Here are some of the best questions for a conference participants survey about sustainability practices, plus quick tips on how to craft them. You can instantly generate your own survey with Specific—speed, quality, and deep insights in one.
Best open-ended questions for conference participants on sustainability practices
Open-ended questions give participants the space to share honest context and reveal new insights—especially useful when we want to understand attitudes, barriers, and impactful stories about sustainability.
Why use open-ended questions? While they can have higher nonresponse rates (sometimes reaching over 50% [1]), they let us discover what closed questions miss. Studies show 81% of respondents mention issues NOT captured by rating scales, and 43% provide at least one in-depth comment [2].
What sustainability initiatives at this conference stood out to you, and why?
Can you describe any sustainable practices from other events that you wish were implemented here?
How did the sustainability efforts at this event influence your overall impression of the conference?
What challenges, if any, did you notice in maintaining sustainability throughout the event?
How likely are you to apply any sustainability ideas from this conference in your personal or professional life? Please explain.
What additional steps could this conference take to minimize its environmental impact?
Were there aspects of the event that you felt conflicted with sustainability goals? Please elaborate.
How did you feel about the availability and clarity of information regarding sustainable practices at the event?
Can you share a positive or negative story about your experience with sustainability at this conference?
Is there anything else you’d like to share about sustainability efforts at this event?
Open-ended questions help us surface blind spots and ideas we might have missed, offering a richer dimension to our feedback.
Best single-select multiple-choice questions for conference participants on sustainability practices
Single-select multiple-choice questions make it easy for participants to respond and for us to analyze the results. They’re ideal when quantifying preferences, benchmarking, or guiding the conversation forward with quick, focused interactions.
These are great when you need to summarize opinions, identify broad trends, or minimize respondent dropout—key for longer surveys or when audiences are short on time. Keep in mind, though, that multiple-choice questions often miss the nuances of participant experiences [3].
Question: Which of the following sustainability initiatives at the conference did you find most impactful?
Waste reduction (e.g., recycling, composting)
Sustainable catering (e.g., local, plant-based foods)
No single-use plastics
Transportation options (e.g., shuttles, bike racks)
Other
Question: How would you rate the effectiveness of the event’s sustainability communication?
Very clear and helpful
Somewhat clear
Not clear
I didn’t notice any communication
Question: Did the conference’s sustainability practices influence your decision to attend?
Definitely yes
Somewhat
No
When to follow up with "why?" If a respondent’s answer piques your curiosity or feels incomplete, use a follow-up "why?" to unlock more insight. For instance, if someone rates sustainability communication as "not clear," we’d gently ask, "Can you elaborate on what made it unclear for you?" This gives us actionable feedback to improve.
When and why to add the "Other" choice? Use "Other" when you want to capture unique perspectives or practices you didn’t anticipate. This often leads to new ideas you hadn’t considered. Always follow up—"Please specify"—to uncover surprising insights that could shape future sustainability strategies.
NPS for conference sustainability: does it make sense?
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a straightforward, one-question metric that captures loyalty and overall sentiment, asking: "How likely are you to recommend this conference’s sustainability practices to others, on a scale of 0–10?" It’s proven valuable for benchmarking perceptions, tracking trends, and identifying advocates—and works brilliantly when paired with a follow-up "why?" for detractors and promoters.
If you’d like to create an NPS survey for conference participants and sustainability practices, Specific’s generator makes it seamless.
The power of follow-up questions
No matter how carefully we design our initial questions, respondents often give answers that need clarification—or spark new lines of inquiry. That’s where follow-ups shine. When you automate follow-up questions (as described in Specific’s AI follow-up feature), you can:
Gather deeper context instantly—no waiting to email for clarifications.
Keep the conversation flowing, so participants feel understood.
Prevent misinterpretation or lost details from unclear answers.
For example:
Conference participant: “The catering was good.”
AI follow-up: “What specifically did you appreciate about the catering from a sustainability perspective?”
How many followups to ask? Generally, 2-3 well-placed follow-up questions per answer are enough to get the full story. It’s best to enable an option to skip to the next question if you’ve got the information you need. Specific lets you control this—ensuring you get quality, not fatigue.
This makes it a conversational survey—the interaction feels more like a meaningful exchange than a static form, which is both engaging and respondent-friendly.
AI survey analysis tools unlock the power of open-text answers. With specific features, all those rich, unstructured responses can be synthesized and segmented in seconds (you can read more in our guide to AI analysis of survey responses).
Conversational and automated follow-up questions are a new way to research. I recommend trying out the survey generator yourself to experience it firsthand.
How to compose the perfect prompt for ChatGPT or AI survey tools
If you want to brainstorm survey questions for conference participants about sustainability practices using ChatGPT, the magic lies in how you prompt the AI. Start simple, then go deeper by adding context.
Basic prompt—ask for open-ended questions:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for conference participants survey about sustainability practices.
If you want even better results, give the AI more context: who you are, the goals of your event, what matters most about sustainability, and the tone you want.
Context-rich prompt example:
We’re organizing a conference focused on practical sustainability solutions for tech professionals. Please generate 10 open-ended questions for conference attendees that explore personal experiences, perceived impact, and suggestions for improvement regarding sustainability practices, in a friendly and encouraging tone.
To organize your questions, try:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
After reviewing, dig deeper into categories you care about:
Generate 10 questions for the category “sustainable catering and waste reduction.”
What is a conversational survey?
A conversational survey feels like a two-way, real-time interview with a helpful expert—not a rigid form. Instead of serving up all questions in a single block, a conversational (AI-powered) survey adapts as you answer, following up when your response signals something new or unclear. It’s responsive, intuitive, and respectful of your time.
Let’s compare how traditional/manual survey creation stacks up with AI-powered survey generation:
Manual Survey Creation | AI-Generated Survey |
|---|---|
Slow: build question-by-question | Fast: create in one chat prompt |
Rigid: hard to iterate or edit | Flexible: update via simple chat command |
Limited to your expertise | Taps global research best practice |
No follow-up or probing by default | Smart AI follow-ups, rich insights |
Why use AI for conference participant surveys? We can build a full survey in seconds, tapping the AI’s knowledge to generate relevant, incisive questions. The AI survey example above is just a starting point—we can customize, iterate, or edit easily with the AI survey editor. Plus, the conversational approach nudges better, deeper feedback.
Specific provides a best-in-class user experience for conversational surveys, making the process smooth and enjoyable—both for those designing the questions and those sharing their honest feedback. If you’re curious, we have a step-by-step article on how to create this kind of survey.
See this sustainability practices survey example now
Ready to experience a smarter, friendlier way to collect feedback from your event? Get richer insights, personalize every response, and make sustainability matter—see this survey example and create your own with Specific in just a few clicks.