Here are some of the best questions for a conference participants survey about swag and materials, plus tips for crafting a great survey. If you want to build one yourself, you can generate tailored, conversational surveys with Specific in seconds.
What are the best open-ended questions for conference participants about swag and materials?
Open-ended questions give us more thoughtful, nuanced feedback from conference participants on swag and materials. They're best when you want honest perspectives, new ideas, or to uncover issues you hadn't considered—especially important for conferences where unique experiences set you apart. These questions let people share, in their own words, what worked for them (and what totally missed). Here are our top 10:
What conference swag item did you find most useful, and why?
Can you describe a moment when the conference materials enhanced your overall experience?
What did you think was missing from the swag bag or materials provided?
Which swag item are you most likely to use after the event?
Did any of the materials feel unnecessary or wasteful? Please explain.
How did the presentation or packaging of the swag influence your opinion of the event?
If you could add any item to the swag bag, what would it be and why?
Were there materials or swag that created a memorable impression? Please elaborate.
What improvements would you suggest for future conference swag and materials?
Do you have any other comments on the quality or selection of conference swag and printed materials?
Open-ended questions are a powerful tool for insight—and paired with automated follow-ups from platforms like Specific, you can really dig into the "why" behind each answer. According to one study, asking for detail through follow-up can boost both completion rates and the depth of responses collected. [1]
Best single-select multiple-choice questions for conference participants on swag and materials
Single-select multiple-choice questions are great when you need to quantify preferences or start a conversation. Sometimes it's easier for conference participants to click one of a few short options, which helps you compare results and then dive deeper through follow-up questions. Here are three examples for your survey:
Question: Which swag item did you appreciate the most?
Notebook/pen
Reusable tote bag
Water bottle
Other
Question: How would you rate the overall quality of the materials provided?
Excellent
Good
Fair
Poor
Question: Did the swag bag meet your expectations?
Exceeded expectations
Met expectations
Fell short of expectations
When to follow up with "why?" If someone selects "Fell short of expectations" (for example), it’s perfect to ask a conversational follow-up: “Could you tell us what was missing or disappointing?” This lets you discover the real pain points, quickly and naturally.
When and why to add the "Other" choice? Adding "Other" helps catch unexpected feedback. When respondents pick "Other," a smart follow-up can prompt them to describe what they wanted, often revealing insights that pre-selected choices would never surface.
NPS questions—do they make sense for conference surveys about swag and materials?
NPS (Net Promoter Score) asks participants to rate how likely they are to recommend your event, or in this case, your swag and materials, on a scale from 0-10. It's one of the most reliable ways to measure satisfaction at-a-glance—especially when you want a simple metric to track improvement year over year. For conferences, it makes sense to ask:
"How likely are you to recommend the swag and materials from this conference to a colleague?" (0 = Not at all, 10 = Extremely likely)
The real value comes from the follow-up: "Why did you choose that rating?"—giving you both measurable scores and actionable comments. To try it, the Specific NPS survey generator can instantly craft this for conference participants.
The power of follow-up questions
Great surveys don’t stop at the first answer—they dig deeper. That’s why automated follow-up questions matter so much in conversational surveys. Platforms like Specific use AI to generate real-time follow-up questions tailored to each participant’s previous answer, mirroring how an expert interviewer would probe for clarity and context. This isn’t just a time-saver—it transforms generic feedback into rich, actionable insights.
For example, without followups, you might get:
Conference participant: "The tote bag was fine."
AI follow-up: "Could you say what made the tote bag stand out or fall short for you?"
This is where the magic happens: instead of puzzling over vague answers, you instantly get the context that matters.
How many follow-ups to ask? Usually, two or three follow-ups are enough to get a complete response—any more and you risk fatigue. Specific lets you customize this, so respondents can skip to the next question once you’re satisfied with the depth of their response.
This makes it a conversational survey—not just a form, but a real dialogue that helps participants feel heard and valued.
AI-powered analysis, summaries, and insights—Once you have in-depth answers, it’s easy to analyze survey results using AI, no matter how much unstructured text you receive. Platforms like Specific make sense of it all, grouping feedback into themes or summarizing findings in a flash.
It isn’t just theory—research shows that personalized follow-ups (even as simple as using a participant’s name in reminders) can boost survey response rates by up to 22% compared to generic reminders. [3] Sending a follow-up message or email can also increase total response rates by as much as 44%. [1][2] If you haven’t tried a conversational survey yet, generate one and see how easy your feedback process becomes.
How to compose effective prompts for ChatGPT or other AIs when building your survey
Prompt quality shapes the questions you get. A good starting prompt might be:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for conference participants survey about swag and materials.
But AI works even better if you add context about your goals, your conference type, or anything that makes your audit unique. Example:
You are designing a post-conference feedback survey for academic conference participants to improve the swag bag for next year. The audience is mostly mid-career professionals. Generate 10 open-ended questions focused on value, usefulness, and uniqueness of swag items and printed materials.
Once you have your questions, try:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
From there, pick categories that matter most, and prompt again:
Generate 10 questions for categories "environmental impact of swag" and "usefulness of printed materials".
This step-by-step prompt engineering gives you a focused, relevant survey every time.
What is a conversational survey?
Traditional surveys ask questions, collect short answers, and keep going—static, often missing context. Conversational surveys, on the other hand, use AI to chat with your participants, ask follow-up questions, clarify vague responses, and adapt the conversation so every answer is truly useful.
Instead of interrogating people with lists, you get a friendly, real discussion (even if it’s automated). This is exactly what we focus on at Specific. The AI survey generator creates the whole experience in seconds—just type your prompt and instantly get not only brilliant questions, but also the right follow-up logic to capture deeper insights from your conference participants. Compare the two approaches side-by-side:
Manual Survey Creation | AI-Generated Conversational Survey |
|---|---|
Write questions one-by-one | Generate complete survey from a prompt |
Static, pre-set logic for follow-ups | AI crafts follow-ups in real time, by context |
Manual analysis & reporting | AI summarizes, groups, and interprets responses |
Can feel impersonal to respondents | Feels like a real chat—higher completion & better data |
Why use AI for conference participant surveys? Because every participant brings unique insight and the best learning comes from rich conversations, not multiple-choice checklists. AI survey examples—especially from AI survey makers built for feedback—deliver superior response rates, richer context, and make the analysis phase a breeze. If you want a quick-start, see how to create a survey for conference participants about swag and materials in minutes.
Specific stands out by offering a best-in-class user experience for conversational surveys, so the feedback process feels natural and engaging for both creators and respondents—no more static forms, just real insights as if you had a research expert on your team.
See this swag and materials survey example now
Ready to discover what your conference participants value most? Get feedback instantly with a conversational survey that starts genuine dialogue and uncovers real insights—fast. Experience how Specific’s AI-driven interviews transform your participant feedback today.