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Best questions for online event attendee survey about discussion topics

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Adam Sabla

·

Aug 21, 2025

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Here are some of the best questions for an online event attendee survey about discussion topics, plus tips on how to design them. If you want to quickly generate a tailored survey, you can build one with Specific in seconds with AI.

Best open-ended questions for an online event attendee survey about discussion topics

Open-ended questions let attendees describe their thoughts, ideas, and experiences in their own words. You get richer insights, new perspectives, and a deeper understanding of what mattered most—at the expense of sometimes higher nonresponse rates. On balance, these questions are valuable: 76% of respondents in a PubMed study added comments and over 80% of management found them useful for quality improvements. [2] Here’s when to use them—when you want context, motivations, or future suggestions, or when you’re exploring unfamiliar territory.

Our 10 favorite open-ended questions for online event attendee surveys:

  1. Which discussion topics from the event felt most relevant to your interests or needs?

  2. Were there any topics you wished had been covered or explored in greater depth?

  3. Can you describe a moment during the event when a discussion stood out or sparked new ideas for you?

  4. What was the most surprising or thought-provoking thing you learned from any discussion?

  5. How did the event's discussion topics align with your expectations coming in?

  6. In your opinion, what discussion topic generated the most engagement or questions from other attendees?

  7. Were there any topics or sessions you found confusing or not useful? Please specify which and why.

  8. If you could suggest one discussion topic for our next event, what would it be—and why?

  9. Have any event discussions influenced how you’ll approach your work or personal interests?

  10. What would make future discussion topics even more valuable for you?

Remember, balancing open-ended and closed-ended questions will help you keep respondents engaged while still gathering deep insights. Too many open-ended questions can lead to response fatigue or skipped answers, as seen in Pew Research Center’s finding of up to 50% nonresponse rates on some open-ended survey questions.[1]

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for online event attendee survey about discussion topics

Single-select multiple-choice questions work well when you want to quantify opinions or quickly compare preferences—they’re fast for the respondent and easy to interpret. These can jump-start the conversation, save effort (no need to type out an answer), and let you spot trends fast before digging deeper with follow-ups or open-ended prompts. They especially shine when you need to track feedback over time or filter responses for themes.

Question: Which discussion topic did you find most valuable?

  • Industry trends and forecasts

  • Practical case studies

  • Networking opportunities

  • Panel Q&A sessions

  • Other

Question: How well did the topics reflect your interests?

  • Perfectly aligned

  • Mostly relevant

  • Somewhat relevant

  • Not relevant

Question: Was there enough time to discuss the most important topics?

  • Yes, definitely

  • Somewhat

  • No, not really

When to followup with "why?" For any multiple-choice selection—especially more negative or ambivalent answers—it’s powerful to ask “why?” directly after. For example, if a respondent says “Not relevant” to a topic, a well-timed follow-up like “Can you share more about what topics would have been more relevant for you?” uncovers specifics that otherwise stay hidden. This is particularly valuable since mixed-mode surveys (combining open- and closed-ended questions) can predict future behavior 27% better than ratings alone. [3]

When and why to add the "Other" choice? Always offer “Other” when you suspect you might not cover every possibility. When a respondent selects “Other,” a follow-up can immediately prompt them to specify—leading to fresh, unanticipated insight that fixed choices might miss.

NPS question for online event attendees—when does it make sense?

Net Promoter Score (NPS) asks respondents how likely they are to recommend your event or its discussions on a 0–10 scale. It’s an industry-standard for measuring overall satisfaction and loyalty. In the context of event discussion topics, NPS gives you a high-level signal—did the content resonate enough that attendees would promote it? Use an NPS question when you want a benchmark, or to compare multiple events over time. You can auto-create an NPS survey specifically for online event attendees about discussion topics with this NPS survey generator. It’s especially helpful to follow up by asking promoters and detractors what influenced their scores, for deeper qualitative insight.

The power of follow-up questions

Follow-up questions are the heart of any true conversational survey. By asking follow-ups, we increase both the context of responses and the value of insights—respondents don’t have to get every detail right in a single answer; instead, the AI digs deeper on their terms, emulating a great researcher. This is why at Specific, we’ve made AI-powered follow-up questions a core feature.

Automated follow-ups save tons of time by reducing the back-and-forth emails we’d need to clarify responses later. Instead, the AI asks smart, real-time questions like an expert, while the respondent’s attention and memory are fresh. Research shows that when follow-up designs are used in surveys, responses are longer and richer—containing more themes and better detail than static surveys. [4] When it’s just a one-off response, ambiguity and missed ideas are common.

  • Online event attendee: “I liked the industry trends session.”

  • AI follow-up: “What about that session did you find most valuable? Was it the insights shared, the speakers, or something else?”

Compare that with a static survey where you'd only get “industry trends,” and never learn what truly resonated.

How many followups to ask? In most cases, 2–3 follow-ups are the sweet spot. You want to get enough context to be actionable, but you don’t want to exhaust or annoy respondents. That’s why in Specific, we let you define how persistent the AI should be, and it’ll stop when you’ve gotten a full answer or if the respondent skips.

This makes it a conversational survey, where every response feeds the next question naturally, keeping engagement high and data richer.

AI survey analysis: Even with lots of free-text responses, AI makes it easy to analyze all your survey feedback. Our platform uses GPT to quickly summarize themes, highlight trends, and even lets you interview the data chat-style. Don’t fear qualitative overload—the heavy lifting is taken care of.

These automated follow-up questions are a new frontier in surveys—try generating a survey with AI on Specific to see this in action. You’ll see the difference in both efficiency and quality.

How to compose a ChatGPT prompt for a discussion topics survey

Want to create your own tailored survey questions with an AI like ChatGPT? Start simple, then refine iteratively. Here’s the basic prompt:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for Online Event Attendee survey about Discussion Topics.

The more context, the better. Tell the AI about your audience, your goals for the event, and what you want to achieve, like this:

We’re running a virtual event for tech professionals. Our goal is to understand which discussion topics are most valuable, which were missing, and what would make future events better. Suggest 10 open-ended survey questions for event attendees about discussion topics.

Once you have a batch of questions, don’t stop there. Use this next prompt to group and structure your survey:

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

Then, refine further by picking categories that matter most for your goals, and prompt:

Generate 10 questions for the categories "Impact of Topics", "Suggestions for Future Discussions", and "Engagement with Sessions".

What is a conversational survey?

Conversational surveys move beyond plain forms or static lists of questions. They mimic how a smart moderator or researcher would actually chat with a respondent—probe, listen, and clarify. Using an AI survey generator, you can craft custom conversational flows faster than ever.

Traditional manual surveys are rigid and can feel formal or even interrogative. In contrast, AI survey examples are dynamic, personalized, and feel natural for both creators and respondents. Here’s a quick comparison:

Manual surveys

AI-generated (conversational) surveys

Linear question lists

Adaptive and contextual questions

Static, difficult to edit

Edit easily—just describe your change in the AI survey editor

Minimal real-time follow-up

Automated, expert-level follow-ups in real time

Manual, slow to analyze

Instant AI-powered analysis and chat about responses

Why use AI for online event attendee surveys? Because AI-generated surveys are more engaging, less effortful for you, and lead to far deeper feedback quality. They’re ideal when you want conversational depth without manual follow-ups or time-consuming analysis. You can see more details on how to create a survey for event attendees about discussion topics if you want a full walkthrough and best practices.

Specific is all about providing a best-in-class conversational survey experience. We make the feedback process genuinely smooth and insightful for both you and your event attendees.

See this discussion topics survey example now

Experience how fast, natural, and insightful feedback can be. You’ll discover deeper attendee insights, get actionable input you can trust, and make every event more impactful—just by turning your survey into a true conversation.

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Sources

  1. Pew Research Center. Why do open-ended survey questions result in higher nonresponse rates?

  2. PubMed (BMC Health Services Research). The value of additional comments in patient experience questionnaires.

  3. Thematic. Why use open-ended questions in surveys?

  4. Sage Journals. A Comparison of Three List-Style Open-Ended Question Designs for Collecting Longer Text Responses in Web Surveys

Adam Sabla - Image Avatar

Adam Sabla

Adam Sabla is an entrepreneur with experience building startups that serve over 1M customers, including Disney, Netflix, and BBC, with a strong passion for automation.

Adam Sabla

Adam Sabla is an entrepreneur with experience building startups that serve over 1M customers, including Disney, Netflix, and BBC, with a strong passion for automation.

Adam Sabla

Adam Sabla is an entrepreneur with experience building startups that serve over 1M customers, including Disney, Netflix, and BBC, with a strong passion for automation.