How to Host an Event Debrief: 15 Essential Questions to Ask

Was your organization's recent event a wild success? Or could the event production or promotion have been better? An event debrief can answer these questions and many more, helping you measure the outcome.

To evaluate events effectively, you have to ask the right questions. We've rounded up 15 questions to help guide your post-event meeting agenda, including expert tips from Livestorm's Senior Marketing Partnerships Manager.

What is an event debrief and why should you host one?

An event debrief is a meeting that takes place shortly after an in-person, virtual, or hybrid event ends. It allows stakeholders to recap the event, review what went well, and analyze areas that need improvement.

This post-event meeting allows event planners, partners, and sponsors to share qualitative feedback and evaluate data. A successful event debrief typically ends with action items to make the next event even better.

What to cover during a debrief meeting

Every debrief meeting should include an analysis of these elements:

• Event goals and objectives: Recap the goals your team set so you can confirm whether you achieved them.
• Attendee details and numbers: Analyze demographics and attendance and compare against expectations.
• Event engagement metrics: Review comments, questions, and chat messages during the event and related to the event promotion.
• Return on investment (ROI): Calculate the value of the event so you can assess if it was worthwhile and so you can pitch similar events in the future.
• Event marketing channels: Evaluate the channels you used for promotion to identify those most and least worthy of future investments.

15 Essential event debrief questions to ask

When you plan your post-event meeting, include these essential questions in your agenda.

1. How was the attendee experience?

Pauline Mura, Livestorm Senior Marketing Partnerships Manager, recommends focusing on attendee satisfaction. She explains that this approach is essential to understand if you've held a successful event.

"Looking beyond numbers, think about the feel of the event and the content. Were the attendees happy to be at the event? Were they interested in the content? Did they engage among themselves and with the speakers? I think attendee feedback is the most valuable regarding the event's success."

You have a few options to collect feedback from attendees. Send out a post-event survey with specific questions and check for social media posts, community threads, and blog posts about the event.

2. How can we implement audience feedback for the next event?

Take what you've learned from the audience feedback. Then, work with your event management team to develop actionable steps to implement these insights in your event marketing strategy.

3. Did we meet the event objectives?

This question is particularly important for events that include co-marketing partners or sponsors. To answer it, reference the key performance indicators (KPIs) you set during event planning. Then, compare them to the event results.

Review event data like:

• Event attendance
• Event promotion, including metrics for social media and email campaigns
• Attendee engagement
• Conversion rate for special offers

Use Livestorm's Video Engagement Score Calculator to measure attendance and engagement and benchmark the data against other virtual events. You can use this free tool whether or not you use Livestorm's virtual event software to host your event.

4. Did event partners meet their objectives?

If you hosted the event with partner organizations, review their KPIs as well. For example, did they meet their attendee registration goals or their event promotion objectives? Take notes and use your insights when considering another partnership for a future event.

5. What were the biggest successes of the event?

Discuss what contributed to event success. For example, did you exceed attendance goals? Was the attendee experience beyond what you had hoped? Did sponsors receive more promotion than expected?

6. What were the biggest challenges of the event?

Identify areas for improvement. For example, did you fall short of attendance or sponsorship goals? Did you have technical difficulties during an important virtual session?

7. How did our spending compare to our budget?

Analyze your event spending. If you went over budget, where did you overspend and how can you avoid it next time? If you underspent, are there areas that would benefit from a bigger budget next time?

8. What was the ROI from the event?

To calculate ROI, divide the net gain by the cost of investment and multiply by 100%. For example, if the event led to 100 new customers at $1000 each and the event cost $10,000 to host, your ROI would be 900%.

9. How did the event format affect the results?

Whether you opted for an in-person, hybrid, or virtual event, analyze how the format affected the outcome. Should you choose a different format next time?

10. Did we choose the right technology or venue for the event?

Whether you book a venue space, invest in a virtual event platform, or both, you need to choose the right setup for your team and audience. If either component created major challenges, you might consider replacing it next time you host a live event.

11. Which marketing channels led to the most registrations?

Review your promotional channels to find the top performers. Did email campaigns, social media promotion, your Slack community, or partner marketing drive the most registrations?

12. How did the results from this event compare to the previous one?

Don't analyze event metrics in isolation. Instead, compare them to similar events you've held in the past. Set benchmarks so you can better understand the outcomes and make the next event better.

13. What should we continue doing for future events?

Review your event debrief meeting notes and make a short list of successes. These are things to keep doing.

14. What should we stop doing for future events?

Then, make a list of failures. Plan to stop doing these things or find a workaround.

15. What should we start doing for future events?

Finally, use your insights to create a list of next steps, experiments to try, or event marketing examples to inspire. These are things to start doing at future events.

Best practices to run a successful post-event meeting

Use these tips to make your event or conference debrief run smoothly.

Host the follow-up meeting within days of the event

Large events often take substantial time, energy, and resources to plan. By the time the event concludes, you might be ready for a break—or a long vacation.

However, you should avoid waiting too long to debrief an event. As a general rule, you should plan to hold the debrief within three days so every event detail is still fresh in your mind.

Invite event organizers, sponsors, and partners

Avoid limiting the invitee list to your event planning and marketing team. Instead, extend the debrief meeting invitation to all stakeholders. That includes organizers and hosts as well as any sponsors or marketing partners.

By welcoming a wider group of stakeholders into the meeting, you allow more voices to share feedback. This is helpful for making sure you've accounted for all KPIs and considered relevant perspectives.

Create an event debrief template to reuse

Whether you host events regularly or infrequently, you can save time by systematizing the debrief process. Here's how to streamline the process with a comprehensive event debrief agenda:

• At the beginning of the agenda, start an event recap.
• Then, include the essential debrief questions above.
• Leave a space for any custom event questions you need to add.
• Conclude with a list of action items and next steps.

Frequently asked questions about event debriefing

What are the 5 key points of debriefing?

The five key points of debriefing are:

• Plan ahead and mark your calendar instead of assuming you'll make time for the meeting.
• Create a safe space so the event management team can share experiences freely.
• Review meeting objectives and set an agenda that everyone can follow.
• Respond honestly even if it's uncomfortable to get more value from the post-event debrief.
• End with a recap so everyone can leave with a summary and action items.

What are the 4 phases of debriefing?

The four phases of debriefing typically include:

• Reaction and description where organizers can share their event experience
• Analysis and understanding where team members analyze why the event happened the way it did
• Application and summary where organizers discuss how to apply learnings for future events
• Evaluation and extension where team members apply insights to a broader marketing context

What are the five Rs of an effective debrief?

The five Rs are similar to the five key points of debriefing:

• Reconvene to discuss the event as soon as possible after it concludes.
• Reset the tone by creating a safe space for everyone to share observations.
• Review objectives and create an agenda to keep everyone on track.
• Refine your next event with the feedback you gather from the debrief.
• Recap takeaways and next steps before wrapping up the meeting.