In addition to sending out surveys, you should also perform your own internal evaluation.
Some questions to ask are:
- What went well this year?
- What didn’t work or could have gone better this year?
- How many people came?
- Did the division of labor among the committee work well or should you divide it differently next year?
- Did the venue work well for the event? If we get 50% more people next year will it still work?
- Did the speakers and presenters do a good job? Are there any you wouldn’t want to invite back next year?
- Based on our surveys, what forms of advertising were most effective?
- Based on our surveys, what did our attendee population look like in terms of diet, age, etc.? If this wasn’t the population wen wanted, how can we advertise differently next year?