Post-event communications, yes or no?

Let’s face it, the tendency is to focus on good communications before the event and during it. There's a valid argument for this, before the event we need to get people excited and keep them informed to make sure they show up. On the day itself, communications are a great way of keeping attendees updated.

Post-event comms are a bit like the poor relation that can be either completely ignored or done as a bit of an afterthought.

Just because the excitement of the build-up and the actual event has passed, it doesn't mean the opportunity to keep the conversation going should be missed. Sending surveys, thank you emails, highlight reels, popular slide decks are all decent examples of post-event comms.

Surveys
An effective way of getting honest feedback (especially if you let the respondent answer anonymously). Make them short and snappy - people like quick response options like check boxes, radio buttons and dropdowns. Try and keep free text fields to a minimum, perhaps just a comments box at the end of the survey.

Send them out 24-48 hours after the event whilst it's still fresh in their minds.

If you've got the budget something like a prize draw is a good way to encourage attendees to respond.

If you're sending out surveys, the key thing is to have an easy mechanism to view and download responses. Don't ignore the results, act on them and share the key points.

Thank you email
A simple "thanks for attending" email is an easy way to acknowledge and thank people for coming to the event. Make it more relevant to the individual if you can, a bit more than just their name if you can.

It could be used as a standalone email, include a link to take the post-event survey (see above), or an attachment/link to the highlights reel.

Highlight reels
Most of us haven't got time to watch a 60-minute film of an event we attended, no matter how good it was. Most of us can find the time to watch a condensed summary of the event if it's about 5 minutes or so. It's also something that can easily be shared and used to promote the next event.

Promoting future events
A good time to get early bookings for upcoming events is straight after the last one. We're taking it as read that this applies to attendees who got something positive out of the last event.

Neglecting post-event comms, might mean you’re missing out on an opportunity to differentiate your events from the rest.