Convene - February 2016

CMP SERIES

CERTIFICATION MADE POSSIBLE

Average response rate: 51. 9 percent
Average response rate: 42 percent
5 If you use paper-based feedback forms delivered at the
end of your sessions, what is your response rate (i.e., what
percentage of your attendees submit feedback)?
6 If you use end-of-session digital feedback, what is your
response rate (i.e., what percentage of your attendees
submit feedback)?

Half of the respondents don’t collect data in this way. For
those who do, while the average response rate for end-of-
session, paper-based feedback forms is 52 percent, the
rates reported in the survey “are all over the place,” which
Thalheimer found “kind of fascinating, suggesting that
some organizations are doing something different from
other organizations.” One practice that many respon-
dents said is key to maximizing responses is making
end-of-session reminder announcements. “We notice a
significant increase in response rate when speakers do
this,” one respondent wrote. “Sometimes as many as 50
percent respond.”
Nearly half of respondents don’t collect data in this way.

For those who do, the average response rate for end-of-session digital feedback ( 42 percent) is 10 percent lower than for paper, but Thalheimer attributed that to digital tools being somewhat new, and suggested that the mobile-app interface may not be as user-friendly as possible.

“When there’s a paper form,” he said, “it’s right in front
of everybody,” whereas an app can use either pull or push
technology. Apps that let users know at the end of the ses-
sion that it’s time to take an evaluation — a push approach
— will “get radically different results,” he said. Indeed, one
respondent wrote: “Our mobile app activates five minutes
before the session ends. We doubled our responses and
tripled the response time.”
Another respondent said: “We instruct our room
hosts to pull out their mobile device at the end of ses-
sions and ask attendees to complete the survey before
departing. The key seems to be keeping the app in
attendees’ minds while providing a quick and easy for-
mat to complete the survey.”

80%–100%
60%–79%
40%–59%
20%–39%
0%–19%

80%–100% 60%–79% 40%–59% 20%–39% 0%–19%

22%
19%
22%
19%
18%
16%
9%
20%
24%
30%
22+1928
16+92053
Test Time

Earn one hour of CEU credit. Once you finish reading this CMP Series article, read the following material:

› “The Flawed Logic With Post-Conference Surveys,” an Omnipress blog post, available at convn.org/survey-flaws.

› “Is Your Conference Survey a Waste of Time?,” a Guidepost blog post, available at convn.org/survey-waste.

To earn CEU credit, visit pcma.org/ convenecmp to answer questions about information contained in this CMP Series article and the additional material.