Event Survey Questions: 72 Questions by Audience and Moment

This is a question bank, not a survey. Nobody should answer all 72 questions. Pick the survey moment and the audience first, then choose the few questions that inform a decision you actually have to make. For the rules on writing a survey from scratch, such as choosing a purpose, neutral wording and consistent scales, see our event survey template. If you want a short form you can send today, start with the event feedback form and come back here to swap questions in.

Copy the questions you choose into whichever form tool you use. Replace the bracketed parts, such as [EVENT NAME], and change the answer options to match your event before you send anything.

The answer format decides what you can do with the results. Rating scales give you numbers to compare across sessions and years. Multiple choice lets you split results by group, such as first-time and returning attendees. Open questions tell you why. Most good surveys are mostly ratings and multiple choice, with one or two open questions at the end.

A pre-event survey helps you plan the program, the floor and the catering around the people who are actually coming. Send it a few weeks out, after most people have registered, and keep it short: they haven't had the experience yet, so their patience is limited. Some of these questions can sit in the registration form instead; only move them there if someone will use the answer before the event.

Question 6 is worth asking even if you ask nothing else. Our post on making your event more inclusive and accessible covers what to do with the answers.

Session feedback works best while people are still in their seats or walking out of the room. Ask too late and attendees mix up sessions. Keep it to two to four questions: one rating, one open question on what was useful, one on what could be better, and an optional follow-up request. Speakers value this more than anything else you can send them after the event.

An on-site pulse catches problems you can still fix the same day: a slow check-in line, a room nobody can find, a session that ran over. Ask it once, around midday on the first day or at the end of each day.

The post-event attendee survey is the one most organizers mean when they say event survey. Our post-event survey template gives a ready seven-part structure; the list below is the longer set to choose from. A practical rule: the first three questions plus the two open ones make a usable survey on their own, and every question you add from the middle should cover a part of the event you are actually willing to change.

If you also ask question 3 of exhibitors, report the two scores separately. Attendees and exhibitors judge the same event by very different standards, and one blended number hides both.

Exhibitors and sponsors decide whether to come back in the weeks after the show, so their survey is part of your sales cycle. Ask about the outcomes they paid for, such as leads, traffic and visibility, and about the service they received from your team. Send one survey per company to the person who booked, not to every booth staffer.

Sponsor surveys should check delivery against the agreement before asking about value. If a benefit was missed, you want to hear it in the survey, not in the renewal meeting. Our post on what sponsors actually get is a useful list to build question 3's options from.

Exhibitors who answer question 5 with a range are telling you about their trade show ROI. Share the anonymized spread of answers with next year's prospects only if you have enough responses for it to mean something.

Speakers, volunteers and online attendees are easy to forget, and each group tells you something the main survey can't. Speakers know whether the run-up to the event was organized. Volunteers know where operations broke down. Online attendees know whether your hybrid setup worked for anyone outside the room.

Volunteer answers feed straight into next year's rota and training. Our guide to event volunteer management covers how to act on them.

Start from the decision, then pick the questions. The table below maps common goals to the questions in this bank that inform them. If a question doesn't serve one of your goals, leave it out, however interesting the answer might be. For how these answers fit alongside attendance and revenue figures, see our post on measuring event success with key metrics.

Most weak survey questions fail in one of a few predictable ways. Rewriting them is usually quick. The full rules on neutral wording and scales are in our event survey template; these are the rewrites that come up most with the questions above.

If connectivity complaints come up every year, our guide to event Wi-Fi covers what you can negotiate with the venue. When results are in, write them up in an event debrief and share each audience's results with the people who can act on them.