Post-Event Feedback and Reviews: Helping Future Girls in London

When a girl in London attends her first music festival, her first coding workshop, or even her first open-mic night, what she remembers isn’t just the music or the speakers-it’s how she felt. Was she seen? Was she safe? Did someone care enough to ask her what she thought afterward? That’s where post-event feedback becomes more than paperwork-it becomes a lifeline for the next girl who might be too nervous to show up.

Why Feedback Matters More Than You Think

Most event organizers in London treat feedback forms like a box-ticking exercise. They send them out, get a few responses, and file them away. But when you’re building events for young girls-especially those from underrepresented communities-feedback isn’t optional. It’s the only way to know if your event actually worked.

Take a recent all-girls hip-hop dance workshop in Peckham. The organizers thought it was a success because 40 girls showed up. But the feedback forms told a different story. Half the girls said they didn’t feel safe in the changing rooms. One wrote, “I didn’t want to ask where the bathroom was because I thought everyone would laugh.” That detail didn’t show up in attendance numbers. Only the feedback did.

That’s the pattern: numbers lie. Stories don’t.

How to Ask for Feedback Without Making It a Chore

Most feedback forms are long, boring, and feel like homework. Girls won’t fill them out unless they believe their voice will change something.

Here’s what works in London right now:

• Use voice notes instead of text. Send a 30-second voice message link via WhatsApp. Girls are more likely to speak honestly than write formally.
• Keep it under 3 questions. “What was the best part?” “What made you uncomfortable?” “What would make you come back?” That’s it.
• Offer something small in return. A free smoothie from a local café, a discount on next month’s event, or just a handwritten thank-you note. It doesn’t have to be expensive-it has to be personal.

One organization in Brixton started handing out postcards after events. Girls could write or draw their thoughts and drop them in a box. A month later, they turned the best ones into a mural on the event space wall. Now, girls come back not just for the event-but to see if their words are still there.

Turning Reviews Into Real Change

Feedback is useless if it doesn’t lead to action. And girls notice when you ignore them.

In 2024, a group of teens in Camden reviewed a series of STEM nights and said: “We don’t want more robots. We want to talk to women who’ve been where we are.” So the organizers stopped inviting engineers and started inviting a single mom who coded apps while working nights, a trans woman who runs a robotics club in Southwark, and a 19-year-old who built a weather app for her school garden.

The attendance didn’t go up right away. But the retention did. 82% of the girls who came back said, “I felt like I could be like them.” That’s the magic. Not the content. Not the venue. The visibility.

Don’t just collect reviews. Publish them. Share them. Let girls see how their words changed the event. That’s how trust builds.

What Makes a Girl Come Back-And Who Gets Left Behind

Not every girl will give feedback. That’s the problem.

The quiet ones-the ones who sit in the back, who don’t raise their hands, who leave early-are the ones who need you the most. They’re not being rude. They’re being scared.

Here’s what the data shows from 12 London-based youth events in 2025:

• Girls from low-income households were 3x more likely to skip feedback forms-but 5x more likely to mention safety concerns when they did.
• Girls who identified as LGBTQ+ were 4x more likely to say they felt invisible in group activities.
• Girls who received a personal follow-up text after the event were 70% more likely to attend the next one.

That last one? It’s the cheapest, most powerful tool you have. A simple “Hey, we missed you today. We’re doing this next time-would you come?” That’s not marketing. That’s belonging.

Building a Culture of Listening, Not Just Reporting

The best events in London aren’t the flashiest. They’re the ones where the organizers sit with the feedback and say: “We messed up. Here’s how we’re fixing it.”

At the East London Girls’ Film Festival, organizers noticed a drop in attendance after the first year. They didn’t blame the weather. They didn’t blame social media. They sat down with 12 girls who had stopped coming and asked: “What did we do that made you feel like you didn’t belong?”

The answer? “You kept showing films with white girls in lead roles. We didn’t see ourselves.”

The next year, they partnered with Black and South Asian filmmakers. They showed films made by girls under 18. They let attendees vote on which films to screen. Attendance jumped 60%. And for the first time, girls started bringing their little sisters.

That’s the ripple effect. One honest review. One changed program. One girl who finally feels seen.

Where to Start If You’re Organizing an Event

If you’re planning an event for girls in London, here’s your checklist:

1. Design your feedback system before you book the venue.
2. Make it easy, fast, and private. No forced names or emails.
3. Share one piece of feedback-real, unedited-at your next event. Say who said it and what you changed because of it.
4. Train your volunteers to notice who’s quiet. Don’t wait for feedback. Go ask.
5. Track not just attendance, but return rates. That’s the real metric of success.

And if you’re not sure what to ask? Start here: “What did you wish someone had told you before you came?”

What Happens When You Get It Right

There’s a girl in Lewisham who attended her first coding event in 2023. She left because the room felt too loud, too male, too intimidating. She didn’t say anything. She just didn’t come back.

Then, in 2025, she got a text: “We heard you. We changed the space. We hired a female tech mentor who grew up here. Come try again.”

She showed up. She stayed. She’s now running her own weekly coding circle for girls in her neighborhood.

That’s the power of listening. Not to the loud voices. Not to the ones who leave perfect feedback forms. But to the quiet ones. The ones who don’t know they matter.

Events don’t change lives because they’re well-planned. They change lives because someone cared enough to ask-and then acted on the answer.

So if you’re organizing something in London-don’t just host an event. Build a bridge. And make sure the next girl doesn’t have to cross it alone.