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Speaker Inteviews

So did the speakers enjoy themselves, and would they come back again? Without a formal evaluation process after the event, speakers don’t have a chance to gather their thoughts and feed back to you. However, this process is vital in ensuring that any problems are ironed out for the next time. In addition, interviewing your speakers will help establish whether the event has achieved its aims.

guidelines

The following is a sample questionnaire that can be asked over the phone. It takes 10 – 15 minutes. Conducted in the week after the event whilst issues are still fresh in the speaker’s and your minds, this will provide useful data. Write down as much as possible as you conduct the interview. Where possible write the exact words to avoid paraphrasing at this stage. You can then look through the responses and analyze them against the event’s aims. For detailed information on how to write a questionnaire, have a look at the Questionnaire Recipe Book on this site.

example speaker interview

Q1. Can you tell me what you thought about the organisation prior to the event?

  • What did you think of the information you were given prior to the day? (amount / type)
  • How was the time given for you to prepare?
  • What else would have been useful for you prior to the event?

Q2. I’d like to talk about your experience on the day. How did you feel about talking at the (Science Museum)?

  • Did that affect your talk in any way?
  • How does that differ from other talks you may have given?

Q3. What did you enjoy most about speaking at the ... event?

  • What, if anything, do you think went well?

Q4. What did you like the least about your experience of speaking at the ... event? How can we improve on that?

  • What, if anything, do you think went badly?
  • Can you tell me about that?

Q5. What could we do to improve on that?

Q6. I’d like to find out what, if anything, you got out of speaking at the event:

  • Can you comment any more on that?

Q7. Was there anything that surprised you about the event?

  • Was there anything that surprised you about the audience’s reaction?
  • Can you tell me about that?
  • Were you surprised by anything the audience said?
  • Can you tell me about that?

Q8. Was this the audience you would have expected to attend?

  • How does this audience differ from what you would have expected?

Q9. What, if anything, do you think that the audience contributed?

Q10. Did the audience’s opinions differ in any way from yours?

  • How did you feel about that?
  • Did you feel the audience challenged your opinions in any way?
  • Can you tell me about that?

Q11. Did you speak to any other speakers before / during / after the event

  • If yes, who?

Q12. Could we have done anything to improve your experience of the event?

Q13. Do you have any other comments?

Thanks very much for your time.