Drawing on decades of psychological research and data from 96,000,000 responses across 550 organizations, we identified 5 key practices for trainers, speakers, evaluators and survey practitioners:

1. Timing - ask key questions BEFORE your event
2. Frequency - generate huge WIIFM for your attendees
3. Closing-the-Loop - prove their voice was heard and show how they compare to others
4. Internal Incentives - using (free) feedback
5. Sharing results with non-responders - the "oops method" to increase response rates

 
A methodology called "Survey Conversation" combines these 5 practices into a Win-Win for all parties:

1. For hosts, trainers and speakers, it invariably results in higher engagement and audience satisfaction;
2. For attendees, it creates a far more memorable and impactful experience at virtual/in-person events;
3. For those who evaluate and gather feedback from learning events, it maximizes response rate and generates more accurate and actionable results.

 
We will describe each key practice, provide specific examples from a wide variety of clients (cruise lines, universities, telecoms, membership organizations, digital marketers, utilities) and show how to apply Survey Conversations to your own educational or sales webinars, training events, masterminds, and conferences.

Matthew Champagne, Ph.D. is a researcher, university professor, consultant and serial entrepreneur who has taught Robert Cialdini's principles since 1993. He was named “Technology Visionary” by SURVEY Magazine for his pioneering work merging psychology and technology to create never-before-seen customer feedback solutions. Dr. Champagne is author of Keep Your Customers Forever, The Survey Playbook and an invited contributor to the Kirkpatrick’s landmark book Four Levels of Training Evaluation. When not teaching, Matt can be found cruising with his family, in the reefs SCUBA diving or on-stage playing keyboards in his rock band.