Easy Fixes
Our team has planned well over 1,000 events … it means we’ve participated in over 1,000 wrap up meetings. Reading negative feedback from guests and taking the lessons to heart will help you shift your approach for better results at next year’s event!.
Over the years, we’ve noticed some trends that are worth sharing. Which event elements tend to get bad feedback?
And, more importantly — “what’s the fix? “
Simple – we just design the event from the attendee’s point of view. Many of these fixes don’t require a huge budget or a massive dose of creativity. Often, shifting your mindset to really see the event from your attendee’s point of view will quickly reveal the successful strategy.
Please enjoy this list of commonly-heard complaints (and the FIX that we’d propose).
“There was too much going on” (aka: decision fatigue)
FIX - Simplify the goings-on. Make sure your emcee’s announcements and your event flow align, so there’s no doubt at any moment about what the guest is “supposed to do” as the event unfolds.
“I had an unpleasant interaction with one of your volunteers, vendors, or service staff”
FIX - Hold pre-orientations with volunteers so they are confident in their duties and understand how to provide customer service. Insist on pre-orientations with vendors and service staff – or, when necessary, choose a new provider when you they can’t offer ‘people skills’ to meet your standards during the event.
“I was physically uncomfortable”. Examples: audio was too loud, audio feedback or muddy, unclear sound, bright lights shining into the guest’s eyes, there wasn’t enough light to eat my meal, venue was too warm or too cold, strong draft or breeze chilled me
FIX - This family of issues are caused by a combination of A/V expertise, A/V equipment, and venue configuration. Review all the elements in practice (not just on paper). Make time to sit in the guests’ seats during sound check and lighting check. Ask questions to understand how natural light, airflow and HVAC will work in your venue during the time of day and time of year of your event. Understand from your venue rep how requests for more heat or air conditioning will be routed, and what the response time to temperature changes is during a live event.
“The speeches included confusing insider jargon, technical terms, or inside jokes”
FIX - Invite a person outside your organization with a truly “fresh” set of ears into your script rehearsal and ask them to raise their hand every time they aren’t 100% sure what’s being said. Then take time to rewrite those parts to a middle-school level of complexity. We want everyone in your audience - especially those who arrived without any information about your work – to fully get the message!
“I heard jokes in your program that made me cringe or feel as though I didn’t belong”
FIX - Make sure all moments of humor are written into the script and reviewed during your rehearsal. If you have a speaker (or even more importantly, an emcee) who prefers to go ‘off the cuff’, make sure that they have taken the same awareness and language sensitivity training that your program staff has taken. It can be very hard to walk these sort of missteps back!
Guests enjoy easy, stress-free service from this buffet station by Pidgin Cooperative at the Futurewise event: Livable Communities Spring Celebration. Photo by Michael B. Maine
“Food and beverage was not delicious or did not meet my dietary needs”
FIX - Select menu items with care, and work with a caterer who is experienced in the style of service and size of guest count you need. Give guests easy opportunities to make their dietary needs known, and communicate those back to the catering team with a clear and foolproof plan for delivering special order meals.
“I couldn’t easily get the food” Examples: food placed on a display too high for the guest to reach, no tables provided for guests to set down their food and beverages to eat, family-style service asking the guest to pass platters of food to their table-mates.
FIX - Talk to your catering company about their style, and get specific. Ask them to design all food service so that a person recovering from injury (imagine, perhaps they have one arm in a full cast) can comfortably feed themselves.
“I felt like this party wasn’t for me” What were the words or gestures that made some guests feel they didn’t belong? Perhaps your dress code referenced designers or fashion the guest can’t afford, or your ‘host committee’ was packed with famous people
FIX - Find ways to make the event fun and creative without using codes of wealth and privilege to convey your vision.
“I found the activities unappealing (or too intimidating)” Some guests do not enjoy participating by engaging in conversation with a stranger
FIX - Yes, we love engagement stations and activations. But you need them to be appealing across learning styles and social styles. Role-play the activity as you design it, and imagine a guest who has social anxiety, is an introvert, or speaks a different language. Does your idea still work?
At the Solid Ground event: Building Pathways to Poverty, clear signages were displayed for guests at the Summit at the Seattle Convention Center. Photo by: Michael B. Maine
“I felt lost”
FIX - Provide appropriate, obvious, eye-catching signage – and enough light to navigate by!
“I felt trapped/it was too crowded”
FIX - It’s okay to have some areas of the room be “cozy” as long as every guest sees an obvious pathway to either an exit or a more open part of the room. Map the floor plan carefully, with ample space between dining tables and walking pathways at least 5’ wide so two people can easily pass each other at all times. Make sure your map is accurately drawn to scale, and monitor all your event vendors to be sure things are set up according to plan.
Looking for help making your fixes? Jump to the contact page and get in touch now. We are booking full service event strategy, design, planning and production for all months of 2026!
We’re also booking for simple consulting meetings where we do speedy problem solving. If you want to run down last year’s list of negative feedback and plot your way to success this year, we’re here for it!
Happy event planning, everyone.
