Best questions for conference participants survey about intent to return

Here are some of the best questions for a conference participants survey about intent to return, plus tips on how to create powerful surveys that drive real feedback. You can build an engaging, tailored survey in seconds with Specific's AI-powered tools.

Best open-ended questions for conference participants survey about intent to return

Open-ended questions give your conference participants the space to express honest opinions, describe experiences in their own words, and reveal the “why” behind their intentions. These questions are irreplaceable for uncovering in-depth insights and emotional drivers, especially when response rates are often in the 10–20% range for post-event surveys—the insights you do get need to be high quality. [1]

Here are ten of my favorite open-ended questions for an intent to return survey:

1. What was the main highlight of this year’s conference for you?

2. What, if anything, would make you more likely to attend this conference again?

3. Can you share a specific moment or session that influenced your decision to consider returning?

4. What concerns or hesitations do you have about attending next year?

5. How did this event meet or fall short of your expectations?

6. What new topics or features would you love to see at our next conference?

7. Which aspects of the event (e.g., networking, speakers, logistics) could be improved to boost your likelihood of returning?

8. Can you describe what sets this conference apart from others you’ve attended?

9. What would stop you from recommending this conference to friends or colleagues?

10. How did you feel about the value you received for your investment of time or money?

Well-crafted open-ended questions dig into unique personal motivations while surfacing unexpected opportunities—especially when combined with real-time, AI-driven follow-up questions that clarify or probe further. You’ll find some great prompts and templates for this exact use case in Specific’s AI survey builder.

Best single-select multiple-choice questions

Single-select multiple-choice questions shine when you want clear, quantifiable results or when participants prefer quick, simple answers. Giving several concise options takes the cognitive load off respondents, helps you segment feedback immediately, and can kick off a more detailed follow-up question. Usually, a brief survey of 5–10 thoughtfully chosen questions yields the best response rate and experience. [1]

Question: How likely are you to attend this conference again next year?

• Very likely

• Somewhat likely

• Neutral

• Somewhat unlikely

• Very unlikely

Question: What was the primary reason for your attendance this year?

• Networking

• Speakers/sessions

• Professional development

• Company requirement

• Other

Question: Would you recommend this conference to your colleagues or peers?

• Yes, definitely

• Maybe, depends on changes

• No

When to followup with "why?" It's essential to add a "why" follow-up if you want to understand the deeper reasons behind each choice. If someone answers "Somewhat unlikely" to reattending, ask: “Can you share the main reason for your hesitation?” This simple nudge often uncovers actionable suggestions to refine next year’s event.

When and why to add the "Other" choice? Forcing people to choose only from a fixed list can miss important or unexpected reasons. Add "Other" paired with a free-text follow-up to empower participants to share insights unique to them or outside your assumptions—often these are the most valuable findings.

Should you use NPS-type questions for intent to return?

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) question is a proven, simple way to quantify satisfaction and predict behavior—perfect for measuring a conference participant’s likelihood of returning. For intent to return, an NPS question like "On a scale from 0–10, how likely are you to attend this conference again?" gives you a clear, industry-standard metric. It’s trusted because it segments respondents into promoters, passives, and detractors, so you know who to follow up with for more context.

If you want to instantly generate an NPS survey tailored for conference participants, Specific’s survey builder can help you launch a ready-to-use NPS flow in seconds.

The power of follow-up questions

Most post-event surveys fall flat because they stop at the first answer. With automated follow-up questions, you can clarify ambiguous responses and dig deeper in real time—just like an expert interviewer would. This approach matters, since only a fraction of conference participants ever complete your survey (10–20%), so every response should be maximized for insight. [1]

• Conference Participant: "I liked the content, but something was missing."

• AI follow-up: "Thanks for your feedback! Can you tell me more about what you felt was missing from the content?"

How many followups to ask? In practice, 2–3 well-crafted follow-up questions per respondent are enough to get the richest picture—especially when you enable a setting that lets respondents skip if they have nothing more to add. Specific lets you fully configure the depth and style of follow-ups to suit your survey goals.

This makes it a conversational survey—it feels like a two-way chat, not a boring form. Respondents are more engaged and give fuller, more thoughtful answers.

AI response analysis. Even though follow-ups generate a lot of unstructured data, AI makes it simple to analyze rich, conversational input. With tools like AI survey response analysis, you can summarize themes, extract actionable points, and even chat directly with your data.

These automated, conversational follow-ups are a new paradigm—give it a try and generate a survey to experience the impact yourself.

How to compose prompts for ChatGPT or other GPTs to generate great questions

If you want AI-generated survey questions, starting with a clear prompt is key. Begin broad, then add context to get better, more targeted results. Here’s what I recommend:

First, try a simple version:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for Conference Participants survey about Intent To Return.

AI always does better with extra context. Here’s an upgraded prompt that includes your role, goals, and event details:

I’m planning a post-event survey for conference participants. The main goal is to understand what factors drive intent to return, so we can improve next year’s conference and boost repeat attendance. Please suggest 10 open-ended questions to surface motivations, hesitations, and suggestions—aim for clear, unbiased language.

To organize your list, use:

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

Finally, pick the most interesting categories and dig deeper:

Generate 10 questions for categories "Decision-making factors" and "Event experience".

What is a conversational survey?

A conversational survey is more than a static web form—it’s an interactive, dynamic exchange powered by AI, where each question adapts to the respondent’s input. If you’ve only used old-school forms before, the difference is night and day.

With a traditional, manual survey, you have to:

• Spend hours designing fixed question flows

• Miss the chance to clarify unclear responses

• Analyze raw answers by hand—especially for open text fields

With AI-generated, conversational surveys like those made in Specific, you get:

• AI handles survey creation in minutes (load a prompt, edit in chat, launch instantly)

• Automatic follow-ups adapt in real time to each respondent’s answers

• Powerful AI analysis that instantly distills insights from qualitative data

Why use AI for conference participant surveys? You save hours, increase response rates (especially when mobile-optimized and kept concise [1]), and get deeper, clearer insights. AI survey example: You create a survey that asks about intent to return, clarifies ambiguous replies, and analyzes results automatically—all in a single workflow.

Specific is especially strong here—it offers a best-in-class user experience for conversational surveys, making the feedback process effortless for both creators and participants. For a deep dive, check out the step-by-step tutorial on how to create a survey for conference participant intent to return.

See this intent to return survey example now

Try a fully conversational, AI-driven conference intent to return survey and unlock richer feedback in record time—so you can plan better events, faster.