18 Important Survey Questions to Ask Your Event Attendees

Your goal with any event is to provide an engaging platform that generates excitement, provides a valuable experience, and leaves attendees and sponsors happy. How do you make sure you’re optimizing your event to ensure those attending have a great experience?  The questions you ask before, during, and after an event can make a significant difference.

Whether you are hosting in-person events, virtual events such as a virtual conference, or hybrid events, you need to understand what attendees want and whether you delivered value. 91% of event planners say they judge the ROI of their event based on the satisfaction of their event attendees. Asking smart questions can help you create better agendas for event planning and make sure you are delivering on your promises.[1]

The Important Survey Question to Ask Event Attendees

The type of survey questions to ask attendees will vary, depending on the type of event you are hosting, and have different goals.

• • Questions to ask before an event begins allows you to focus on finding out what your audience wants so you can deliver a better experience.
  • During an event, you want to judge specific speakers or sessions and make sure attendees aren’t having problems navigating your event.
  • After things wrap up, you want to evaluate different elements and use the information for future planning.

Asking survey questions will help you determine engagement at individual event levels, demonstrate awareness and interest in event sponsors, and judge success. These answers can also tell you if there are things you need to add or expenses you can cut due to lack of interest. The right hybrid events platform can help you do all of this so you can build better events.

Pre-Event Survey Questions

Pre-event survey questions provide a baseline for expectations. They can help you measure interest, build excitement for the event, and track performance against those expectations after the event. They can also help foster anticipation and remind attendees why they signed up in the first place — especially when you are planning a hybrid or virtual environment.

Pre-Event Survey Question Examples

• • How did you learn about this event? Helps you determine which marketing channels are most effective.
  • What are you hoping to get out of this event? Helps you understand what people expect to get out of an event.
  • Have you attended this event before? Sort attendees by past attendance and deliver customized experiences. This can also be important information for sponsors to show the strength of your event retention.
  • Which speakers, events, or booths are you most interested in? Gain insight into expectations and help determine interest. This can also help you allocate additional time or space for particular sessions.
  • Which social media platform do you use most often? This can help determine where to put your resources before, during, and after your event to engage attendees.

It’s also important to get feedback during an event, especially for individual sessions or speakers, while it’s still fresh in their minds. Let’s look at some of the questions you may want to ask attendees during an event.

Survey Questions to Ask During an Event

Event marketers know it’s important to stay connected to attendees during events, especially for conferences or multi-day events. Using social media, your virtual or hybrid event solution, texting, or email can help evaluate event satisfaction, build anticipation for upcoming agenda items, and keep attendees engaged. Some sample questions you might ask in a survey during an event might include:

Examples of Questions to Ask During an Event

At the end of, or immediately after, a speaker or session:

• • How would you rate this speaker or session?
  • Did you get relevant and actionable information?
  • Was this session worth your time?

Taking the temperature of the event:

• • Are you finding the events valuable?
  • Do you have any suggestions to make your experience better?
  • Do you need help with anything?

Next, let’s talk about the essential survey questions to ask after an event.

Post-Event Survey Questions

Perhaps the most crucial questions to ask are the ones after an event has concluded. Post-event questions help you evaluate the success of your event in terms of attendee satisfaction, better understand audience behaviors, and get ideas for future events. Here are some of the sample questions you might want to ask after your event concludes:

Post-Event Survey Question Examples

• • Overall, how would you rate your experience? Get an overall score to qualitatively gauge attendee satisfaction.
  • How likely are you to recommend this event to a friend or colleague? This produces a Net Promoter Score (NPS) to help determine customer experience and enthusiasm for your event.
  • If we hold this event in the future, are you likely to attend? Helps measure whether attendees felt the event was worth their time.
  • What did you like most about the event? When asking open-ended questions, you get a better understanding of what things made an impression on your guests — both positive and negative.
  • Did you have any problems or issues during the event? Helps you uncover issues that attendees may not have raised in person.
  • Was the event technology easy to use and intuitive? Using a hybrid events platform or virtual venue software should be easy for attendees. If they struggle to navigate it, it can be frustrating and limit engagement. If there’s a problem, you need to know before your next event.
  • What can we do better next time? Getting suggestions for improvements or additions can help you assess what was missing from this event or what might be enhanced in the future.

Create Better Events

Asking the right questions before, during, and after an event can give you the insight you need to build better events and create higher levels of attendee satisfaction. The software you use will make a big difference, especially if it’s a virtual venue platform that is controlling the environment.

Leveraging the 6Connex Virtual Events Platform

When you host your events on the 6Connex virtual venue platform, you create much more than just a virtual conference. We create a truly immersive environment that engages and delights users. From keynotes and breakout sessions to networking and gamification, you can create a variety of interactive rooms and trade booths to keep people connected. This results in higher attendance and lower drop-off rates.

Engaging Content

Interactive and engaging trade show booths can be loaded with features that allow exhibitors and sponsors to share their brands and showcase their offerings in truly engaging ways. AI matchmaking allows for a more personalized virtual conference journey with other attendees, including finding others with similar backgrounds or interests and engaging in live chat. Interactive scheduling helps attendees plan their day and set reminders.

Creative Environments and Venues

When it comes to coming up with creative virtual event ideas, you can add fun aspects to your venues, such as scavenger hunts, or gift reward points for participation by attendees. Travel through virtual airports and find hidden passports. Visit a gift shop, webinar theatre, greenhouse, or a VIP lounge — all in branded 3D environments that go far beyond live streaming and video conferencing.

Immersive Virtual Experiences

With 6Connex, you can create immersive experiences and take your events to the next level with a hybrid event solution catered to your business needs.  See it for yourself. Request a demo and learn how 6Connex can supercharge your virtual and hybrid events.

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Related Resources:

How to Humanize Your Virtual Event

How to Use a Virtual Event Platform to Build Your Corporate Culture

Sources:

1. Event Manager Blog - 100 Event Statistics (2021 Edition)