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Toolkit > Planning for Events > Evaluation and reporting

Evaluation and reporting

This tool is based on the knowledge that we can learn from experiences and that there is always room for improvement.

It provides you guidelines for evaluation of events enabling organisers and leaders to assess what worked, what didn’t work and where improvements can be made. It also covers report preparation, examines report style and includes a specific evaluation component. The tool argues the usefulness of evaluation.

This tool focuses on three components of an evaluation and reporting process: evaluation; debriefing; and developing a Local Australia Day report.

This tool includes:

Why use this tool?

  • Records will be easily accessible, permanent and in a legible form.
  • You will have a record of responses, recommendations and participants that can help with smooth ongoing organisation and provide a wealth of information for planning future events.
  • You will save both time and money.
  • You will avoid reliance on memory and recall for future planning.
  • You will avoid the risk that comes with having all the knowledge in one person’s head (and nothing written down or recorded).
  • Community spirit may be significantly enhanced; participants may have sense of achievement for a job well done.
  • The process may provide a way to attract more funding or sponsorship.

Providing a time for critical reflection and discussion after an event is more likely to yield good results if the discussion is structured and well facilitated. The experience then can also be an effective team building event.

Debriefing
Debriefing is part of an evaluation process. It is based on an appreciation of the psychological and emotional benefits of talking and reflection. It has two outcomes:

  • Through sharing and the chance to speak and possibly air grievances, participants may have an experience of empowerment. They are ‘given’ a chance to speak and be heard, and often experience a release of anxiety, anger or frustration (they may feel they made mistakes; they alone were responsible for some error or confusion; they were the only ones who misunderstood some directions; that no one listened to them). Equally a debriefing allows for expressions of gratitude, congratulations and sense of belonging.
  • A debriefing also produces ideas and responses that are related to event management. You must have someone in the debriefing whose task is to take notes of ideas, suggestions and problem areas (event related). This is usually in the form of minutes. This is the more formal evaluation outcome of debriefing.

Debriefings should have an action function as well as a therapeutic function.

Annual Australia Day Celebrations Report
The decision to produce an Australia Day Celebrations Report, an initiative of the Australia Day Committee (Victoria) 10 years ago, has provided the organisers with a valuable resource well worth the effort it takes to produce. The report contains concise accounts of major events and selected venues, award recipients, state initiatives, key sponsors, information such as attendance figures, grants, contributors, council membership. The events are documented in print and with photographs.

Several other states have since adopted the practice.

You should start on your report as soon as possible after the major Australia Day celebrations/events around 26 January are over.

What has a report to do with evaluation?
The report is a tool of evaluation if recommendations are included. In the example provided in the resources section of this tool:

  • the recommendations are for improvements in approaches, challenges to be met, suggested changes to organisational strategies
  • the recommendations focus on possible ways to achieve higher quality and more successful events in the following year—thus plans for future events are already on the ‘back burner’.

RESOURCE ONE—Three opportunities for evaluation

There are many places or moments during and after events when you can collect feedback. This tool covers three.

1. Survey at an event

  • Conduct a survey or provide feedback forms during the event. Ask people what they liked about your event and what they think could be improved.
  • If you have a monitor at the event, you can ask them to look at diversity of participants and estimate the types of people attending your event. (Monitors are employed to attend an event and to focus on specific elements. They are expected to observe, take notes and later provide a report to the organiser. Volunteers could be trained for this task.)
  • If you do intend to conduct a survey, the venue or landowner should be consulted prior to the event.
  • Ask people attending the event if they know who the sponsors are. If large numbers of people associate the sponsor with the event, this will prove valuable when renegotiating sponsorships for the following year.

You must have your evaluation questions prepared and printed if you intend to hand them out for filling in at the event.

2. Debriefing
Casual debriefing

  • You can engage in debriefing very casually at an event or in meeting places or walking home from an event.
  • What is in fact a debriefing may appear to the participant simply a conversation and exchange of ideas.

More formal debriefing

  • To be of benefit, debrief (or organise someone to do it) as soon after the events as possible.
  • For a debrief meeting include as many people as possible who were involved in the event. This might include staff, regulatory authorities, volunteers, emergency services, etc.
  • Invite participants to the debrief meeting well in advance of the proposed date so people have the date in their diaries.
  • Circulate an agenda that covers the key areas for discussion (even if there are only a few questions).
  • If you send the agenda/questions beforehand, people can prepare their feedback for the meeting.

3. Evaluation Sheet sent out/emailed to all key stakeholders

  • You could send out an evaluation sheet to all key stakeholders (especially those who can’t attend the debrief).
  • You could seek feedback from suppliers, performers, venue managers and security guards as well as those directly involved with coordinating the event.

RESOURCE TWO—Guidelines for debriefing

These guidelines are relevant regardless of the size of the group or project/participants. The same approach can be applied to a small project involving only three or four people or a project involving a large number of people and multiple projects.

Facilitator role

  • There should be a facilitator—someone who leads the discussion (not the organiser).
  • The facilitator or Australia Day organiser prepares a set of questions.
  • The task of facilitator is not to present his/her own opinion but to create a possibility for all participants to contribute their ideas and feelings.
  • The facilitator needs to make acceptable practice clear (e.g. to make sure there are no personal attacks on people).
  • The facilitator has to ‘keep an eye open’ to make sure individuals are not sitting passively and not getting off the track.
  • The facilitator should acknowledge time constraints while also assuring group that their contributions are important.
  •  The group might be happy to make some suggestions for conducting the debriefing. You are encouraged to invite such input.

Key questions
Two key questions can be very effective in structuring a debriefing:

  1. What went well?
  2. What didn’t go well?

Within each key question you can ask:

  • Why did things happen?
  • What will we do differently and better next time?
  •  How can we use this information?

It is useful for participants to be familiar with the questions before the actual session.

Steps towards an effective and enjoyable debriefing session

  • The most effective arrangement of participants has them facing each other—a circle is best.
  • The practical placement of a while board or equivalent for notes will help you stay on track and help with taking notes of key ideas and responses. The white board should be used sparingly.
  • Make sure you reserve enough time—the debriefing should last as long as people have important things to say (this is quite difficult to determine in advance).

RESOURCE THREE—Guidelines for Australia Day reports

Benefits of producing annual Australia Day reports

  • a testimony of achievements
  • a record of events, personnel, and processes in permanent form in one place, in an organised document which can be filed
  • a reference for future planning
  • a customised ‘events list’
  • valuable information—if there is a new starter or the organising group changes, the people do not have to start from scratch
  • ‘evidence’ of activity, innovation and commitment for use in applications for funding, grants, sponsorship

What is included in the report?

See resource five—Australia Day Report. This template outlines the contents and structure of a specific report. It is based on the Tasmania Australia Day Report 2008. This means the report was of events in a largish population compared to that of a regional community but a smallish population in relation to say New South Wales or Victoria.

Your community maybe very different from the one for which this report was produced, but you can adapt the ideas and modify the scale and content to suit the needs of your organising group. Not all local Australia Day organisers manage celebrations of large scale, but all could benefit from the production of a report whether it is eight or 80 pages long.

What could the report look like?

RESOURCE FOUR—Australia Day Report template

This resource provides you with a possible a structure for your report. The contents, based on a specific Australia Day 2008 report, are indicative only. The template is a starting point for decisions about your report.

1. OVERVIEW  

The OVERVIEW Section focuses on context and organisation; on the ‘nuts and bolts’ features.

  • Australia Day Organiser’s objectives
  • Governance
  • Australia Day Program
  • budget and sponsorship

2. PROGRAMS
   
This PROGRAMS Section details programs and initiatives of the states or territories or the National Australia Day body.

List and brief account of programs, for example

  • Sports awards
  • Local Government Awards

3. EVENTS
   
The EVENTS section describes the local Australia Day events-name, place, time, atmosphere, scale. It describes the events that bring people together at the local level.
   
Events specific to this community

  • Citizenship and Flag Raising
  • Australia Day lunch
  • List a brief account of event.

4. RECOMMENDATIONS   

This section records the successes, changes and suggestions for future events and programs. List between 5 and 15 recommendations, depending on the scale of your event.

Related tools
Ideas for events
Knowing your community

References

 Department of Premier and Cabinet Tasmania (2008) Australia Day Report

Alice Springs School of the Air, Project Debriefing, Dr William Newman
http://www.assoa.nt.edu.au/MATERIALS/ppd/debriefing.pdf

NSW Government, Department of Premier and Cabinet, Office of Protocol and Special Events, Events Starter Guide
http://www.events.nsw.gov.au/event-starter-guide/17-evaluating-your-event