing feeling seen, heard and valued.

I can't even tell you how many times I've seen organizations fail to do any sort of debrief or fail to be specific when they actually do one. Leaders need to know that you can measure nearly anything. Planning those metrics before an event then assessing them after helps your team to be far more effective. This article is excellent in driving home that point.

I like the idea of allocating specific topics to feedback on to specific members of the team. That way they can focus on one are and solicit feedback throughout the event too. Thanks for the tip!