Mingle-mingle (in person)

Use this light-hearted strategy to foster connections between participants and encourage them to share their background knowledge and interest in the workshop.

Suggested procedure:

• Ask everyone in the room to stand up and move randomly around the room mumbling out loud, 鈥淢ingle, mingle.鈥� Some participants may find mumbling distracting or overwhelming, so you may choose to play soft music as an alternative. Remind participants that they can also choose to stay seated and have others visit them during the activity.
• Give participants 3 - 5 seconds to get sufficiently mixed up and then use a signal to have them stop moving (e.g., toy horn, whistle, hand claps).
• Prompt participants to turn to the people they鈥檙e standing closest to, introduce themselves, and answer a question you鈥檝e posted on chart paper or a PowerPoint slide. Example questions include:
  • Why did you decide to take this workshop?
  • What are three things you know about the topic?
  • What is one experience you鈥檝e had that relates to this topic?
  • What do you want to know how to do when the workshop is over?
• Give them a minute or more to chat, depending on the questions, and then repeat the activity using a different question.
• Repeat the activity three or four times so that participants have a chance to meet at least three or four other people.

Example:

At a speakers鈥� workshop, participants might mumble 鈥淣etwork, network,鈥� as they walk around the room. The questions they might be asked to respond to are: 鈥淲hat was the most inspirational speech you鈥檝e ever heard?鈥�, 鈥淲hat are three things that make a speech work for you?鈥�, and 鈥淲hat is the one thing you would like to know how to do better as a speaker?鈥�

People hunt (in person)

Use this strategy to encourage participants to meet one another and learn about their shared perspectives and interests.

Suggested procedure:

• Give each participant a blank piece of paper and a writing utensil. Ask them to fold the paper in half three times, creating a grid of eight squares when unfolded. Participants then fill in each square with responses to prompts you鈥檝e listed on chart paper or on a PowerPoint slide.

• Alternatively, you might choose to prepare worksheets with eight prompts and distribute them at the beginning of the activity.
• Some suggested items to include are:
  • One goal for this workshop.
  • A strength related to this topic.
  • A weakness related to this topic.
  • A famous person who knows this topic well.
  • A doodle representing this topic.
  • A question you have about this topic.
  • A one-liner describing this topic.
  • A favourite movie.
  • A favourite vacation spot.
• After filling in their papers, participants circulate around the room and compare their answers. When they find a person who has a similar answer in any of the boxes, that person writes their name in the box. The goal is to find as many people as possible who have similar answers and to gather as many different signatures as they can in the time allowed.

Example:

In a budgeting workshop, responses to the prompts included: 鈥淚 balance my chequebook every month,鈥� 鈥淚 don鈥檛 have a clue where my money goes,鈥� 鈥淚 know exactly how much I spend on clothes,鈥� 鈥渨hen I want something, I buy it,鈥� 鈥淚 spend every penny I earn,鈥� and 鈥淚 save a little every month for a rainy day.

Walking bingo (in person)

Use this strategy as a variation of People Hunt. It focuses more heavily on content and encourages participants to share their prior knowledge.

Suggested procedure:

• Create 鈥渂ingo cards鈥� using topics that will be covered during the workshop. You may choose to create a few different versions of the bingo cards, either varying the topics or varying the placement of the topics on the card.
• Distribute the bingo cards, giving one to each participant. Ask participants to either walk around the room or to remain seated while others circulate and approach them. Instruct participants to find people who can explain or define one of the items on the card. If they can do so, participants then sign that square on the bingo card, signing the same card only once. The goal is to get a row of signatures.
• Once a participant gets a row of signatures, they yell 鈥渂ingo!鈥� Let the activity progress until a fair number of 鈥渂ingos鈥� have been called. Then, you might choose to give them a round of applause or a little prize related to the topic. Consider asking those who called bingo to quickly define the items verbally for the whole group.

Example:

In a public speaking workshop, the cards could list items such as: active participation, signature stories, metaphors, follow-up, platform skills, closings, non-verbal communication, or group management.

听

Chat waterfall (virtual)

Use this strategy to solicit responses from participants.

Suggested procedure

• Ask an opening question to the group. Tell them to think about their response and type it into the chat, but not to press send/enter right away.
• Give the group some time (30-45 seconds)
• Once time is up, count down from 3, and then tell them to all press send/enter at the same time so that all responses are shared simultaneously, like a waterfall!

Two truths and a lie (in-person and virtual)

Use this strategy to introduce participants to one-another and allow them to get to know each other better.

Suggested procedure

• Ask participants to prepare three statements - two are true and one is a lie.
• In-person: In groups of 3-4, have participants share their statements and the others guess which is the lie.
• Virtual: In breakout rooms, ask participants to share the three prepared statements in random order. Using interactive poll, chat, or raise hand feature, ask participants to guess which is the lie.

Speed networking (in-person or virtual)

Use this icebreaker to solicit specific question prompts from participants, so they can get to know as many as the other participants as possible.

Suggested procedure:

• Provide clear instructors to participants: they will have 30 seconds to introduce themselves (name, pronouns, what they study) and answer a workshop-related question (e.g. what brings you hear today) or an introductory question (i.e. what is your favorite season and why) the facilitator keeps track of time and lets participants know when time is over and time to move to the next person.
• In person: have one line of people sit/stand in place, and the line facing them move one person each time.
• Virtual: Divide workshop participants into breakout rooms of 2-4 people