The best way to improve an event is by scheduling a debrief and discussing how it went. Here are five tips for having a quality post-event debrief that will help event teams be successful in the future.
- Set a Date: Debriefs need to be planned in advance (before a meeting even takes place) in order to guarantee that they’ll happen. As soon as employees get back to the office, it’s easy to let days or weeks go by before discussing an event. Make sure to schedule an event debrief as soon as possible so that feedback on the event is fresh on all team members’ minds.
- Create an Open Conversation: The leader of the debrief should start it by thanking everyone for their time and creating an accepting environment for everyone to speak — no matter their rank or position on the team. That way everyone can improve performance separately and as a team.
- Address Event Objectives: Start the debrief with the event objectives. This will help focus the debrief on specific goals the team had for the event. Then, you can address them one by one preventing anyone from getting too off topic.
- Discuss Challenges & Triumphs: As you go through the event objectives, address what challenges occurred as well as the triumphs. It’s important to address registration or tech issues as well as how the team solved these problems. However, it’s equally important to remember the successes of the event and how those can be replicated in the future.
- Recap: Make sure to have someone take notes of the debrief and repeat the information back to the group at the end of the meeting, whether it be through an email or quick discussion at the end. That way everyone can be on the same page moving forward.
