Ice Breakers for Your Meetups

Whenever you have a group of strangers coming together for the very first time, it can be tough sometimes to get people relaxed and talking with one another. If you are going to have your first Meetup, or you know a lot of new members are coming to an established Meetup, plan an ice breaker!


Ice breakers can include:


1)Trivia games

Hilary used Dean Trivia questions to get people talking at her DFA meetings, and as a humorous way of giving news about the campaign. A Meetup group related to a television show could use trivia questions about the show's characters or storylines. A pet Meetup group could come up with trivia questions about animals. The possibilities are endless.


2) Strutting your stuff

If your group is a hobby group, do something related to that hobby. Knitters knit. Scrappers scrap. Model Railroaders bring their favorite train cars. Cabbage Patch Kids collectors bring their dolls, dressed for the season. If you can't bring items, consider bringing photos. A travel Meetup group could have a great time sharing photos from recent vacations!


3) News sharing

For writers, this could be information about market reports, and gossip about editors. For political Meetup groups, it would be hard data on how the campaign is going. For a dog Meetup group, it could be news on who is breeding puppies, or a local animal rescue operation. For a TV show, gossip or speculation about upcoming episodes, or about the stars.


4) Party games

Michael Phipps suggests offering a door prize for those who RSVP and attend:

I thought this is a great idea, but I'd hate to have to fork out for door prizes each month to get people along, so I approached a business that is relevant to our particular group and asked if they could make a donation for a door prize, in return for a bit of advertising in my emails out to the group. The answer was an astounding yes - here's 2 books!

Talia K suggested this story game:

One thing we did to try and help tie all the tables together is we started a "One Line Story", where one person writes a line & then passes the story on for the next person to add to. Everyone got really into it and it seemed to be a hit. When it was all done we gathered everyone together and had one member read it out loud.

Anita Rowland of the Seattle Webloggers suggested the Question Box game:

Have little numbered boxes and inside the box is a few little toys and a piece of paper with questions on it. You ask your neighbors their name, something about their interest in the topic, and the questions in the box. The questions could be a short list of binary choices (salt or pepper? cats or dogs? One local neighborhood vs another?), or a quick response, or a small task. Those who gave the most amusing or amazing responses got special gag prizes.

5) Challenges or competitions

One month, the Twin Cities SF Writer Meetup Group challenged each other to see if they all could submit one story to a local magazine that just opened for submissions. A Social Action Meetup group could get people to sign up for a river cleanup, or an MS Bike-a-thon. A sports-oriented Meetup group could plan a group trip. A Moms Meetup group could adopt a less fortunate family and collect clothes, toys and baby gear in excellent condition for them.

In other words, use your imagination and come up with something that will spark the interest and passion of the members of your Meetup group. Have more ideas for icebreakers? Share your icebreaker ideas in our Organizer's Forum!

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