Attendee satisfaction

Additions, clarifications, extended definition

This metric shows how attendees rate the event in terms of content relevance, speaker quality, organisation or overall experience. It can be evaluated in a number of different ways (percentage ratings, school-style grades, points, the NPS methodology, verbal feedback, ...) and at various levels of detail (e.g. rating the event as a whole vs. separate ratings for the content, side programme, venue, catering, etc.).

Interpretation

High satisfaction suggests the event met expectations and contributed positively to the perception of the brand, organiser or topic. Tracking this metric over the long term helps improve the quality of events and relationships with attendees.

Watch out: limits and risks of distortion

• Measurement is based on attendees' subjective perceptions and can be influenced by a number of factors: emotions, expectations or the immediate experience.
• Low questionnaire response rates can distort the results (there is a risk the results will not be statistically significant).
• It is good practice to combine quantitative data with verbal feedback – this approach makes interpretation easier and better supports further optimisation of event organisation in the future.

Where and how to measure

• Post-event questionnaires (physical or electronic).
• Ratings in event apps.
• Follow-up emails sent after the event, or face-to-face interviews.

Context

It is a recommended complement to the number of attendees metric, which on its own does not indicate the quality of an event.