How do you gauge attendee engagement at conferences?

1 Feedback surveys

Gathering feedback from attendees is a simple yet effective way to assess engagement. You can conduct surveys before, during, or after the conference to gain insight into their needs, preferences, and opinions. Online platforms, mobile apps, and paper forms are all viable options for collecting responses. Questions you can ask include how attendees heard about the conference, whether their expectations were met, and how likely they are to recommend it. Additionally, you can request suggestions for improvement. Through feedback surveys, you can gain valuable knowledge about the strengths and weaknesses of your conference.

2 Social media analytics

Measuring attendee engagement through social media can provide valuable insights into how your attendees perceive and interact with your event, as well as how they spread the word and generate buzz. Utilizing tools such as hashtags, mentions, and keywords can help you track and analyze the volume, sentiment, and reach of your conference-related posts. Metrics to consider include how many people are talking about your conference and what they’re saying, the number of likes, comments, shares, and retweets your conference posts get, the amount of followers and impressions your conference accounts and pages generate, and the most popular topics, themes, and questions among your attendees. By analyzing this data, you can evaluate the impact and influence of your conference while engaging with your attendees.

3 Live polls and quizzes

Using live polls and quizzes during your conference sessions is an effective way to gauge attendee engagement. Not only can it create an interactive and dynamic learning experience for your attendees, but it can also collect real-time feedback and data. Utilizing online platforms, mobile apps, or clickers to create and display questions and options is a great way to increase attention, participation, and retention among your attendees. Furthermore, it can generate curiosity, excitement, and fun, while providing you with instant results and insights into your attendees' knowledge, opinions, and preferences. Live polls and quizzes can also spark discussions, debates, and collaborations among your attendees; thus helping you enhance the quality and effectiveness of your conference sessions as well as measure and improve attendee engagement.

4 Session attendance and duration

Measuring attendee engagement can be done by tracking their session attendance and duration, which can indicate how interested and committed they are to your conference content and speakers. Platforms, mobile apps, or scanners can be used to register and monitor check-in and check-out times. This data can answer questions such as how many attendees registered and showed up for each session, how long did they stay in each session, which sessions were the most and least popular, and how did the session attendance and duration vary by time, day, and location. Session attendance and duration data can help you determine the demand and relevance of your conference sessions, as well as optimize your conference schedule and logistics.

5 Engagement scores and badges

Gauging attendee engagement can be done through the use of engagement scores and badges. These gamified elements can motivate and reward your attendees for their involvement and contribution to your conference. You can assign points and badges to your attendees using online platforms, mobile apps, or websites. Factors that can influence these scores and badges include completing feedback surveys and quizzes, participating in live polls and discussions, posting and sharing on social media, networking and exchanging contacts, and attending and rating sessions. Engagement scores and badges not only create a fun and competitive atmosphere for your attendees, but they also help to recognize and appreciate their engagement.

6 Net Promoter Score

Measuring attendee engagement with Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a sixth way to gain insight into your conference's success. NPS is a widely used metric that measures customer loyalty and satisfaction. You can ask attendees one question - How likely are you to recommend this conference to a friend or colleague? - and calculate your NPS by subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters. The advantages of using NPS include its simplicity, consistency, and correlation with growth and retention. It is also actionable and improvable, allowing you to identify and address the needs and expectations of your attendees. Ultimately, NPS can help you assess the overall success and value of your conference.

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?