Two types of postgraduate medical education were analyzed by questionnaires: 'afternoons for practitioners' taking place at the university clinics in Zurich and 'seminars in internal medicine' held for 2 1/2 days in the seminar facilities of a pharmaceutical firm in Freiburg (Germany). For both cases, the demand for and the interest in the event was confirmed. Overall, those presentations were favoured which offered more time for an interaction with the speaker. Since the interest of the participants focussed on practical aspects, those presentations received better marks that addressed medical practice directly. Furthermore, teaching methods encouraging active collaboration by the participants were favoured. Speakers at the 'seminars in internal medicine' were informed about acceptance of their performance, thus leading to an improvement of subsequent seminars. Our findings encourage to analyze in depth continuing postgraduate education events in the future. The feedback of the assessment by participants to the speakers leads to significant improvements.