Event planning surveys: Pre-event survey questions & templates

When it comes to planning virtual events, there’s always room for improvement. The more prepared you are in planning, the better experience your attendees may have. Using event survey questions can help you plan a successful virtual event that can meet your attendees’ expectations.

Make your next event successful start to finish. Here are some tips and online event survey examples to help you collect feedback and draw meaningful conclusions from the data. Whether you’re planning an event, responding to feedback in real time, or hoping to improve based on post-event feedback, follow these guidelines for an easy way to make surveying an integral part of your success. Use SurveyMonkey experience management platform to streamline your event-planning process.

Do you plan fundraisers, conferences, parties, or weddings? Whether casual or fancy, business or personal, you know it takes a lot of work. There’s the venue to book, speakers or entertainment to coordinate, and RSVPs to gather.

These event planning survey question examples make it easy to get the information you need—before and after your event—to ensure everyone has a great time and to make each event you plan better than the last.

Additionally, our event survey templates are written by experts to save you time and get you reliable, actionable data. Check out some event planning survey question examples and our online event survey templates below, or look at our full list of available free survey templates.

You’ll need an accurate headcount to make sure you have enough food to go around. Send out a simple RSVP questionnaire to get the names, addresses, the number of people, and any other information you need to accurately plan your event. You can also use surveys to ask about people’s availability if you need help setting a date.

This survey template asks:

View RSVP and Contact Information Survey Template

Before you decide on that team building exercise, offsite, or holiday party, send out a corporate event questionnaire to gather all of the data you need to make an informed decision. Poll attendees about things like dietary restrictions and guests. Use our expert-certified templates, or customize questions to be as specific as you like.

This survey template asks:

View the Event Invitation Form Template

Use surveys to understand volunteers’ availability, coordinate volunteers, or collect donations. What special interests do they have? Are they available during the event? Ask these questions to understand how to schedule and place volunteers for the best volunteer experience.

This survey template asks:

View the Volunteer Application Form Template

Measure attendee satisfaction with this post-event feedback survey, designed in partnership with experts at Eventbrite.

This survey template asks:

View the General Event Feedback Survey Template

Ask attendees if sessions were informative, how you could improve your event, and if they’re likely to attend again.

This survey template asks:

View the Professional Event Feedback Survey Template

Send this template to invitees before your event to collect RSVPs and tailor your event based on attendee preferences.

This survey template asks:

View the Event Planning Survey Template

Send this template to invitees to obtain legal waivers from individuals participating in riskier activities.

This survey template asks:

View the Waiver Form Template

After your event, send a survey to see what attendees thought of the menu, speakers, and more so you can improve.

As time goes by, the details of an event you held may get a little fuzzy. You’ll want to know exactly what your guests liked, what they didn’t like, and what they’d like to see next time, so get their responses while the event is still fresh in their memory.

Better yet, get feedback during the event. Our app, SurveyMonkey Anywhere, helps you collect responses, regardless of your internet connection.

If you had several entertainment acts throughout your event, a question like, “Did you like the entertainment?” may be difficult to answer. Your attendees may have loved one act but loathed another. Ask about specific entertainers (or food dishes or presenters) and you’ll have a better idea what to do for your next event.

Unless you’re asking for contact information, be sure to let your guests know their event survey answers are 100% anonymous. In order to gain the most insight, you want to be sure that they feel comfortable complimenting (and criticizing) the event.

Incentivizing your respondents to give feedback can be a good idea, but keep this in mind: If you offer everybody survey rewards, attendees may rush through your survey without giving much thought to responses. A good way to get quality answers is to offer your attendees a way to enter a raffle for a prize or generic gift card that would appeal to most of them. Don’t forget to ask for their contact information to follow up if they’ve won.

Comparing your event feedback survey data with event data from others is a great way to understand your performance. For example, if 67% of your attendees say they’d recommend your event to others, how do you know whether that’s good or bad? When you use our General Event Feedback Survey Template as is, you can see your data in context by comparing your survey results against our industry benchmarks for attendee satisfaction.

No matter how familiar you might be with an industry, it's important to collect attendees' full contact information like email, social media handles, and even your phone number to keep attendees informed about your virtual event through text messaging. It might also help to ask for their job title because surveying attendees is a great way to build a database for future insights, especially when planning a company event planning survey. For instance, your questions for attorneys might be more specific to the profession with industry-related jargon than to insurance salespeople. 

The larger number of worldwide attendees virtual events can offer has many event planners creating hybrid events in a post-COVID world. And a hybrid event may require planners to survey virtual attendees differently. For example, you may want to ask about questions that are related to the software used for the event, the accessibility of the event, the ease of navigating the virtual event platform, and their favorite features of the virtual event. 

TIP: Get some of the best practices for collecting feedback on virtual events. 

Looking for more tips? Here’s a list of ways to survey virtual events attendees: 

Use SurveyMonkey company event planning survey templates to plan your next virtual event and access event survey planning questions. Find a plan that works for you.