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Stay on Your Feet: How to Follow up After a Sports Event

The athletes have caught their breath, and all the crowds have left. You may think it’s time for you to close up the shutters and put up your feet, but you’d be wrong.

The game isn’t over for you.

It’s time to roll up your sleeves once more and start planning your follow-up. This is your chance to grow the relationship with your attendees, gain valuable information, and plan for future sports events.

Follow these five steps to turn your attendees into fans.

1. Say thank you

You’ve had a great event, and some thanks are in order.

Running a sports event involves many people: the athletes, staff, sponsors, and fans. Thanking them can be one of the most important acts you do post-event. It’ll be a big step towards building and maintaining the relationship.

First, ensure you are utilising social media. Get your thanks out there immediately following the event. Send a tweet, post on Instagram, and update your Facebook.

You’ll want to send out something a little bit more personal, too. Send out a letter or email thanking everyone personally if you have the time and resources to do so.

The attendees

These are the people you put the event on for, so send them a big thank you for making it a success.

Here are some things to include in your message to them:

  • Tell them what an incredible atmosphere they’ve created.
  • Include images and media from the day’s events.
  • Give them some numbers (sports fans love stats).
  • Get them excited about future events (potentially include a discount).

The athletes

Whether they’re runners, footballers, or darts players, they’re the reason people came.

Things to include:

  • Thank them for their excellent performance.
  • Tell them the attendance numbers.
  • Let them know that you hope to include them in future events.
How to Follow up After a Sports Event: Thank everyone involved.
Thank everyone involved.

The sponsors

They helped put on your event by supplying you with the resources to finance it.

Things to include:

  • Thank them for their involvement.
  • Send them any attendee and revenue data you have.
  • Let them know that their help made the event possible.
  • Tell them you hope to work with them again in the future.

The staff and volunteers

Without these guys, you would never have gotten your event off without a hitch.

Things to include:

  • Thank them for all the hard work.
  • Let them know their contribution led to a great event.
  • Offer to give them a written recommendation for their next event.
  • Suggest to stay in touch for future sports events you might organise.

Tip: If you’re afraid of sounding too generic, check out these creative ways to say thank you.

2. Do post-event coverage

You’ve been tweeting up a storm during the event, and that shouldn’t stop after it’s done. It’s a sports event, so post-event coverage is a must.

Social media is incredibly important for any sporting event, because it makes it really easy for the fans to stay in the loop.

You should have media prepared and ready to go immediately following the event. Fans will want to relive all the best bits.

Sharing a video of that winning goal could keep them talking about your event for weeks.

Feel free to get creative with your post-event coverage:

This is an excellent chance for you to push any additional promotion. If you have products or merchandise, this is the time to sell. Your fans will be far more receptive while they are still high from the event.

Finally, use this opportunity to start drumming up excitement for your next event. If you already have a game scheduled, make sure to let them know when and where.

3. Collect feedback

Feedback is going to be vital to developing and planning future events.

You will want to get feedback from your attendees and your athletes. These two perspectives are integral to growing your event.

The basic questions to ask:

  • What did you think was right about the event?
  • Did you enjoy the event?
  • What do you think could be improved?
  • What would you like to see in future events?

You will need to ask specific questions, too. This is how you’ll get to the heart of things you need to know. Tailor your questions to your attendees and athletes.

Sample questions to ask your attendees:

  • What did you think of the venue?
  • How was the view from your seat?

Sample questions to ask your athletes:

  • What did you think of the changing facilities?
  • Did you have what you needed to perform your best?

Use this as an opportunity to get feedback on the things that matter to you. This will help you develop your future events.

Tip: Check out our guide on free event survey tools to help you collect feedback.

4. Evaluate

When it’s all said and done, it’s time to sit back and evaluate the success of your event.

Have an open discussion with your team. This will help you uncover potential hidden issues and bring forward new ideas.

Make a note of what you wanted to achieve and what your goals were. How well do those stack up to the final outcome?

Did you want to sell a thousand tickets? Well, how many did you sell?

If you didn’t sell enough, you could look at what people think needs improvement. Use this to come up with a plan to improve those areas.

How to Follow up After a Sports Event: Evaluate how everyone did.
Evaluate how everyone did.

Maybe you sold more than you expected. That’s great! Now, look at the things people want for the future. Create a plan of how you can implement these ideas.

Think about some of the logistical issues and what went right and wrong. Was the venue fit for purpose? Come up with a plan on how you can improve these next time.

With each event, you learn something new. This is the time to build upon that learning.

Tip: Check out our guide to evaluating your event, so you’re sure to cover all bases and catch the little details.

5. Plan your next event

You’ve put on your first successful event, and you’re a little experienced. It’s time to take everything you’ve learned and put it into practice.

Through your feedback and evaluation process, you’ve identified any existing or potential issues. Armed with all those newfound insights, you can shape your next event to be bigger and better.

You don’t have to get it perfect, but you do have to get that little bit closer to perfection.

Tip: Check out these event planning websites to help you with your next event.

Share your questions and experiences

Did we miss anything in the follow-up process? Then drop us a question in the comments below.

If you have experience with following up after a sports event, feel free to share it with us!

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Closing Shop: Follow Up After a Workshop in 6 Steps

“Do I really have to follow up after a workshop?”

The answer is yes! The follow-up is a very important part of any event life cycle. You wouldn’t want to unbalance the circle of life, right? Keep Mufasa happy and make one last effort at great event building with a fine-tuned follow-up.

We’ll be taking a look at six steps to take post-event:

  • Debriefing
  • The post-workshop social
  • Expressing gratitude
  • Revising the budget
  • Blogging
  • Next steps

One final stretch, folks. Let’s make it count!

1. A brief debriefing

To properly follow up after a workshop, you actually want to begin at the end of the day.

One of the best times to get feedback on a workshop is during the wrap-up. This way, your attendees’ feelings and opinions are fresh.

Ideally, you’ll want a little questionnaire for them to fill out. Not only will this provide valuable insight into your teaching practices, but it will also help guests to solidify what they learned throughout the workshop.

Workshop art being made. Follow up after a workshop by starting at the end.
If there’s no room for a pen & paper survey, you can ask guests to access a digital questionnaire before leaving

A survey doesn’t have to take too long but schedule enough time for guests to write down their thoughts on the new skills they have learned.

Popping the questions

Even for masters of the craft, it may be tricky coming up with clear, helpful questions. Try some of these to get the most out of your feedback:

  • What was the goal of this workshop? Do you feel it met this goal?
  • Has your skill level changed? If so, how?
  • Which activities did you find the most helpful? Which were the most enjoyable?
  • How can the workshop process be improved for better learning in the future?

It is helpful to make these surveys anonymous. A mysterious identity will allow your guests to be more honest in their critiques. This can be harsh, but using constructive criticism is essential to improving your workshop.

In the end, there are a ton of ways to put a lid on the workshop and close up for the day. Find the method that works best for you.

Tip: Creativity doesn’t have to end with the surveys. Here is one way to get feedback and close your workshop with a bang!

“Hello again!”

Sometimes, it can take a little time for new skills to really solidify in the mind.

That being the case, ask your attendees if you may contact them with further questions. The reason for a second survey is to allow time for reflection. If you get their immediate thoughts alone, you can miss important insights that come with time.

A week or two is probably a good baseline for a waiting period.

Tip: Here’s a thorough look at getting better feedback from workshops.

2. “Buy you a drink?”

Alright, we’re not advising that you flirt with your guests.

But it’s not a bad idea to invite the whole group out for food and drinks at your favourite local pub. Sometimes, the best dialogues take place after the workshop itself.

Follow up after a workshop with food and drinks at a restaurant like this one.
The most challenging aspect of the workshop follow-up: Knocking back a drink with pub food.

We know, it’s the end of a long day spent preparing and teaching. But think of the post-workshop meeting as a fun way to unwind and draw some good feedback from your attendees.

3. “Thanks for the memories”

A day or two after the workshop ends, send out a thank-you to your attendees in whatever format you prefer. This could be an email, a social media update, or even a simple group text if you got your attendees’ phone numbers.

You may want to restate the purpose of your workshop (“Our aim was to build the foundation of a gardener’s skillset…”).

Follow that up with an assessment of how everyone did. Most importantly, let your group know what lovely students they were and how much you appreciate their attendance.

Share the view

Your thank-you can also be a great opportunity to provide an overview of the workshop’s main events.

Participants often appreciate a recap of the important stuff. Plus, this can even serve to keep the conversation happening. Google Docs is an easy way to share notes, and you can give editing access to your attendees.

They can continue to add ideas and make points about the craft, updating the document with some of their personal notes and thoughts from the workshop experience.

4. Budget building

You can’t follow up after a workshop without looking at your budget, that’s for sure. This may be the least interactive of the follow-up steps. (It is certainly not as much fun as going out for drinks!)

Still, it’s pretty important to look at the money you spent and how you can be more efficient for the coming workshops.

Consider the cost of:

  • Goodies and souvenirs for the attendees
  • Papers printed (This can be surprisingly costly. How thoroughly can you make the switch to digital?)
  • The venue
  • Promotional efforts
  • Materials for the workshop content, e.g. paintbrushes, marbles, yarn, plant pots, etc.

Tip: Budgeting doesn’t have to be a hands-on ordeal. Take a look at these 10 online budgeting tools to make the process a lot easier.

5. Blog it

Any photos or video obtained from your workshop can be put to good use. As you follow up after a workshop, spend a little time updating your blog or website with some of the insight you and your attendees had together.

A plant art workshop in motion.
Beautiful images from the workshop in motion can really add spice to a follow-up blog post.

This basically doubles as promotion for your ongoing workshop efforts. Make sure you emphasise all the positives of your workshop experience. What skills were gained? How have the guests’ lives been changed moving forward?

Some testimonials from attendees can work really well here.

Tip: Create a compelling workshop recap and get it out there for the world to see.

6. Rinse and repeat

Finally, follow up after a workshop with a second session! Not all workshops lend themselves to meaningful second episodes, but a “part two” or an advanced workshop can let you really dive into the topic.

This is one of the best ways to get to any unanswered questions from the initial workshop. Especially questions that require more hands-on training.

Part two will be generally easier than recruiting guests for the first workshop. The second session has a specific audience to draw from: Your new acquaintances!

Ending the workshopping spree

How do you like to follow up after a workshop? Let us know your tips and tricks in the comments below. Happy workshopping!

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How to Follow Up After Your Wellness Event: 5 Steps to Meditate On

Your wellness event has wrapped up, and your workload has just dropped about 45 kilos. But you’re not done yet!

The good news: Much of the follow-up work is to look over what’s already been done. You’ll also need to solidify your relationships in the wellness world.

Follow up after your wellness event and move forward with a new arsenal of info. To help you make the most of your experience, we’ll be covering these five simple steps:

  • Thank-yous
  • Getting feedback
  • Scanning data
  • Tweaking the budget
  • Debriefing

1. Thanksgiving

This is one of the easiest steps. But as you follow up after your wellness event, it’s also one of the most important. There will be plenty of people who deserve a show of gratitude.

Gratitude like this is key when you follow up after your wellness event
A little gratitude never hurt anyone. Probably.

Mass email is a way to extend those thank-yous directly to everyone involved. For something more public, use social media accounts or create a page on your website. These can double as messages of gratitude and promotional recaps.

Here are some of the groups you’ll want to thank:

Attendees

Pretty self-explanatory! For guests, a mass email and web page or social media thank-yous can really seal the deal.

Event team

Your team represents a continuing relationship. A good deal of research and care goes into a solid wellness event, and your crew members were the vital organs of your event’s healthy anatomy. Gift bags and goodies are a really cool way of showing your gratitude.

You can give them out at the debriefing (more on that below).

Venue

Build long-term contacts by extending a thank-you to your venue. A good relationship is also important here, since you may want to use this location in the future. Be sure to leave the venue in spotless condition. In terms of gratitude, you can’t beat that.

The wellness trend is growing, so you may well have competition soon. Get friendly with your venue while the getting is good!

Partner organisations

Your partners are important, too. Organisations like Red Cross, for example, are key relationships to build as you curate a good reputation in the health industry.

Thank-yous are one way of showing that you’re sincerely all about wellness (and not just using partnerships for personal gain). To that end, you’ll also want to share some of your important post-event data with partners, which we discuss further down.

Tip: Write stellar thank-you messages with this guide to grateful emails.

2. Feedback loop

The more vocal your guests, the more you learn. Hopefully, your wellness event was a hit. That said, even the best event organisers can learn a thing or two from feedback.

if you're lucky, you'll get this much feedback too
The more feedback, the better!

Wellness-centred questions

For wellness events, you want to focus on the guests’ view of wellness and how it relates to them. Was your event content able to reach them in a meaningful way?

Try some of these questions:

  • Do you feel you came away with important new info about wellness?
  • What was the most important wellness tip you picked up during the event?
  • How did you feel about wellness before and after the event? Has your attitude changed?
    • If so, how has it changed?
  • Do you plan on implementing health or wellness changes in your life after this event?

Monkeying around with the data

As you prepare your post-event questionnaire, there are tools to simplify or even enhance the process. MailChimp is helpful email-based software that can show who receives and reads your survey. It can tell you how many guests have:

  • Opened the survey
  • Followed the link
  • Unsubscribed from your updates

Tip: Build your perfect follow-up survey the easy way using online tools like the SurveyMonkey.

3. Data digging

There is a load of good info to sort through after your wellness event wraps up. Be sure to review some of the following:

  • Tickets sold
  • Revenue
  • Positive vs. negative feedback
  • No-shows vs. fulfilled tickets
  • Health-screening info
  • Gym or fitness memberships purchased

Tip: Here’s a good look at what post-event data you should focus on.

4. Bending the budget

Unless you are a business prodigy, chances are that your budget could be tweaked. Finish up your finances with some of the following:

Profits

How much did you actually bring in? Between ticket sales, food, merchandise, and fitness memberships, there is plenty to weigh.

Don’t forget to account for wellness gurus, sports equipment loaners, venue management, and of course, your event team!

For the future

What could be improved? Is there a way to cut venue costs? For wellness events, the outdoors may be a cheaper option.

How about marketing: Could you find a way to spend less on the promotional aspect?

Or if you hired cleaners, what was the ratio of mess to cleaning fees? Now that you know how much mess is left behind, you can fine-tune the cleaning budget for next year.

Tip: Building a new budget doesn’t have to be daunting when you have the right tools.

5. A brief history of your event

Ring the bell, tap a glass with a spoon—however you do it, get your team together one last time for a debrief.

A debrief like this is a good idea as you follow up after your wellness event
Your hard-working crew deserves a pat on the back and a debrief session.

This is the perfect time to read out feedback and sum up event data:

  • Did you achieve your goal(s)?
  • Were guests engaged and active?
  • Were there any parts of the event that failed to grip your event-goers?

Your team’s perspective is important here. For fitness elements, did guests seem energised? For more meditative exercises, were they able to walk away with a feeling of improved calm?

Share the impact

Want to properly follow up after a wellness event? Let your team know where they made a difference.

Your event crew is literally doing this for the guests’ health! Make sure to share any data about awareness raised or other benefits to guest wellness. Sharing stories of satisfied event goers can be a huge motivator for next year.

Tip: Debriefing is an important step, so build a plan for your meeting and stick to it.

Back to square one

Follow up after your wellness event with this final step: Do it all over again!

Only this time, you have experience under your belt. Let us know about your own results and follow-up tactics in the comments section below.

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Following up After a Music Event: The Hows and the Whys

It is incredibly easy to draw a line under a music event the second that it finishes. Once someone has paid to get into the venue and the gig has gone to plan, it’s tempting to think that the transaction is done.

Don’t be one of the event organisers to fall into this trap.

There is value to be had in following up after your music event. You can use it as an opportunity to get repeat customers and plan improvements for next time.

We explore further in this post, the last in our series on planning, promotion, and on-the-day hosting of a concert or gig.

1. Encourage feedback from attendees

The best companies care how their customers feel about the product or service they provide. Event organisers are no exception. There are many reasons to care about feedback from your customers.

In the case of a music event, your customers are attendees. Don’t neglect to get their opinion. Feedback is a key component of properly evaluating your event and getting improvement ideas for the next one.

getting feedback when following up after a music event
Collecting feedback after a gig can provide valuable insights for next time.

There are ways you can incentivise feedback to make people more likely to answer. Why not offer a discount on the next gig or the chance to win a prize for filling in a questionnaire?

Tip: Here are some more ideas about how to obtain attendee feedback.

What you should ask

Be sure to ask questions which are useful and specific to your event. If you simply ask people whether they had a good time, it’ll be hard to pinpoint the reasons behind it.

Instead, try to be specific. Some questions you can ask include:

  • “How would you rate the sound quality out of 10?”
  • “How long did you have to queue for?”
  • “Was the concert too long, the right amount of time, or too short?”
  • “Which performer did you like best and why?”
  • “Did the venue accommodate all your needs”

Delve into the vital details. Everything you spent time on in the planning stage can be tied to your questions here.

If your main concern is the quality of the performance itself, gain constructive feedback specifically related to the musical experience.

Tip: If you’re struggling for ideas on questions to ask, start with a generic list of post-event survey questions.

2. Build your professional relationships

Another important part of following up after your music event is the debrief. This typically includes speaking with the performers or the venue staff.

building professional connections
Keeping professional connections is vital to success!

Building relationships with bands

Some event organisers treat bands like they are “single-use” – as if they’re not likely to work with them again. But many bands play the same venue or same town multiple times. In fact, it’s been argued that playing twice in a week in the same town can be a good thing.

If you’ve managed to create a success with a band or performer, embrace it!

By following up, you increase your chances of working together again, which can be fruitful for everyone involved. The “love/hate relationship” between promoters and performers can be a rocky road. Performers need promoters they can count on, and vice versa. A follow-up chat can go a long way.

Building relationships with venues

Keeping a good relationship with venues is important, especially if you plan to use them again. Work with them to see if anything could have been done better on your part. Venues are your allies, working with them can help ensure a better experience next time.

3. Retain your customers

There can be a little bit of ill-feeling towards people who treat music events too much like a business. The industry needs good business people though. “Customer retention” is a buzzword you’d imagine to hear in board rooms, not green rooms, but it is just as relevant.

Finding new attendees for your gigs can be hard. That’s why there’s no excuse for not doing your best to retain those you have. In fact, it can cost five times as much to gain new customers as to keep your existing ones!

How to follow up with attendees

Following up after a music event can be done effectively through:

In fact, building an email list is still effective in 2019, and allows for a lot of interaction.

By sending a follow-up mail-out to your customers, you can let them know about further gigs or events you are organising. Why not incentivise their attendance with discounts or other offers?

If you think that event organisers can’t have this kind of power, think again. Many music festivals sell out way before their headliners are announced. People develop a trust in the brand. Even local promoters on a small scale can embrace this.

Tip: Here’s a handy guide on how to collect more email addresses at your show.

4. Use your follow up to build buzz

It’s time to take your music hat off and put your business hat on once again.

People who go to a show and enjoy it should want to put it on social media or share their experience with friends. Your job is to encourage and simplify this process, in order to build buzz for your upcoming gigs.

It is effectively a testimonial for the music event you have put on: If people see their buddies having a great time on social media, they’ll want to make sure they don’t miss the next time!

Ideas for building buzz

Methods of building buzz post-event could include:

  • Offering a prize for the best photo of the event
  • Uploading a crowd photo and asking people to tag themselves or their friends
  • Sharing video footage and encouraging attendees to share it online
  • Offering a giveaway of something used on the night such as signed set lists or drumsticks

Tip: Take a look at this guide on how to get event attendees to share photos on social media.

Next steps

Embrace the value of a follow up. Remember that you are playing the long game and that relationships are vital if you want to be a success in such a people-based industry.

Following up after a music event will help you to build your brand, gain trust, and promote the next gig in the process. Good luck!

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Strengthen Your Connections: How to Follow up After a Private Event

Phew! You’ve worked your behind off to make this private event the best you could. Now it’s time to put your legs up and…

Nope, there’s one last thing to do. Actually, there are seven more things to do.

Read on to find out…

    • Why you should thank everyone for coming
    • How to know if the event was a success
    • What questions to ask your attendees
    • How to arrange follow-up meetings
    • What to look for in the budget
    • How to make the most of the memories from the event
    • How to prep for the next private event

It’s the final step of the journey, so let’s put one foot in front of the other.

1. Thank your guests for coming

You should always thank your guests for coming to the event. Private events tend to be smaller in scale than public ones, which makes it easier to personally thank everyone.

Message your guests individually and comment on specific episodes during the event. Maybe you had a good chat about something or planned to meet up in the future.

If your event featured any VIP guests like influencers, it’s also good form to thank them personally. They might just be interested in coming to your next event and help you promote it.

Did anyone sponsor your event? Then you should show them your appreciation and share any key figures with them from the event.

If you had a team to help you out with arranging the event, make sure you tell them what a difference they’ve made to your work.

Finally, you should thank the venue that hosted your private event. If they made an effort to accommodate your privacy on the day, give them some positive feedback.

2. See if you reached the goals for the event

If your private event was a birthday, a wedding, or a work anniversary, then the aim may just have been for everyone to have a good time.

But if your private event was more business-related, you should look at whether or not you got what you wanted out of the event.

Was it, for example, to make specific new connections in the industry? Were you discussing a company merger with another business?

Some of these goals are not predicated on the event alone, but you can evaluate whether or not the private event helped facilitate them.

Were they impressed by the venue, the food, and the service? Was it a good space to have a meeting? Or is there something you could do better next time?

Tip: Read more about how to follow up after a networking event.

3. Get feedback on how well you did

Feedback is crucial when it comes to improving what you do. Even if your private event was an informal one, it can’t hurt to get some opinions from the attendees.

If you were hosting a family reunion, ask everyone how well they think you did. Maybe they’ll have useful suggestions or even volunteer to help with the next gathering.

If your private event was strictly business, you should still ask the attendees for their feedback. It will make you appear more professional and appreciative of their opinion.

Finally, larger-scale private events might require you to get a quantitative survey tool. Look into websites like Google Forms or Survey Planet to create custom feedback forms.

Tip: Check out our guide on evaluating events.

4. Strengthen your connections

Hopefully, you’ve had a good time socialising with everyone at the event. Maybe you’ve made some new friends, and you’d like to see them again after the event.

LinkedIn is a great place for business professionals to connect after a networking event. Add them as a connection and drop them a message to catch up.

How to follow up after a private event: Arrange a follow-up chat over coffee.
Arrange a follow-up chat over coffee.

Facebook is the best place to get in touch with family members you may not have spoken to in a long time. Message them and talk about future weddings, birthdays, or reunions.

Twitter and Instagram are good platforms to stay connected to any influencers, speakers, or celebrity guests you may have had at your private event.

Social media is good, but face-to-face meetings are better. See if you can strengthen your relationships by scheduling in an informal meet-up.

5. The bottom line

After the event, you should check your bank account to see if it’s time to panic or not. Did you go over budget? Or do you still have some coins left over for the next event?

If you’ve used a ticketing software, you can easily see how many tickets you’ve sold (or how many people RSVP’d in case it was a free event).

Once you have everyone’s feedback in front of you, it’s also easier to evaluate if the money you spent on the venue, food, drinks, and entertainment was worth it.

Could you stretch the budget for your next private event? Maybe set a bar tab instead of making it a free bar all night? Or maybe court some companies to sponsor part of the next event?

If you did have any corporate sponsors for your event, you should share the results with them. They might be interested in sponsoring future events if this one turned out well.

6. Prime people for the next private event

Assuming the event was a success, you should prepare everyone for it to happen again…and much better than before.

One of the ways you can keep people coming back to your private event is to offer them a discount on the next time they attend.

Another way is to make them an influencer. Private events are already exclusive by nature. But if you let one of your previous guests bring a friend next time, then that gives them VIP status.

Both approaches are great for turning your guests into your event advocates. They will be particularly useful for private events since your promotion is a bit more limited.

7. Create social media content with highlights

If you’ve made some great memories with your guests, then you’ve hopefully immortalised them with some pictures and videos.

Depending on your approach to promoting private events, you can share these on your social media channels. You can also just forward them to the guests individually.

How to follow up after a private event: Send event highlights to your private chat groups.
Send event highlights to your private chat groups.

If you have a lot of footage and images, make sure to sift through them before just dumping it all online or in an email.

Create an event highlight reel with only the best or most memorable moments from the day. That way, you present the private event in the nicest light possible.

Conclusion

Organising a private event is often an educational experience, even for the most seasoned event planner.

Hopefully, you’ve come away from this event all the wiser.

If you need to simplify ticketing for your next event, consider using a ticketing system. You can make the event both private and free of charge if you don’t plan on selling tickets.

Thanks for reading, and good luck with your next event!

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Feedback on Food: How to Follow up After a Food and Drinks Event

All the plates have been licked clean, and the guests have left your event satisfied. All that’s left now is to review whether or not those Instagram photos need filters or not.

Let’s look at how to follow up after your food and drinks event.

This step-by-step guide will show you how to…

  • Evaluate the event
  • Thank everyone for coming
  • Ask for their feedback
  • Offer them an incentive to come back
  • Review the marketing
  • Count the ticket sales
  • Close the budget
  • Prepare for the next event

Still hungry for more? Then let’s dig in.

1. Review the event

Now that the dust has settled, it’s time to look at how well the event went. Start with the big picture, and assess if any practical aspects could be improved.

Questions to ask yourself:

  • Did everything go as planned and run on time?
  • How well did the catering firm do their job?
  • Did the venue live up to expectations?
  • Would you consider working with the same partners again?

Once you know the answers to these questions, you’ll have a better idea of how to improve the next event.

Tip: Our guide to evaluating events maps out how to measure your success.

2. Send out a “thank you” note

It’s always good form to thank your guests for coming. If it weren’t for them, it would’ve just been you sitting in a room full of delicious food.

(Which doesn’t sound half bad, actually.)

Send out a letter or email thanking your guests for coming along and creating a great atmosphere. Include a tasty image that reminds them of the great food and drinks.

You should also thank the people that helped you with the event. That includes the venue staff, and—perhaps most importantly—the catering company supplying the food.

If any part of your event was sponsored by a food and beverage company, make sure to thank them for their support as well.

3. Ask for feedback

The “thank you” email is not only an excellent way to show your appreciation, but it’s also a great way to collect feedback. Not just from the guests themselves but also from the venue and catering.

You could ask the guests some of these questions:

  • What did you think of the menu?
  • Was the food served promptly?
  • What was the best part of the meal?
  • Would you attend future food and drinks events like this one?
  • Which foods would you like to see at the next event?
How to follow up after a food and drinks event: Did your guests leave satisfied?
Did your guests leave satisfied?

You can ask open-ended questions like these, or you can quantify the feedback by making them multiple choice. The latter is more useful for more substantial food and drinks events.

The feedback you want from the venue and catering company is likely to be more specific. Open-ended questions are better here, to ensure you get all the relevant details.

Don’t be afraid to give feedback to the catering company, either. It’s important to communicate well if you plan on using them again in the future.

Tip: Read our guide on free event survey tools to help you collect feedback from your dinner guests.

4. Provide an incentive to come back

You’ve thanked the guests for coming, which is kind of you. Then you’ve asked them to provide you with feedback, which is a request for their time.

Structure your email like a sandwich.

Rather than ending it with a request, provide an incentive for them to engage. There’s no better way to do that than by offering a discount on the next event.

Not only will this make them happy to provide you with feedback, but it’ll also increase the likelihood of them attending the next food and drinks event.

Tip: Read our guide on how to turn your guests into advocates by offering incentives.

5. Look at marketing data

Once you’ve received feedback from the guests that attended, you should look at how well you promoted your food and drinks event.

Your ticketing system will give you a lot of insights but won’t tell the whole story. You should also look at your email response rates and social media data.

A mailing platform like MailChimp will tell you how many people have…

  • Opened your email
  • Clicked the link
  • Responded to you
  • Unsubscribed from your mailing list

Similarly, most social media platforms like Instagram (the home of foodies) show you likes, shares, comments, and so on.

Finally, a Google Alert on your event name will reveal if it was covered by any media outlets.

Add up all those things, and you’ll have a good picture of how well you’ve covered your food event. Now the question is if those efforts translated into ticket sales.

Tip: Our guide on promoting your food event should give you all the tools you need.

6. Tally up the ticket sales

Did you have a full house? Or were there tickets left over? If you’ve used a ticketing platform to sell tickets, these numbers are a few mouse clicks away.

If your tickets weren’t sold out, then you should brainstorm some ideas for how to sell out next time. Maybe you could do a ticket giveaway on social media to create more excitement.

7. Tidy up the budget

It’s time to look at the bottom line. How much money did you make from ticket sales versus how much you’ve spent on food, drinks, the venue, and the promotion?

If you’re in the red, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve spent money on too many things. It could merely be a matter of spending on different things.

Could you, for example…

  • Find a cheaper catering company?
  • Use different ingredients (if you made the food yourself)?
  • Negotiate a better deal with the venue?
  • Spend money on Instagram ads instead of print ads?
How to follow up after a food and drinks event: Could you save on catering next time?
Could you save on catering next time?

Another thing to consider before cutting down costs is whether you could make extra revenue from future events.

Could you, for example…

  • Secure sponsorship from a food supplier?
  • Sell branded event merchandise?
  • Include optional extras the guests pay for?

Tip: Read our guide on how to structure your event budget like a pro.

8. Plan the next food and drinks event

With all the calculations and feedback requests out of the way, it’s time to look ahead. What will your next food and drinks event be like?

If you’re focusing on food, should the next one have a Japanese theme? Or if it’s a drinks event, maybe try a whiskey tasting rather than wine?

Hopefully, you’ve taken a lot of pictures of both food and drinks from the event that just happened. They will come in very handy for your online promotion now.

Use the images and videos to create engaging social media posts, not only for the guests that went but for future prospective dinner guests.

Cleanse your palate

You’re only as good as your last event, so now that this one’s a wrap it’s time to get back to the drawing board.

You should have a few more tools in your toolkit to make the next one even more delicious and Instagrammable than the last one.