Free template

A speaker evaluation form that tells you something.

A good speaker evaluation form asks attendees as few questions as possible and asks them right after the session. Five questions is plenty. The best one is not a star rating. It is "would you send a colleague to this speaker’s next session?"

This form has three parts: the attendee questions, a short checklist for the organizer, and a section for how the room responded during the talk. The first two take a minute each. The third answers the question every organizer is asking when they rebook a speaker.

How to use it

Send Part A within an hour of the session, by QR code on the last slide or in the event app. Answers drop fast after that.
Fill in Part B yourself, the same day.
Fill in Part C by section of the talk: the opening, the middle, the close and the Q&A. A talk is not one thing, so do not grade it as one number.
Read the three parts side by side before you rebook. When what people said and what the room did agree, you can trust it. When they disagree, you have learned something.

The template

Part A. Attendee questions

Five questions. Keep them in this order.

1. What is one idea from this session you will use this month?: Open answer
2. Would you send a colleague to this speaker’s next session?: Yes, maybe or no
3. How clear was the talk?: 1 (hard to follow) to 5 (very clear)
4. Was the length right?: Too short, about right or too long
5. What should the speaker cut or add?: Open answer

Part B. Organizer checklist

Started and finished on time?
Followed the brief and the audience?: Note anything off-topic or off-brand
Slides and tech requests on time?
Easy to work with?: Would your team book them again?

Part C. How the room responded

One row per part of the talk.

Part of the talk: Opening, middle, close, Q&A
How much of the room faced the front: A likely range, or "not measured" with the reason
People in view
What stood out: Where the room held, where it drifted, where it came back

Filling in “How the room responded”

This is the part most reports skip, because most teams have nothing to put in it. A survey tells you how people remember the session. This section tells the reader what the room did while it happened.

Fill it in part by part, using the published agenda. For each part, write how much of the room faced the front, as a likely range, and how many people were in view. If the footage of a part is too thin to read, write "not measured" and the reason. A blank you explain is worth more than a number you guessed.

You can fill it by hand from notes a staff member keeps at the back of the room. Or Proof of Impact by GRW can fill it from the video you already record. It reads the audience as one group, never one person, and gives a part a range only when there are at least four people and about a minute of steady view.

One session, one report, $499 CAD. No subscription.

See Proof of Impact by GRW See a sample report