Event Topic Ideas

Where good event topics come from

Do not start with a blank page. Your audience has already told you what they want, if you look in the right places:

• Questions your audience asks

  Support tickets, sales calls, member inquiries and community threads. A question asked many times is a topic.

• Last year's feedback

  Session ratings, survey comments and the questions attendees asked in Q&A show what was missing and what to repeat.

  Live Q&A widget

• Changes in your field

  New rules, tools, research or market shifts that people are trying to understand. These make timely topics, but check they will still matter on the day.

• Your speakers' strengths

  A topic is easier to deliver when strong speakers already want to talk about it.

• Sponsor and partner interests

  Sponsors want a topic their customers care about. Ask early, and keep the topic useful to attendees first.

Event topic ideas by type of event

Use these as starting points and make each one specific to your audience:

How to choose and test a topic

Narrow a long list to one clear topic in five steps:

1. 1

   List ten to fifteen candidate topics

   Draw from the sources above. Write each as a question the audience would ask, not as a label.

2. 2

   Score each topic

   Use the sheet below: audience demand, fit with your goal, speaker availability, uniqueness and sponsor interest.

3. 3

   Ask the audience

   Send the shortlist to a small group of the people you want to attend, in a poll or a short survey, and ask which they would give up time for.

4. 4

   Test the title

   Write the title and a one-sentence promise. Ask whether a person who sees only that would know what they will learn and whether it is for them.

5. 5

   Build the agenda around one thread

   Every session should answer part of the main question. Cut anything that does not.

EVENT TOPIC SCORING SHEET
Event goal: [ ]
Audience: [ ]

Score each topic 1 (low) to 5 (high) on each line. Add the scores.

TOPIC: [question the audience would ask]
Audience demand: [ ]
Fit with our goal: [ ]
Speakers available: [ ]
Different from what others offer: [ ]
Sponsor or partner interest: [ ]
TOTAL: [ ]

TOPIC 2: [ ]
(repeat)

SHORTLIST (top three): [ ]
Sent to audience for a vote on: [date]
Chosen topic: [ ]
Title: [ ]
One-sentence promise: [ ]

Turning a topic into a title

A good event title names the audience, the subject and the benefit. Avoid jargon the audience does not use, and avoid promising results you cannot guarantee.

Using Eventdex once the topic is chosen

Eventdex does not choose or suggest a topic for you; that stays a human decision based on your audience. Once the topic is set, its pages describe tools that help you build the event around it.

• Agenda and sessions

  Build a program with tracks and sessions, and attendees pick sessions into a personal schedule in the event app.

  Event mobile app

• Registration questions

  Ask registrants which topics they care about, and use the answers to shape the agenda.

  Event registration software

• Live Q&A

  Attendees submit and upvote questions in each session, and organizers can export them afterwards to plan next year's topics.

  Live Q&A widget

• Surveys

  Collect post-event feedback on each session to see which topics worked.

  Event survey software