Responses to this question — a variation on Question
3, in which we asked respondents to select only one
top reason — reinforced that meeting organizers’ main
objective for evaluations is session and speaker improvement. The next levels of importance include choosing
future topics, giving speakers feedback about their presentations, and meeting participant expectations. “To
me, this is a great leverage point to say, ‘Okay, you’re all
saying that your highest priority is to improve the learning in the session,’” Thalheimer said. “The question you
ought to have for yourselves, then, is, are your feedback
tools up to snuff? Are they good enough to give you the
kind of feedback that you want, given that it’s one of your
highest priorities?”
4 If you use session feedback forms — paper or digital —
what are the top three reasons?
630+370= 63% To support the future improve-
ment of sessions and/or speakers.
490+510= 49% To ensure that sessions are
well designed to create optimal
learning.
390+610= 39% To ensure that participants feel
the sessions are valuable.
360+640= 36% To select session topics
for future meetings and/or
conferences.
330+670= 33% To give presenters feedback
about their performance.
320+680= 32% To meet participant expecta-
tions that we take their feedback
seriously.
180+820= 18% To select speakers for future
meetings and/or conferences.
120+880= 12% To gather data to enhance our
sales and/or marketing efforts.
080+920= 8% Other
3 If you use session feedback forms (paper or digital),
what is their number-one purpose for your organization?
400+600= 40% To support the future improve-
ment of sessions and/or speakers.
180+820= 18% To ensure that sessions are well
designed to create optimal
learning. 0
150+850= 15% To ensure that participants feel
the sessions are valuable.
80+920= 8% To meet participant expecta-
tions that we take their feedback
seriously.
070+930= 7% Other
060+940= 6% To select session topics
for future meetings and/or
conferences.
030+970= 3% To gather data to enhance our
sales and/or marketing efforts.
020+980= 2% To give presenters feedback
about their performance.
020+980= 2% To select speakers for future
meetings and/or conferences.
The top priority in collecting feedback data for organizations is to support the future improvement of sessions
and/or speakers, followed by ensuring that sessions are
well designed to create optimal learning. From a learning-design perspective, Thalheimer said, “the intentions are in
the right place.”
‘The tide is starting to
turn, and I think we
are seeing benefits in
the ability to turn the
data around quickly
to impact planning for
future activities.’
