This article is written by Nina Brandt, Public Information Officer, UN DESA. It was written as part of the boot camp Delivering engaging, inclusive and accessible virtual live events.

You breathe a big sigh of relief. You just managed to host a well-attended virtual event, had no technological failures, and covered most of the agenda items. That means it was successful, right?

Well - it all starts with defining what you mean by success. If your goal was to gather a certain number of people in a virtual room and to end the meeting with the same amount of people – then congratulations! You managed to achieve what you had set out to achieve.

What you don’t know is whether the people in the room were following the discussion, took away any key messages or – I dare to ask - have a clear set of actions to take away from the meeting.

The importance of setting meeting objectives seems obvious, but it’s easy to forget to strategically approach and measure what we set out to achieve. It’s even easier to forget to take time once the virtual room has closed to assess how well those objectives have been achieved.

Here are a few things to consider when determining whether your virtual event was a success:

  1. Articulate and assess objectives: Define the meeting objective like “getting people’s buy-in on a new project” or “deciding on a topic,” and then write down how you would define success. For example: I will know that the meeting was successful if most colleagues responded positively, or we decided on topic A, B or C. It’s not a bad idea to verbally communicate your objectives in the beginning of the meeting (or even write them down in an agenda): “I’d like for us to accomplish these goals and objectives.” Then, make sure to share the outcome at the end: “We produced great potential solutions to the problem we set out to solve.”

  2. Track engagement: There are many ways to keep your audience engaged, and there are ways to measure it. Think of indicators that can help you determine whether people were actively participating. You can look at how busy the chat was, how many questions were asked (and maybe even how many were answered by other participants), the ratio of people who participated in your poll questions, and more generally how quickly you received answers or feedback on anything you asked. Did many participants turn on their video? If bandwidth and circumstances allow, then a person on video can often be taken as a signal of “I am here and following”.

  3. Look at the numbers: Virtual events offer great audience data and insights. First, how many people registered and how many of those showed up? We all know how easy it is to register and then not make it to an event. Audience commitment (that registered participants show up) is a first indicator of where your event fits in a person’s priority list. Second, if too many attendees drop off during the event, that could be a sign that you are not engaging them properly or that the event didn’t match their expectations. (Tip: For your next event, you may want to monitor attendance numbers during the event so that you can interfere and maybe throw in a poll to check in with attendees when you realize people are leaving). Third, if you share files and content during or after the event, you can use bit.ly links to track how often the content was accessed. For public events, Social Media mentions and engagements are another way to see whether people found the event interesting and care enough to continue the discussion online.

  4. Ask your participants: It’s hard to overstate the importance of checking in with your audience. If you have managed to create a trusted environment where feedback is appreciated, participants will help you steer the event by giving you good real-time insights on how things are going for them. Consider yourself an improv performer who constantly integrates cues from the audience to continue the narrative. Once the event is over (but before attendees leave), ask them to fill out a very brief post-event survey (several conferencing platforms have integrated exit surveys) and if you had them engaged throughout and they found the event valuable, they are much more likely to give you another 2 minutes of their busy lives for honest post-event feedback. Most importantly: don’t forget to incorporate the feedback when designing your next event!

  5. Debrief with colleagues: Lastly, it’s always helpful to get together with a few participants or colleagues and discuss more informally what they thought about the event, how they perceived the flow of agenda items, what they thought about the outcome and how they would improve things the next time.

If you consider all these points and stay open and engaged throughout the event, you should be able to tell whether or not it was a success, and what you can do to improve. And remember: there’s always room to keep making your events more engaging, inclusive, and accessible.