Types of Game/Activities for events
The best way to engage a virtual or physical audience at any event are engagement activities or games. What kind of games are there out there? I have simply listed 5 different types based on the number of people involved so that any layperson can understand. Read on to see what they are..
Types of Game/Activities for events
One of the key factors why I am a successful emcee is that I am able to develop a strong rapport with the audience almost immediately. This stems from the way I am able to communicate with them on a personal level and the way I am able to engage them with various stage activities and games. In fact, I have various testimonials from clients and repeat clients alike on how I take events from good to amazing because I can engage and energize the audience with these activities. That’s right, you heard me. Emcee Cyril’s USP is simply games. Games/activities that will ra ra and energize the audience. Games that have guests laughing their heads off and enjoying the event. Games that can be the lifeblood of every event, virtual or physical. So, I am definitely a subject matter expert when it comes to games/activities for events. My aim for writing this article is to best advise and describe to would be emcees, event clients or any layperson out there the various type of games/activities available. There are many kinds and types of audience engagement/interactive activities known as different things to different people. For example, ice breakers, mass activities, networking activities, team building games are some. To me, they are all simply games dressed up to suit different concepts and audiences. So, for the basis of this article, I will describe all these activities as games and break them up in terms of the number of persons the games revolve around. INDIVIDUAL GAMES These are games where you will pick a sample of individuals and pit them against one another. For example, an emcee will pick like 5 volunteers from the audience and invite them to stage. On a virtual setting, we will pin the 5 individuals to the main screen on the virtual platform. This is an individual game because we will then get each to perform a simple activity and gauge who does it best. This simple activity could be a dance, it could even be who has the longest breath, etc.. For this, you could award a better token as a prize to the best performer. However, there were instances where I awarded good tokens to all the participants as they were all really participative and performed well. COUPLE GAMES For these games, you would need 2 partners to form a team and compete against other couples. Some of these games work better when it’s a one boy one girl couple because the activity revolves around the boy serenading the girl or it could be how well the boy girl couple knows each other as in wedding games. However, some couple games could just be 2 individuals working together as partners to complete a certain objective like a 3 legged race (2 participants with one leg each tied together for a race). GROUP GAMES Group games are named so because they basically pit a group of people against another group. In essence, couple and table games are group games. So, you could have a group of 5 against another group of 5. Telematch games at family day events are group games. You could have a series of group games where you total scores for all the games and give out prizes to the ultimate winner. TABLE GAMES Table games are games that involve the entire table of 10 persons normally working together to complete a task. Table games are normally key especially for D & Ds (Dinner and Dance -company staff dinner event) where round tables are arranged with 10 pax each. This could be a game like scavenger hunt where the entire table would help to look and provide the scavenger items listed by the emcee. Or it could also mean just selecting one person to represent the entire table to compete against reps of other tables. Just be clear that whichever way it is, the prize/token given for the winning table is normally for 10 pax. (10 tokens) MASS GAMES This as the name suggests is a mass activity that engages the entire audience. This could be used at the beginning of the event like an ice breaker activity or used at the end to end the event on a high. An example of a mass game is a mass dance activity where you get the entire audience to stand up and dance along to a popular song like ‘YMCA’ or ‘Gangnam Style’. And if it’s a huge audience, there are no prizes to be awarded unless the event committee has enough budget to do so. I hope this article gives you an understanding of the different types of games out there. My way of describing games by way of the number of pax involved is just one simple way so that any layperson would understand. This would facilitate discussions and briefings so that clients, event staff and all support staff can be on the same page. There are some that state that you should never play games at C-level or C-suite events. However, I beg to differ. It is all just concepts and terminology. A D and D (Dinner and Dance -company staff dinner event) game can easily be a networking activity amongst C-level executives if it is pitched in the right manner by the emcee. Should you, after reading this article, feel like you need an emcee who is an expert on games and activities to engage your audience at your virtual event or live event… If you need an emcee who will take your live or virtual event from good to amazing, reach out to Emcee Cyril @ www.emceecyril.com … you definitely wont regret it!!