A good event follow-up depends on something done at the door: an accurate record of who came. With that list, a small team can thank the people who were there, write separately to those who booked and missed it, ask a few short questions and pass on the introductions made on the night, all within a day or two. The checklist below runs from the week before the event to the next planning meeting.
It is written for the membership or events lead at a chamber of commerce or association who runs events with two or three colleagues. It works on paper, in a spreadsheet or in any membership system.
Attendance shows which members are getting something from their membership, and value already received is what members weigh up at renewal. A member who came to four events this year has a reason to renew that you can remind them of. A member who booked four and came to none is a conversation to have before the invoice goes out, which is the thinking behind our guide to member retention and what to fix before renewal day.
The record also tells you which non-members were in the room. A guest who came with a member is about as warm a prospect as you will meet, and the door list is often the only place their details are written down. That is why the check-in is worth doing by name, at the door, every time: a headcount at the end tells you how full the room was, and nothing about who was in it.
Each group below is a point in the life of an event. Copy it into your own template, give each line an owner, and run the same list for a breakfast of twenty as for the annual dinner.
This week is about the room: how many are coming, what they need, and what happens when someone unexpected turns up.
The day before is for confirming what you planned, so that nothing on the night depends on memory.
The door is where the record is made, so it needs to be quick for guests and accurate for you.
The day after is when a follow-up still feels connected to the event.
The thank-you should be short, come from a named person and mention the event by name. Give people one useful thing to open, such as the speaker's slides or a link to the photographs, and the date of the next event.
The note to people who booked and did not come needs a different tone. Leave out any reproach, because plans change and a telling-off makes the next booking less likely. Say you missed them, share the same slides, and give the next date.
The personal follow-ups can take a little longer, but not so long that people have forgotten the conversation.
Close the loop with a ten-minute debrief before you plan anything new. It is short, and after a year of events the notes are the best planning document you have.
We make Portava, membership software for chambers of commerce, associations and professional bodies, and in it the check-in list and the follow-up emails both sit on the event.
Every booking comes with a ticket carrying a QR code, which the member keeps under My tickets on their phone. On the door, the team opens Event check-in, a list built for that job: search a name, tap to check the person in and watch the count move. It works on a phone. Before the event, an automatic reminder goes to everyone registered, 24 hours ahead by default and adjustable from 2 to 72 hours.
Attendance figures on the dashboard are built from those check-ins, and an event nobody checked in shows as "not tracked" rather than as zero. Afterwards, Event follow-ups sends a thank-you to those who came, a note to those who did not, and a feedback survey if you attach one. Each is drafted from a template, and an administrator edits it as needed and sends it from the event.
Members request refunds from their ticket, and the requests wait in Approvals. The team can set a full-refund window and policy wording that members read before they ask, and a request made outside the window arrives flagged. Stripe's processing fee on the original payment is not returned.
If the organisation uses HubSpot, the sync can send the events each member attended, and event bookers who are not members arrive as leads tagged with where they came from. Non-member contacts, including event bookers, can be exported as a CSV, but an attendee-list export for a single event is not available yet. To see an event from booking to follow-up, request a demo.
Thank people for coming, by event name, within a day. Give them one useful thing, such as the slides or the photographs, and the date of the next event. Add a link to a survey of two or three questions if you want feedback. Keep it short, and send it from a named person rather than a general address.
Send the thank-you and the note to people who missed it within 24 hours, while the event is still fresh. Personal follow-ups, such as introductions made on the night and invitations to non-members who came, can take up to a week. Complete the attendance record first, or people may be thanked for an event they missed.
Yes, separately from the thank-you and without any reproach. Plans change, and a friendly note keeps the door open for the next booking. Say you missed them, share the same slides or summary the attendees received, and give the date of the next event. If the same people miss event after event, a short personal call may help.
Two or three questions are enough. Ask how useful the event was on a scale of one to five, what one thing you should change, and what topic or format they would like next. Send it with the thank-you, make sure it is quick to answer on a phone, and reply personally to anyone who raises a problem.