A Guide to Collecting (and Measuring) Pre and Post-Event Data
When it comes to analysing event metrics, there’s no such thing as “too much data”. The more data you have, the better.
That’s why it’s essential for event organisers to do more than plan your event - you also need a plan for collecting data from participants. The good news is that today, you have lots of ways of doing this – from post-event surveys (where participants consciously give you feedback) to tracking data that participants unconsciously give you through the use of apps, wearables and other digital means.
Pre-Event
The best time to start collecting data is even before participants attend your event. In fact, you can start tracking potential attendees even before they register by advertising on platforms such as Facebook – which has an excellent system of tracking people who show interest in your event, or similar ones.
Through the analytics you receive from your Facebook advertising campaign, you’ll be able to identify who your ads are attracting and more easily spot potential attendees.
Similarly, you can use Google analytics to track people who have shown interest in your ads on Google. And once prospects land on your event website, your website cookies can keep count of how many often these prospects come back before registering – as well as which pages they visit the most.
During the Event
Before the event app, capturing data during an event used to be incredibly tricky. Not anymore. Your event app can be your event participants’ best friend – always in their pocket or on their table, ready to be used.
And every time the app is used for any purpose - whether it’s to interact with presenters, participate in surveys, vote in polls, chat with fellow attendees, download resources, or anything else – your event app will capture every piece of data, so you can conduct an in-depth analysis later on.
Post-Event
Of course, you can still collect event data the old fashioned way – with a post-event survey. You can either do this at the end of your event, or by sending participants a post-event email to thank them for attending the event, and urge them to fill up a survey.
Remember, just because it’s “old fashioned”, doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. Post-event surveys are a legitimate form of data collection and should be done – especially if you didn’t collect any data during your event with an event app.
Need Help?
If you’d like some in-depth advice on collecting and measuring data from your events, simply contact us. A local Angage team member will help you out.
