Post-Event Analysis vs Post-Event Evaluation: What’s the Difference and Why It Matters 

Why Marketers Confuse Analysis and Evaluation 

In the field of event marketing, “post-event analysis” and “post-event evaluation” are often misconstrued as having the same meaning. This blend of two words often means reports that are very data heavy (lots of numeric results) but are also light on insights that can be turned into actions (i.e., there is a lot of detail but not much meaning). In the end, Leadership has a dashboard of data and little idea as what actions they should follow through post-event.  

Analysis and evaluation represent two different but related steps in the overall event performance measurement process. One gives the facts and the other the tactical direction as a follow up. By understanding this important difference, you can transform your post-event reporting from a mere summary of what happened to an actionable approach for continuous improvement. 

What Is Post-Event Analysis? 

Post-event analysis is when you examine and compile the raw data on your performance. It is a factual and objective examination of what action was taken and the resulting outcomes from an event. This is the phase where you will obtain all relevant measurable outputs and put them together in a report.  

• Focus: A focus on numbers and observable facts.  
• Examples: Commonly referred measurable metrics include total registrations, attendance rates, click through rates (CTRs) on event-based emails, attributing revenue, or a raw NPS score.  
• Strengths: The information is objective, measurable, and comparable. It will be a great source for benchmarking and historical record keeping for comparison into the future.  
• Limitations: A post-event analysis cannot tell you why something has happened. It will tell you that people dropped off a session to the tune of 40%, but it can’t tell you why they dropped off. 

What Is Post-Event Evaluation? 

Post-event evaluation is the step in the process where you take the data from your analysis and evaluate it against your prior expectations, goals, or targets (whatever you called them). It is the evaluative part of the process where you will draw conclusions and provide an actionable level of recommendations based on the data and information you collected; it takes raw data and then provides meaning and direction. 

• Focus: The focus is on evaluating outcomes and providing strategic conclusions 
• Examples: Evaluation will help provide an answer to questions such as; “Did we achieve our lead-generation targets?” Did the content resonate with our target core audience? or did we achieve our brand growth targets? 
• Strength: The reasoning behind evaluation is strategic, actionable, and will relate event performance back to business objectives to help you understand the value of your event 
• Limitations: The limitations of this process rely more on interpretation, context, and knowing exactly where you started. You must understand what your goals were going to be going into the event, meaning that without a solid understanding and evaluation process, you can’t evaluate the event. 

The Key Differences – Analysis vs Evaluation 

The difference between these two processes can be summarized in a powerful but simple way:   

• Analysis = What happened. (It is descriptive.)  
• Evaluation = What it means, and what to do next (It is interpretive and prescriptive.). 

Think about it this way: an event reporting framework begins with analysis and ends with evaluation.  

For example;  

• Analysis → “40% of attendees dropped off after session 2.”  
• Evaluation → “The reason for the drop off was probably that the content was an advanced topic and the audience was expecting a beginner level session; for the next event we should reformat that content into a ‘deep dive’ track and segment the audience.”  

Analysis gives you the diagnosis; evaluation gives you the treatment plan. You can’t have a decent treatment plan without a proper diagnosis, and a diagnosis without a treatment plan is useless. 

Why You Need Both for a Complete Picture 

The performance measurement for events is not fully complete without both evaluation and analysis.  

• If you rely on analysis alone, you are left with a pile of numbers that are, for all intents and purposes, meaningless. You would have a dashboard with lots of indicators and action items, with no real way of knowing what decisions to make based on it.   
• If you rely on evaluation without the analysis, then you are ultimately just giving you opinion, with no accountability. You may feel like the event was successful, but you have no data to back up your anecdotal claims or to support future funding for your event.  

Combining evaluation and analysis creates a true feedback loop. The analysis provides the evidence and the evaluation uses this evidence to support decisions in the event strategy and provides an organizational justification for celebrating event success. 

Common Mistakes Teams Make 

Even when teams are clear on the difference, they still fail to synthesize complete evaluation components. The most common observations include:  

• Mistaking dashboards for evaluation: A data dashboard is an analytical tool, not an evaluative one. Just because you look at some numbers, does not mean that you have done due diligence in terms of an evaluation process.  
• Over-weighting vanity metrics: it is easy to measure awkward numerical aspects, like social media impressions or total registrations (analysis). However, it’s important as part of evaluation to connect it to your business goals (evaluation).  
• Missing qualitative elements: In a quantitative analysis, there is seldom a human element. Evaluation requires the human element as well; you need to understand the why behind the numbers, and that requires qualitative feedback.  
• Reporting data without recommendation: One of the largest failings comes from reporting data with a beautiful graph of the data, but no prescriptive recommendation coming from it. The best reports do not just report, but they also recommend action. 

Framework – From Analysis to Evaluation 

Here is a simple four-step model to assist your team in growing their capacity to better understand best practice for event analysis and post-event evaluations:  

• Collect: Collect quantitative data (registrations, attendance, clicks etc) and qualitative data (open-ended survey responses, reflections from staff, testimonials, etc.) 
• Analyse: Analyse the data you have collected as systematically as possible. Look for trends, patterns, and outliers in the raw data. Were there some numbers greater than the number you thought they would be, conversely, were there some numbers smaller than they ended up being? What was the most popular session during your event? 
• Evaluate: Evaluate your data against your event goals. Did you achieve your goals? What can you conclude from the data? What were the positives, and negatives?   
• Apply: Apply your learning and create some recommendations for your next event. This is the final, and most important step, and it is where you use your evaluation as leverage on the journey towards successful future events. 

Samaaro Spotlight – Bridging Analysis and Evaluation 

Samaaro is designed to effectively connect analysis to evaluation, allowing you to measure your event results in the best way possible.  

• Analytics Dashboards create the utility and dimension behind a thorough post-event analysis offering your key metrics in real-time.  
• The Feedback Manager provides an easy way to capture qualitative insights with customizable surveys and polls giving you a strong evaluation plan packed full of attendee experiences.  
• Auto-generated reports support your data in becoming evaluation-ready insights, showcasing the full scope of event data results in a single location.  
• CRM integrations allow for pipeline attribution directly connecting your event data to ROI by providing you with strategic insights to justify your event’s value. 

Don’t Just Analyse, Evaluate 

At the end of the day, the numbers provide a narrative, but evaluation tells that narrative’s moral. The best event teams do not end with “this happened,” but rather ask, “what does this mean, and what should we do now?” Analysis and evaluation help provide unique leverage not only to demonstrate the value of your event but also to improve every event you host.  

Want to master analysis and evaluation? Download our Post-Event Evaluation white paper or have a look at how Samaaro works both methods together to show a clear path from analysis to evaluation.