Evaluating an Event
Click through the list of questions below during the evaluation stage of your event.
Where relevant, questions are hyperlinked to resources or recommendations.
It’s important to evaluate the services provided by your staff and volunteers, emcees, facilitators, speakers/presenters, and performers, and the venue's accessibility. What you learn can inform the next event you organize.
We recommend that hard copy forms use 14 size Arial font so that they are easily read and that you create an online version of the form for people who are unable to complete the form onsite (e.g. need to leave before completing it or are physically unable to complete a hard copy version).Consider posting it on your advertisement site or circulating it by email after the event. If after the event, be sure to have your attendees' email addresses!
Sometimes people are hesitant to provide honest feedback. You can encourage them to do so by not requiring people to add their name to the form they submit.
There was a list of requests you made of your emcees, facilitators, speakers/presenters, and performers in the Planning stage (# 9) to ensure all participants could benefit from the event.
Asking attendees whether they understood everyone on your agenda assists you in assessing whether you achieved your goal and you can incorporate the feedback into planning for your next event.
The services offered can make or break a participant’s experience of the event. You’ve spent time arranging these services. It’s important to find out how you did and incorporate any feedback into the planning of your next event.
Ask participants what services they accessed and the quality of the services provided. This includes:
a) Food / Catering
b) Transportation experience
c) Responses to accommodation requests
d) Visibility of service providers
e) Breastfeeding room
f) Child-minding services
g) Prayer rooms
h) Assistive devices
i) Translation services
j) American Sign Language and Real Time Captioning services
k) Counselling services
l) Sliding scale tickets/transportation subsidy
m) Onsite support provided by staff and volunteers
Allowing people to comment as they would like means you obtain feedback that you might not have otherwise received. To measure the inclusivity of your event, try questions like: “Did you find it easy to participate in this event, and if yes, why?” and “What could we have done to make you more comfortable participating in this event?"
It is valuable to obtain feedback from those at the front lines in evaluating the success of an inclusive event and how you can work to improve it.
Did you ask them about:
a) Their experiences working with you to create an inclusive event?
b) Whether they were accessed for support?
c) Their opinions as to how the process worked for them and those they assisted?
d) Any barriers/enables to inclusion they witnessed?
e) Their ideas as to how to make the event more inclusive?
It is valuable to engage your emcees, facilitators, speakers/presenters, and performers in evaluating the success of an inclusive event and how you can work to improve it. Did you ask them about:
a) Their experiences working with you to create an inclusive event?
b) The services they accessed and the quality of the services provided?
c) Their opinions as to how the process worked for them and the audience?
d) Any barriers/enables to inclusion they witnessed?
e) Their ideas as to how to make the event more inclusive?
Obtaining feedback and then circulating it to the relevant parties is key to maintaining and enhancing the inclusivity of your event and the process you have undertaken to get there. Everyone who participated in it should be aware of their successes as well as areas for improvement.
Be sure to incorporate your learning into your next event - and tell us if there is any other guidance we could have provided here. See the About the Project section of the lens for who to contact.