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How satisfied are industry conference attendees with the content presented from the stage?
Hello! Thanks for your question about how satisfied industry conference attendees are with the content presented at the conference. The short answer is that, on average, 80% of conference attendees are satisfied overall with conference content, but those that are not fully satisfied express significant concerns about how relevant and engaging the content is. You'll find a deep dive of my research below.
METHODOLOGY
To respond to your request, I searched through corporate websites, industry reports, survey results, and trusted media sites to find insights on this subject. I was able to find some data on the industry overall, but not enough to fully answer your question. Therefore, I decided to look at case studies to get a sense of conference attendee satisfaction. I looked at a number of case studies, which I'll explain individually in the next section. Then, I synthesized the results of those case studies to identify the trends and themes.
INSIGHTS
Overall, conference content is still a key factor in driving event attendance. This study of over 7,000 respondents found that people are willing to attend conferences if "you've got the right content in the right location." Continuing education opportunities are the most important factor to potential conference attendees, with over 90% of respondents saying that this, and keeping up with their industry, are the main reasons they attend conferences. This report found similar results: over 90% of respondents said that educational opportunities and keeping abreast with their industry were their key drivers for attending.
Now, I'll briefly go through each of the case studies I looked at and summarize the results.
This study from Belgrade, Serbia is not focused on a specific conference, but rather on conference attendance in the city overall. In this study, on average, conference attendees rated the conference content around 4 out of 5 in terms of satisfaction. Overall, attendees were far more satisfied with their tourist experience visiting Belgrade than with the actual conference content.
At the MICities Conference in Michigan, attendees rated most speakers and panels as a 9 out of 10 in terms of satisfaction. However, they rated breakout sessions and small group discussions only 8 out of 10 on average. Moreover, "Respondents rated that they felt they had their questions sufficiently answered 57.4 percent of the time," showing that the educational component may have been lacking, and while attendees were satisfied overall, they didn't get what they wanted out of the conference.
In this survey, of a plumbing industry conference, only 3 out of 5 of the keynote presentations were given overwhelming enthusiastic ratings. For all of the presentations, 25-50% of attendees rated them a 4 out of 5 in terms of satisfaction. Dissatisfied attendees said the presentations were too long, redundant, not academic or technical, or not relevant. Of the panel discussion, one attendee said a question and answer session would have more useful. The conference also featured issue committee meetings, led by some of the keynote speakers and panelists, and they were not well received overall. There were very few "great" ratings (the equivalent of a 5) and quite a lot of "average" or "needs improvement" ratings. One attendee said, "Speakers should note a 'presentation' doesn’t mean reading the blurbs on your PowerPoint. The audience can read those... bring something to the table." The dual track meetings at the conference, also led by some of the speakers, were rated poorly, as well, with attendees finding them redundant or irrelevant.
At this conference for writers and writing teachers, delivery of content was one of the key areas of attendee criticism. Time management of events was a key concern, with some speakers speaking beyond their allotted time. Another concern was that some presenters were not prepared.
At the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology conference, conference content received a 4 out of 5 satisfaction rating, on average. Presentations that participants perceived as engaging and as a two-way conversation were rated most favorably.
As you can see, in most of these surveys, conference content received a 4 out of 5 satisfaction rating, on average. In other words, participants are generally satisfied with conference content, but certainly have criticisms and see areas for improvement. In more qualitative terms, attendees' key complaints included that content was not well-presented (speaker was not prepared or went over time), was not relevant to them (too academic, too technical, off topic), or was not engaging (redundant, non-engaging format).
CONCLUSION
To wrap up, 80% of conference attendees are satisfied overall with conference content, but those that are not fully satisfied express significant concerns about how relevant and engaging the content is. I hope this information is helpful to you! Thanks for using Wonder, and let us know if we can help you with anything else.