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Evaluation Lab: Every Event survey

A research-informed survey template that helps arts and cultural organisations collect consistent, accessible feedback across a wide range of events.

What is the Evaluation Lab?

The Evaluation Lab is another branch of the Impact & Insight Toolkit (still free of charge!), giving you access to new and additional templates.

Unlike the standard Toolkit surveys, they do not automatically include dimensions or encourage the triangulation approach to evaluation.

They have been designed to respond to specific ‘gaps’ we have encountered whilst working with the arts and sector, when it comes to evaluation.

If you’d like to learn more about the Evaluation Lab, please click here to read the dedicated blogpost.

 

What is the Every Event survey template?

The Every Event survey template is deliberately generic. It is designed to provide insightful data across a range of arts and cultural experiences, including performances, installations, festivals, and more.

This template has been established to support arts and cultural organisations that want to collect useful data consistently, but don’t have the capacity or resources to conduct a ‘traditional’ Impact & Insight Toolkit evaluation, considering indicators of quality and excellence that are unique to the organisation or individual work.

 

What is contained in the survey template?

This survey contains a total of 13 questions and 1 message. In our testing, it takes approximately 3 minutes to complete.

To ensure the survey is applicable to as many events and their attendees as possible, the Linguistically Easy Read (LER) questions have been used. To understand more about the origin of these questions, please see the blogpost.

All the questions included are from our Question Banks. This means that every question stems from research and/or consultation with those in the arts and cultural sector.

The survey makes use of a variety of question types, including multiple choice, dropdown and free text. Using a variety of question types helps maintain engagement, as it doesn’t feel too repetitive for the respondent. The inclusion of two free text questions (one short-form and one long-form) provides opportunities for respondents to express their own thoughts and feelings, without being overwhelming.

As is standard with surveys on Culture Counts, it is customisable. If you choose to do so, you can delete included questions and add in your own. Alternatively, you can use it as it is.

At a minimum (and if time permits), we encourage you to go through the survey and update the generic ‘the event’ language to the name of the event you’re collecting feedback on. This specificity improves the accessibility of your survey.

To see a list of the questions included in the flexible digital survey template, click here.

 

Why should I use the survey template?

Using the standardised survey will help you understand:

  • What attendees thought of your event
  • How attendees learned about your event
  • Past and intended future behaviours of your attendees
  • Key demographics about your attendees

This is all obtained using LER questions, meaning they are understandable to most people.

You should use the data you achieve via this survey to fuel internal conversations about the success of your event and to ascertain where there are areas for improvement. You can also use data as a contribution to funding applications and advocacy materials.

 

How should I explore the results?

Exploring the data you receive in the most suitable way is vital to establish the most accurate interpretation.

Use the Analytics Dashboard to analyse your results to this survey. You can easily and quickly download automatically generated charts for use in presentations and other materials. Furthermore, the interactive nature of the Analytics Dashboard also enables you tochange the chart types and conduct other customisations.

Also, compare responses to questions based on certain conditions. For instance, you could answer questions like, “Is there a relationship between someone’s gender identity and how good they thought the event was?” or, if the survey was repeated for multiple events, “Are people more likely to attend another event like Event 1 or Event 2?”.

This survey contains standardised Question Bank questions. This means that, where there is enough data relating to each question in the Culture Counts database, benchmarks are available for you to compare your results with in the Reporting Dashboard. This is useful for you to consider where your results ‘sit’, in comparison to your peers’. In a similar way, compare your results on the demographic questions against publicly available ONS data.

When it comes to the open-ended question specifically, look for commonly identified points between responses. If you have more than 20 responses to these questions, and the results are saved in Culture Counts, you can use the Thematic Analysis Tool to provide summaries of the data.

 

How was it developed?

The design of this survey was informed by desk research into frequently asked Question Bank questions in Culture Counts and considering whether they would be appropriate for most arts and cultural events. The question choice was also influenced by the availability of an LER version of the original.

Below is a table, showing the most frequently asked questions from the Question Banks, the number of times they have been used since 2019, and whether we chose to include them in this Every Event template. (Data obtained 05/08/2026)

Question TextEvaluation count (since 2019)LER version used in this template?
How would you rate your experience overall?2,084Yes
When did you last attend an event by this organisation?1,551Yes
How often do you attend or participate in arts and cultural experiences?1,520No
Who did you attend with?1,444No
How did the event compare to your expectations?1,217Yes
Which age groups were the people who attended with you (excluding yourself)?854No
How likely is it that you would recommend this event to a friend or colleague?670No
Which of the following benefits do you feel this experience has provided you with?288No
How did you see or hear about the event?280Yes
Would you attend a similar event in the future?267Yes

Whilst it is appropriate to be influenced by the usage figures, it is necessary that they are not relied upon solely. Some of these questions are mandatory in the Illuminate surveys, for which we know people use Culture Counts to collect the data. Therefore, the fact they have a higher frequency count doesn’t necessarily mean that they are deemed most insightful.

Furthermore, it is important to note that these usage figures do not include questions that require the respondent to write in their own words. Where appropriate, we recommend including one or two questions for people to use their own words, as that empowers the respondent and ensures they do not feel constrained to an overly prescriptive survey. It also means that you will achieve more nuanced data.

We have used our pre-existing knowledge and interactions with Toolkit project participants, combined with data shown here, to inform the choices about the inclusion of questions.

 

When should it be used?

You should aim to obtain feedback from the attendees as soon as possible after the event. This helps ensure their experiences are fresh in their minds and are therefore most accurate.

 

Sounds good – how do I access the Evaluation Lab and this template?

Firstly, you’ll need to have signed up to the Evaluation Lab. Please contact us by email and we’ll help you get set up.

Then, to create your survey using an Evaluation Lab template:

  1. Click ‘Create new evaluation’ and give it a name. For instance, the name of the event you are evaluating.
  2. Choose to create from blank
  3. Click ‘Create new survey’
  4. Create from template
  5. Choose the Evaluation Lab
  6. Choose the survey titled ‘Every Event’
  7. Click ‘Use selected template’
  8. Make any desired changes on the Configure page. For instance, add in your logo and change the phrase ‘the event’ to the title of your event.
  9. Choose your delivery method(s) – Online, Interview or Display [1]
  10. Make any desired changes on the Design page. For instance, change the phrase ‘the event’ to the title of your event.
  11. Distribute the appropriate link shown on the Summary page [1]

If you have any questions, please contact us.

 

 

[1] As a reminder, the Online link is useful to distribute when you have email addresses, or want to use a QR code for people to complete surveys on their own devices; Interview works well in situations where one person is collecting multiple responses via a computer tablet or similar; Display works well when a singular device is being used by multiple people to collect multiple responses.

 

 

Access the list of questions below!

List of questions