How to collect session feedback at a conference without paper surveys

Conference session feedback usually arrives too late and from too few people. The survey goes out by email the week after, when attendees are back at their desks, and the people who answer are the ones with something to complain about. Paper forms on chairs are better, until someone has to type up 400 of them.

The fix is to ask in the room, at the end of each talk, in a way that takes seconds. Attendees text a rating and, if they want, a comment. You get a report for every session by the end of the day.

Ask at the end of every session

The best moment is right before Q&A, or right after the speaker's last slide. People still remember the talk, they're sitting down, and they have their phones in their hands.

Ask speakers to put one slide up at the end:

How was this session? Text RATE to 33777, or scan the code.

And ask them, or the room host, to say it out loud: "Before you go, text RATE to 33777 and tell us how this session went. It takes two replies, and it goes straight to the organizers." Then a short pause.

Put the same line in the printed program, on the room signs, and in the event app if you have one.

Keep it to a rating and a comment

Two questions is enough for session feedback:

1. A rating. "How would you rate this session? Reply with a number from 1 to 5, where 5 is best."
2. An optional comment. "Thanks. Any other feedback? Reply with your thoughts, or SKIP."

That's quick enough to do between sessions. Anything longer, like questions about the venue, the food, or next year's dates, belongs in the post-event survey.

Choose 1 to 5 for simplicity, or 1 to 10 if you want to compare with past events that used it. Pick one scale per session and keep it, since changing it partway through makes the average meaningless.

People will reply in all sorts of ways: "5," "five," "4 stars," "4/5," a row of star emoji. Accept all of them, and ask again only when a reply really isn't a rating.

One keyword per room

For a single-track event, one keyword can cover the whole day. Each text goes to the session that's running when it arrives, based on each session's start and end time. Leave a few minutes after each talk for people to respond.

For parallel tracks, a single keyword can't tell which room someone's in. Give each room its own keyword or QR code, and put it on that room's door sign and on every speaker's last slide in that room. A QR code per room is free and easy to print, and each one reports separately.

One response per person, per session

Let each attendee rate each session once. Someone who texts again about the same talk should be thanked and moved on, so a single enthusiastic attendee, or a speaker's friend, can't move the average.

They can still rate the next session when it's running.

Share the results with speakers the same day

Speakers want their feedback while they still remember the talk. For each session, send:

• the number of responses,
• the average rating, with how the scores split,
• the comments, without names or phone numbers.

A low rating with a comment tells a speaker what to change. If you asked for an email in the same conversation, you also know which attendees to follow up with, including the ones who had a problem.

Use the conversation for more than feedback

Once an attendee has texted in, the same conversation can do more:

• Send the slides. "Want the speaker's slides? Reply with your email."
• Ask for an email. Useful for next year's early-bird list, if you say so in the ask.
• Run a poll or a word cloud during the session, so the room has a reason to text in before the end.

Keep feedback first and short, though. Attendees will give a rating in two replies; they won't fill in a six-question form between sessions.

For the rest of the event (the offers, the ask, and following up with attendees), see the event lead capture playbook.

How Textiful helps

Textiful session feedback asks for a rating, on a 1 to 5 or 1 to 10 scale, and an optional comment by text. Add your sessions with start and end times, and choose "Whichever is running" so one keyword covers a single-track agenda, or give each room its own QR code. Each session gets a report with its responses, average rating, score breakdown, and comments, and every rating is in your contact export.

Try it at your next event → Start a free trial