Post Event Evaluation
Arguably the most important meeting during the Open Studio Annual Cycle is the ‘Post Event Evaluation’.
You are taking stock of what went well and what can be improved with the event you have just had with the sole view of taking all that goodness and carrying it forward as lessons for your next event.
Do It Whilst It Is Still Fresh
This meeting needs to happen very soon after your Open Studio event so that recollections are fresh and raw. There is a temptation for folk to ‘take a break’ after they have packed up; do so at your peril.
Everything discussed at the post event evaluation is a lesson for making the event even bigger and better for next year.
Think about it.
Agenda Tips the Open Studio Post Event Evaluation Meeting
Here are some ideas for your meeting agenda I have used in the past:
- Financials: were costs spent in line with the budget? Per artist and overall what gross revenue was taken? Next figure out the average revenue per attendee by dividing the gross revenue by the total number of visitors to all studios. This is the ROI figure you need to work with each year.
- Audience numbers: Better or worse than last year? Why?
- What went well? Get feedback from all artists. Even small observations can help if good practice is shared.
- What was missing? What didn’t we do this year? Can we do it better next year? How?
- What went wrong? Why? How do we avoid that next year?
- How do we increase our ROI next year? The thing about engagement. How do we increase engagement next year?
Applying The Model
Apply some of the lessons about The Model that you have learnt so far.
What do you as an individual artist and the group as a whole need to do to get your Real Collectors to come to town during the event?
Top Tip:
Before you go off for the ‘Official End of Event drinks or ‘soiree’, you need to do one final job.
All actions points need to be loosly ploted on a year planner either literally written on a calendar in pencil so that they can be bolted down later or input into a shared Google Calendar. This way deadlines for the group will not be missed.
