Best questions for conference participants survey about food and beverage

Here are some of the best questions for a conference participants survey about food and beverage, plus smart tips on crafting surveys that actually get responses. If you want to build a tailored survey fast, you can generate one with Specific in seconds.

Best open-ended questions for conference participants surveys about food and beverage

Open-ended questions unlock richer feedback and unexpected insights—they let your participants speak their mind, beyond ticking a box. While these do have higher nonresponse rates (on average around 18%, sometimes up to 50% according to research [1]), the depth and detail make them valuable for understanding what worked (and what definitely didn’t) about your food and beverage choices. I always include open text for topics where creativity and real opinions matter most.

1. What was your overall impression of the food and beverages served at the conference?

2. Were there any menu items or drinks that particularly stood out to you? Why?

3. How did the availability of dietary options (vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, etc.) meet your needs?

4. Was there anything you felt was missing from the food and beverage selection?

5. How would you rate the timing and organization of meal breaks and refreshments?

6. Did you experience any issues related to food quality, temperature, or freshness?

7. What changes would you suggest for future conference catering?

8. Did the food and beverage service enhance your overall event experience? Please explain.

9. How convenient was the location and setup of food/beverage stations?

10. Please share any additional comments about the conference's food and beverages.

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for conference participants surveys about food and beverage

Single-select multiple-choice is your go-to when you want quick, comparable data or want to kickstart the conversation. It’s perfect for quantifying satisfaction or spotting trends across a crowd. These questions are easy for busy participants to complete, lowering friction and often increasing survey response rates—especially when the survey is short and intuitive. Interactive surveys with engaging elements can boost completion rates to around 40% [3].

Question: How satisfied were you with the food and beverages provided at the conference?

• Very satisfied

• Satisfied

• Neutral

• Dissatisfied

• Very dissatisfied

Question: Did the available menu options accommodate your dietary needs?

• Yes, completely

• Somewhat

• No

• Not applicable

Question: What type of beverage did you consume most during the conference?

• Coffee/Tea

• Water

• Soft drinks

• Juice

• Other

When to follow up with "why?" Any time a participant selects a negative or surprising answer, it’s gold to ask “why?” For example, if someone answers “Dissatisfied” about the food, a follow-up like “Can you tell us what fell short for you?” gives clarity that scales—helping you pinpoint exactly what to improve.

When and why to add the "Other" choice? Including “Other” lets people tell you what you never thought to ask. Follow-up questions can uncover unexpected drink preferences (“Matcha lattes” or “Sparkling water”) or menu suggestions—insights that routine choices would never reveal.

NPS question for food and beverage feedback

Let’s talk Net Promoter Score (NPS)—the classic “Would you recommend…?” question. For food and beverage service at conferences, it measures overall advocacy and loyalty: “How likely are you to recommend this event’s food and beverage experience to a friend or colleague?” This gives you an at-a-glance sense of brand impact and event reputation tied specifically to catering. If you want a turnkey NPS question ready to go, check this NPS survey for conference food and beverage example.

The power of follow-up questions

If you’re not using follow-up questions, you’re leaving insights (and clarity) on the table. Automated follow-ups, like what we do at Specific, let the AI probe deeper when answers are vague or spark curiosity. This not only captures the full story, it makes the survey feel like a thoughtful, two-way conversation—reducing the back-and-forth emails that plague traditional feedback.

Traditional surveys might ask, “Were you satisfied with the coffee?”—and someone could reply:

• Conference participant: It was fine.

• AI follow-up: Can you share what you liked about it, or if there’s anything you’d improve for next year?

Suddenly, you’re not just recording checkbox answers—you’re uncovering what makes participants happy or frustrated. For a deeper dive, see the automatic AI follow-up questions feature in action.

How many followups to ask? In our experience, two or three carefully crafted follow-up questions are usually enough to clarify issues or uncover specifics. With Specific, you can easily set this limit or allow respondents to skip to the next question after enough context has been gathered—which keeps things pleasant, not draggy.

This makes it a conversational survey—one that adapts to participant responses in real time and feels as natural as chatting with an expert event host.

AI survey analysis is easy. Even with heaps of open-ended responses, you can instantly analyze feedback with AI-powered tools. See how to analyze responses from conference participants surveys for actionable insights—no spreadsheet slog required.

Follow-ups are the future. Try generating a survey and experience how a conversational survey feels compared to rigid old forms.

How to prompt ChatGPT to generate great questions for conference food and beverage surveys

If you want to design your own survey prompts, here’s how you can get AI like ChatGPT to do the heavy lifting.

First, use a simple base prompt:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for conference participants survey about food and beverage.

This works, but your results level up when you give more context—add who you are, the type of conference, your goals, or what you want to improve. For example:

I am organizing a large academic conference with 800 attendees and a diverse international audience. We want to get detailed feedback to improve our food and beverage offerings for future events, with special attention to dietary accommodations and quality. Suggest 10 open-ended questions to help us understand participant experiences and preferences.

Next, organize and refine your questions:

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

Then, pick the most relevant categories, and ask for additional depth:

Generate 10 questions for categories “Dietary Accommodations”, “Service Experience”, and “Food Quality and Variety”.

What is a conversational survey?

A conversational survey feels like a natural chat—where AI adapts and follows up just like a thoughtful interviewer. Compared to old-school “form surveys,” this approach keeps people engaged (response rates for engaging surveys can approach 40% [3]), gives you clearer answers, and makes the process feel almost fun. Best of all, you don’t stare at blank boxes wondering what to say next—the AI prompts help you articulate your real opinion, even if you’re in a hurry.

Why use AI for conference participants surveys? You get richer, more actionable feedback with less effort. Field studies show that AI-driven, conversational surveys yield more informative and relevant responses than traditional methods [4]. You spend less time building the survey and more time understanding what matters most to your attendees.

If you want to see just how easy it is, check this guide on how to create a conference participants survey about food and beverage—or craft your own with the flexible AI survey builder. With Specific, we’ve put years of expertise into building a best-in-class experience for both survey creators and respondents, putting conversational surveys within everyone’s reach.

See this food and beverage survey example now

Time to get deeper, more honest feedback from your next event—see how a conversational survey can transform your conference food and beverage insights and save you hours on analysis.