My favorite conversation starter question
“What’s the shortest gap you’ve ever had between buying a plane ticket and actually boarding the flight?”
This is a great question for meet-and-greets, cocktail parties, and casual events where you have to make small talk with people you don't know well.
Here are a handful of reasons why:
Low-stakes and lighthearted
Not status coded, unlike many small talk questions
Slightly unusual (but not in a weird way)
Makes the other person actually think. They can't just go NPC mode to answer it, like they can with "Where are you from?" or "What do you do for work/fun?"
Tees someone up to tell a story, which is easy and fun
Creates many potential natural conversation branches (the flight, the experience, who they were with, where they went, etc.)
Add it to your small talk question arsenal and deploy it well!