Best questions for online event attendee survey about expectations

Here are some of the best questions for an online event attendee survey about expectations, and also tips on how to create them. If you want to build or generate such a conversational survey instantly, Specific can help you do it in seconds.

Best open-ended questions for online event attendee surveys about expectations

Open-ended questions unlock honest, in-depth answers that reveal your attendees’ true thoughts, rather than forcing them into predefined categories. You’ll get qualitative data about their goals, challenges, and reasons for signing up. Even though nonresponse rates for open-ended questions can be higher (the Pew Research Center found around 18% nonresponse on average [1]), these questions can surface gold—one study found 76% of people still wanted to share extra feedback when given the chance [2]. We recommend using open questions when you want detail, unexpected insights, and nuanced perspectives.

1. What motivated you to register for this online event?

2. What do you hope to learn, experience, or achieve during the event?

3. Are there specific speakers, topics, or sessions you're most interested in? Why?

4. What concerns or uncertainties do you have about attending this event?

5. How do you prefer to participate in event sessions or networking activities?

6. Can you share an example of a past event that exceeded (or disappointed) your expectations?

7. Is there anything you wish event organizers would do differently to make attendance more valuable?

8. What would a “successful” event look like for you personally?

9. What barriers could prevent you from engaging fully during the event?

10. What’s the single most important outcome you want from attending?

Mixing a few open-ended questions with more structured ones will help you understand what really matters to your audience.

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for online event attendee surveys about expectations

Single-select multiple-choice questions are great when you need to quantify expectations or make the survey easy to complete—especially helpful in boosting response rates for virtual event surveys, which typically lag behind in-person ones [1]. They’re also a natural way to start the conversation: by presenting simple options, you reduce friction, and you can always dig deeper with follow-up questions when something intriguing comes up.

Question: What is your primary reason for attending this online event?

• Learn new skills or knowledge

• Network with peers or industry leaders

• Discover new products, tools, or solutions

• Other

Question: How do you prefer the event sessions to be structured?

• Live speaker presentations

• Interactive workshops

• Panel discussions

• Small networking groups

Question: What is the ideal event length for you?

• Less than 1 hour

• 1-2 hours

• Half-day

• Full day

When to follow up with "why?" It’s smart to add a follow-up “why?” after any multiple-choice answer, especially when the options are broad or you sense there’s a deeper story. For instance, if someone picks “interactive workshops,” you might ask: “What do you like most about interactive workshops?” This lets you uncover motivation and gather richer insights—critical for improving future events.

When and why to add the "Other" choice? Whenever your list of options might miss something unique, “Other” is your safety net. It prompts participants to share unexpected perspectives, and you can always follow up on these with an open text: “Can you tell me more about your choice?” You’ll often discover new ideas or unmet needs you hadn’t considered.

NPS question for online event attendee expectations

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a quick way to measure event attendees’ likelihood to recommend your event—even before it happens. For online events, it benchmarks pre-event sentiment and expectations, so you can spot gaps early. Here’s why it’s useful for expectation surveys:

• It gives a single, comparable metric across events (which is helpful since online event response rates can be lower than in-person [1]).

• You can segment follow-up questions for promoters, passives, and detractors to tailor future experiences.

If you want to try this style, generate an NPS survey for online event expectations in seconds with Specific.

The power of follow-up questions

Automated, intelligent follow-up questions are a game changer in conversational surveys. With Specific, our AI isn’t satisfied with surface-level answers—it asks clarifying or probing follow-ups in real time, just like a sharp interviewer would. This is huge for collecting context-rich feedback and ultimately saves teams time; you won’t need to follow up with attendees via email days later just to clarify vague responses.

• Online event attendee: “I want to network.”

• AI follow-up: “What kind of networking opportunities are you hoping for? Are you looking to meet peers, mentors, or potential customers?”

How many followups to ask? Usually, 2-3 thoughtful followup questions are plenty. The key is balance: get enough detail to understand, but let people skip to the next topic if you’ve hit your target. Specific’s survey builder lets you control this in settings, so the survey never feels like an interrogation.

This makes it a conversational survey: Instead of a one-sided Q&A, the experience flows naturally—like messaging with a real person who’s genuinely interested in what you have to say.

AI survey response analysis: Even with loads of open text and followup replies, analyzing responses is easy—our AI survey analysis tools find the patterns and help you chat with your data, so you’re not buried in spreadsheet chaos.

Automated follow-ups are new for most survey users. Try generating a conversational survey and experience how much more you’ll learn.

How to compose a prompt for AI (like ChatGPT) to generate great questions

If you want to brainstorm or customize your own questions for an online event attendee expectation survey, you can get great results with smart AI prompts. Here’s how to do it:

Use a simple, direct prompt to start. For example:

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

But if you give AI extra context about your audience, your event type, and goals, you’ll get even sharper questions. Example:

You are a professional event organizer running a virtual conference for SaaS industry leaders. Your goal is to understand attendees’ expectations, learning objectives, networking preferences, and motivational triggers. Suggest 10 open-ended questions for a pre-event survey.

Next, once you have a list, prompt AI to help you organize:

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

Review the categories AI suggests, pick the most relevant, then go one step deeper. For instance:

Generate 10 questions for categories “networking expectations” and “learning goals.”

This way, you’ll get a focused, comprehensive set of survey questions tailored to your exact context.

What is a conversational survey?

Conversational surveys transform response collection from a cold, transaction-like questionnaire into a genuine chat experience. Respondents get follow-ups tailored to their actual answers; engagement soars, and you uncover insights that static forms miss. When you use an AI survey generator like Specific, your survey acts like a smart interviewer: it personalizes each question flow in real time, making the process less work for both attendees and organizers.

Let’s compare:

Why use AI for online event attendee surveys? Most event feedback surveys get low response rates — especially virtual ones (averaging under 15%, sometimes as low as 10% [1]). AI-driven, conversational formats turn survey fatigue into a natural, chat-like experience, increasing the odds of completion and depth. If you want to see what a top-tier AI survey example looks like, we’ve got ready-to-launch templates and expert-made examples at Specific. You can explore more in our how-to guide.

Specific genuinely delivers best-in-class experience for both survey creators and respondents—it’s the smoothest way to collect expectations and opinions before, during, or after your event.

See this expectations survey example now

Get a feel for world-class conversational survey design—see what it’s like to collect deeper, more useful responses from your online event attendees, all while saving time analyzing and acting on the feedback.