Ice Breaker Ideas
Ice breakers are an important part of any social event. They do more than just help your guests get to know one another better, they set the tone, and make things just that little bit more relaxed.At Events by Knight we know that most people would prefer not to take the first step when making themselves known to others. Whether that’s just good old British reserve or a fear of saying the wrong thing, who knows, but great ice breakers can create friendships, business partnerships, even long term relationships. (And it beats talking about the weather).So… where do you start? What’s appropriate and what’s not? Don’t worry – put your mind at ease with our 25 ice breaker ideas for a more engaged event.
1. Meet and Greet
One of the most obvious ice breaker ideas is the meet and greet. If you’re hosting the kind of event where people tend to know each other, mix it up a bit. Buy a variety of chocolate bars, place them in a bag and ask each person to pick one out of the bag when they arrive at the event. A bit like a Lucky Dip! Then tell them to sit with people who have the same chocolate bar.
2. Swap Name Tags
An easy way of getting your guests to talk to people they may not have done before. Give your guests the wrong name tag and get them to find the person who has theirs – but they can only get their name tag back by asking three questions.
3. Graffiti Wall – Get to Know You
Ask guests to write a word or draw a picture on a virtual graffiti wall. Then give them a minute or two for them to explain their picture.
4. Guess Their Job
Get your guests to write their job on a piece of paper and place it in a bowl. Draw out a job and get everyone guess who’s job it is.
5. Who Am I?
Put a name tag of a famous person on everyone’s back and get them to mingle asking ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions to guess who they are.
6. Favourite Things
Give your guests either a blue or a red card and ask them to write down three of their favourite things – a film, a song, a tv programme, perhaps. Then divide everyone up into the red and blue groups, ask everyone to seek out a member of the opposite colour and try to find someone who shares their interest. Conversations will then take place.
7. Collect Business Cards
Give your guests half an hour before the event starts to talk to as many people as possible, lean about them and collect their business card.
8. Things in Common
Give people a piece of paper and challenge them to ask other people questions. When they find they have something in common with someone else, they write that down. One question per person guarantees everyone will end up talking to different people.
9. Gestures
Get your guests into pairs. Without speaking they must explain their job to their partner using gestures only.
10. Toss the Beach Ball
Write a question on each panel of a beach ball. Throw it around your guests with whoever catches it having to answer the question nearest their right (or left) thumb.
11. Five Words
Get your guests to explain what they do in five words or less with a fun penalty for going over word count.
12. Take a Picture
Instruct your guests to take a photo with someone they don’t know and then share it on social media under your event hashtag, or Facebook page.
13. Cartoon Name Tags
Instead of name tags, place a different cartoon or comic character on a blank tag and get each guest to pick one they think best suits them. They can then write their own name underneath and wear the tag. When introducing themselves to others, this will create conversation as to why your new contact thinks they’re Mickey Mouse, or Peppa Pig etc.
14. Jigsaw Puzzle
Get a jigsaw puzzle with roughly as many pieces as the number of guests (any extra pieces can be left on a table), give each guest a puzzle piece and get everybody to work together to solve the puzzle.
15. Speed Meeting
Based on the concept of speed dating, speed meeting gets your guests talking to a large number of people in a limited time.
16. Two Truths and a Lie
Get your guests to tell everyone three things about themselves. Two should be true and one a lie. Can anyone guess which is fact is false?
17. Scavenger Hunt
You could relate this to your theme or just keep it random. Ask your guests to find and photograph objects on a list given to them, or just perhaps “Items that start with the letter…”
18. Charades
One of the most popular ice breaker ideas is Charades, sure to get people laughing, act out a film title, song or book.
19. Song Scramble
Write down the lyrics to well-known songs and then cut them into strips, jumble them
20. Tell a Story
One person starts the story off. When a buzzer goes off the next person must continue it.
21. Object Stories
As with ‘Tell a Story’ but each storyteller must pull an object out of a bag and incorporate it into their story before the buzzer goes.
22. That was the Year
Provide everyone with a coin and ask them to talk about a significant event which happened in that year.
23. Find Your Match
Think of well-known duos or pairings (Batman and Robin) (Fish and Chips). Place one on the back of each guest and get them to find their other half.
24. Where in the World?
Place a large world map on a wall and give each guest three markers, yellow, black and blue, for example. Ask them to place their yellow marker where they were born, the black marker where they live now and the blue marker where they would like to travel to. Then get them to talk about their choices.
25. Birthday Line Up
Give your guests five minutes organise themselves by date of birth – Jan 1st to December 31st without speaking or writing. They must figure out everyone’s birthday by charades or quick thinking and then line up in order.These are just a few of the many, many ice breaker ideas that will liven up your event and get everyone loosened up.
Get In Touch
Need some help with your event planning? Not sure where to start? Get in touch with our dedicated team who will be able to chat things over with you.
Email: info@eventsbyknight.co.uk or call +44(0)20 3130 4040