I don’t care about smile sheets.

Alan, it's like you're reading my mind - I had a question about this I was going to ask today. I know "smile sheets" are silly - but I'm assuming you evaluate whether a given event went well and was useful to the audience.

When you've done an event with third-party speakers (Million Dollar Consulting Convention, for example), did you solicit any audience feedback at all about the quality of speakers?

Good question. In my own speaking, I focus on pleasing the buyer, of course.

In the situation you cite, my feedback sources are:

1. My watching the audience and listening informally to the buzz thereafter (if there is any).

2. TLM, she's as accurate as a cruise missile (and can be just as deadly).

3. A small group of people I ask very casually and without preparation.

I've had people I thought would be great who were; people I thought would be great who were awful; people I wasn't sure about but I liked who were usually terrific; people who completely misread my (the "buyer's") intent and/or the audience. 

Of the people I paid handsomely ($30-45,000) I had only one disappointment, Margaret Wheatley, which I turned into a triumph, one of my two biggest in-the-moment dramatic turns. Of the people in the community who graciously provided their time and talent, I saw performances far exceeding what I would have considered excellent, and some that just shocked me, because I had expected so much more.

When I take this much time to answer a question, it's because I'm not often asked it (or ever). Which brings me to (on a 17° Saturday morning at 6:30 having taken the dog for coffee already): I'm asked a lot of questions, Kim is especially adept at questions, but there are quite a few I'm surprised I've never been asked. No, I'm not telling you what they are. They may still come up (though we may be running out of time!!).