How do you balance feedback in your event evaluation?

2 Select your sources

Feedback can come from different sources, such as attendees, speakers, sponsors, partners, staff, or media. Each source can provide valuable insights, but also have their own perspectives, expectations, and agendas. You need to decide which sources are most relevant and reliable for your event evaluation and how much weight you will give to each one. For example, you might want to focus more on the attendees' feedback than the sponsors' feedback if your event is mainly for the audience's benefit.

3 Choose your methods

Feedback can be collected in different ways, such as surveys, polls, interviews, focus groups, social media, or analytics. Each method has its advantages and disadvantages, depending on the type, quantity, and quality of feedback you want to get. You need to choose the methods that suit your goals, sources, and resources, and that will give you the most accurate and useful feedback. For example, you might want to use surveys for quantitative feedback, interviews for qualitative feedback, and social media for spontaneous feedback.

4 Analyze your data

Feedback can be analyzed in different ways, such as descriptive, inferential, or predictive statistics, or thematic, sentiment, or discourse analysis. Each way can help you understand and interpret your feedback data, but also have its limitations and assumptions. You need to use the appropriate techniques and tools to analyze your data, and to be aware of the potential errors, biases, or gaps in your analysis. For example, you might want to use descriptive statistics to summarize your feedback data, inferential statistics to test your hypotheses, and thematic analysis to identify the main themes and patterns in your feedback data.

5 Apply your findings

Feedback can be applied in different ways, such as action plans, reports, presentations, or testimonials. Each way can help you communicate and implement your feedback findings, but also have its challenges and requirements. You need to use the best formats and channels to share and use your findings, and to follow up on your actions and results. For example, you might want to use action plans to improve your event planning process, reports to document your event outcomes, presentations to showcase your event achievements, and testimonials to promote your event reputation.

6 Seek feedback on feedback

Feedback is not a one-time activity, but a continuous cycle of learning and improvement. You need to seek feedback on your feedback process, and to evaluate how well you balanced feedback in your event evaluation. You can do this by asking yourself or others some questions, such as: Did you get the feedback you needed? Did you use the feedback you got? Did you improve your event based on the feedback? Did you acknowledge and appreciate the feedback providers? How can you balance feedback better next time?

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?