Best questions for ask me anything attendee survey about expectations

Here are some of the best questions for an Ask Me Anything attendee survey about expectations, plus useful tips on how to create them. If you want to quickly build a survey that actually starts meaningful conversations, you can generate one with Specific in seconds.

Best open-ended questions for attendee surveys about expectations

Open-ended questions let us dig beneath the surface, giving attendees a space to share their thoughts in their own words. This is especially valuable when you want honest, detailed feedback about what people anticipate or hope for. Though open-ends sometimes mean fewer responses or more analysis effort, the quality of the insights can be exceptional. In fact, 76% of participants in one study chose to add at least one open comment to their questionnaires, showing a real willingness to share deeper feedback. [2]

Here are the 10 open-ended questions I think work best for an Ask Me Anything attendee survey focused on expectations:

1. What’s the main thing you’re hoping to learn from this Ask Me Anything session?

2. Are there any specific topics or questions you wish to see covered?

3. What made you interested in joining this session today?

4. How do you hope this AMA will be different from similar sessions you’ve attended?

5. Is there a challenge you’re facing right now that you hope this session will help with?

6. If you could ask the host anything, what would it be?

7. What concerns (if any) do you have about this session?

8. What would make this AMA feel like a worthwhile use of your time?

9. Have you attended our events before? If yes, what expectations do you have based on your past experience?

10. Is there anything else you think we should know before the event?

Open-ended questions help discover the unexpected—but it's true that analyzing them can be time-consuming, and some respondents may be less inclined to write lengthy responses. Balancing them with other formats is usually a smart move. [4]

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for attendee expectations

Single-select multiple-choice questions are your go-to option for quantifying responses and making it easy for attendees to quickly share what matters most. They’re great at breaking the ice or surfacing key themes that you can follow up on—and they’re less demanding than open-ended prompts, which typically see nonresponse rates of about 18% on average. [1] Sometimes, providing choices gives respondents the nudge they need to articulate their priorities, which you can then explore further with follow-ups.

Question: What is your main goal in joining this Ask Me Anything session?

• To learn something new

• To ask specific questions

• To network with others

• Other

Question: How familiar are you with the topic being discussed?

• Very familiar

• Somewhat familiar

• Not at all familiar

Question: What type of content are you most interested in?

• Tips and best practices

• Personal stories or experiences

• Live demonstration

• Q&A format

When to follow up with “why?” When someone selects, for example, “To learn something new,” a natural next step is to ask: “Why is this particularly important to you right now?” This helps uncover their motivations and guides your event planning.

When and why to add the “Other” choice? Always include “Other” when you suspect you might not capture all possible answers with your listed options. Follow up by asking what they had in mind—some of your most actionable insights will emerge from responses you didn’t anticipate.

NPS question for attendee expectations: When it makes sense

Including a Net Promoter Score (NPS) style question in your Ask Me Anything attendee survey lets you benchmark how likely people are to recommend these sessions, or your event brand, to others. NPS works well here because it’s quick, familiar, and delivers a reliable snapshot of audience sentiment—while opening the door to rich follow-up explanations. Open-ended NPS surveys can even beat standard surveys with completion rates around 20%, compared to the typical 3% for closed questions. [3]

Want to try a ready-made NPS survey? Use our tool to create an NPS survey for your Ask Me Anything event and start collecting actionable benchmarks.

The power of follow-up questions

Never underestimate the value of smart follow-up questions in your attendee surveys. When you use automated follow-ups, you give respondents a chance to clarify and deepen their feedback—just like an experienced interviewer would. At Specific, our platform uses AI to generate follow-up questions in real time, based on each response and its context. This approach saves teams tons of time (no more chasing for clarification via email!) and helps conversations feel genuine and natural.

• Attendee: “I hope to learn more about the industry.”

• AI follow-up: “Is there a particular part of the industry you’re most interested in, or a problem you’d like addressed?”

How many follow-ups to ask? Usually, two to three follow-ups per topic provide enough depth. You also want to avoid survey fatigue, so enabling a “skip to next question” setting once you’ve gathered core insights is smart. Specific gives you fine control over this.

This makes it a conversational survey: Follow-ups transform your survey from a bland questionnaire into an interactive, chat-like conversation—building trust and connection.

Easy AI survey response analysis: Don’t worry about the volume of unstructured qualitative data. Modern tools like AI survey response analysis make it effortless to analyze, cluster, and act on open-ended replies.

Try generating a survey with automated follow-ups—you’ll quickly see how much richer your feedback becomes.

How to write a ChatGPT prompt for AMA attendee expectations surveys

If you want to come up with survey questions yourself (or with help of ChatGPT or another GPT-based tool), prompts are everything. Start simple:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for Ask Me Anything attendee survey about expectations.

But—adding more context always improves the result. For example, tell the AI about your audience, the event, or specific outcomes you want.

The event is an Ask Me Anything with 150 SaaS founders. We want to understand their prior experience with similar sessions, what they hope to learn, and concerns they might have about joining. Suggest 10 open-ended questions.

After you generate questions, it’s smart to ask the AI to organize them:

Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.

Finally, pick the categories you want to go deeper on, and prompt:

Generate 10 questions for categories “Motivations for attending” and “Desired outcomes”.

This iterative method works great, especially if you use an AI survey builder that lets you edit survey content conversationally.

What is a conversational survey (and why is it different)?

A conversational survey (sometimes called an AI survey or chat-based survey) mimics a real back-and-forth interview. Instead of handing everyone a static form, you get a dynamic, interactive experience—questions are asked one at a time, and follow-ups are generated on the fly based on each response. This style is inherently more engaging and helps people open up, much like a trusted researcher might in person.

So how does this stack up against traditional, manual survey forms? Consider this side-by-side:

Why use AI for Ask Me Anything attendee surveys? You’ll get richer data and higher engagement, because people respond better to a conversation—not a cold, impersonal form. Plus, with tools like Specific, you have the best-in-class experience for both you and your attendees.

If you want to dig even deeper into building one yourself, read our guide on how to create an Ask Me Anything attendee survey about expectations. Or, launch the AI survey generator and see the process in action.

See this expectations survey example now

Experience the impact of conversational AI surveys—see exactly how to get actionable feedback that’s both deep and easy to analyze. Unlock richer insights and take your next Ask Me Anything event to the next level today.