Corporate events have so many wonderful traditional elements, but information-packed session after information-packed session can leave attendees tired and drained. Breaking those sessions up with a game or two helps revive flagging attention spans. Add some of these games for corporate events to your content schedule to boost engagement and help attendees get more out of your sessions.

What Roles Do Games Play at Corporate Events?

Corporate event games aren’t just for fun. While they tend to be entertaining, these activities have other important roles to play at corporate events. In fact, games for corporate events rarely play just one role. They play a variety, depending on the type of event and its purpose.

Icebreakers: Getting people together at an event can result in a little initial awkwardness when those people don’t know one another well. Icebreaker games are played at the start of an event or session. They’re designed to help people get over those awkward feelings and get ready for what the event has in store. Many icebreaker games can be modified for networking sessions or team building.

Team-building: Team building activities require collaboration, knowledge-sharing, and teamwork. They have an element of competition that enhances motivation and engagement. They:

• Facilitate trust and respect among coworkers
• Improve communication
• Help strengthen professional relationships

Teaching skills and lessons: Many corporate event games are designed to teach skills or life lessons that help people boost their performance in the workplace. For instance, some corporate team building games help people collaborate and communicate more effectively. Other games may focus on fostering qualities such as leadership, creative thinking, or self-reliance.

Boosting morale: Sometimes corporate event games aren’t for teaching skills or lessons or for encouraging teamwork. While many corporate event games are work-oriented, sometimes they’re just about fun. For instance, office party games add entertainment with no other goal than to show employee appreciation, boost morale, and help people have a good time.

Increasing engagement: While most corporate event games fall into one of the above categories, there’s a bonus benefit they all provide: Getting attendees to actively participate in games and activities increases their engagement. This makes them more alert, focused, and receptive to other event content and messaging.

These effects don’t stop when the event does, either. People carry what they learn—and the relationships they build—into their professional lives after the event is over.

5 Ideas for Corporate Event Games

Team building exercises and networking activities have specific goals in mind. Corporate event games are more about having fun and boosting engagement. These games and activities invite people to take part in the event, rather than just listening. This gets people more engaged in what’s going on, which both increases their enjoyment and helps them retain more information.

1. Toss the Mic

Use a Catchbox (or any other throwable microphone) for this rapid-fire question game. You’ll also need a list of prepared questions. You can use professionally oriented questions or go for more general questions. For inspiration, check out sites such as QuizBreaker and Opinion Stage.

To play Toss the Mic, a moderator asks a question from your list, then tosses the mic to a random person. That person must answer the question and then throw the mic, either to another person or back to the moderator. For each question, have three to five group members answer before moving on to the next question.

2. Trivia Games

Trivia games are perfect for encouraging audience participation. Most people love the chance to show off the random or obscure facts they know. There are many ways to incorporate trivia questions into corporate events and sessions, even including virtual trivia options. You can opt for trivia questions that are related to the sessions you’re holding or go for general-knowledge questions if that works better for your event theme.

• Simple trivia: Prepare a list of questions and answers, and use this as the basis of a trivia game. For instance, you can pick audience members at random to answer questions or present the questions on slides so everyone can see them. This option is easy, free, and requires no special equipment or software.
• Trivia apps: There are several online apps and websites you can use to host a more sophisticated version of a trivia game. With these, your audience uses their phone or other device to read and answer questions. The advantage with trivia apps is that everyone who participates can be added to a leaderboard. For many people, the chance to appear at the top can be a great motivator.
• Elimination trivia: Raise the stakes on your trivia game by eliminating people as they answer questions incorrectly. Award a prize to the last person standing!

3. Scavenger Hunt

Scavenger hunts ask players to complete a series of challenges such as collecting items, taking photos, or visiting points of interest at a particular location. Virtual scavenger hunts work along similar lines, but rather than having people visit physical locations, they hunt online for the game’s objectives. Apps such as Scavify® let you create your own customized scavenger hunt list. You can include locations, photo challenges, questions, and other objectives.

These types of games can work as either solo or group-based activities. Group scavenger hunts are particularly effective as team-building activities, especially when clues have a riddle or puzzle element that needs to be solved before each item can be “collected.”

4. Trade Show Scavenger Hunt

This scavenger hunt variation can be used to encourage trade show attendees to visit a wide range of booths at the show. Attendees each receive a “passport” that they must present at various trade show exhibits to have stamped. Players who fill their passport are entered into a prize drawing at the end of the show.

There are also virtual variations that attendees can play on their own phones or within the virtual event platform that’s hosting the show. It works in a similar fashion to the live version but has attendees visit virtual booths to receive their passport stamps.

5. Who’s Got the Golden Tickets?

For a seated live event, make up several “Golden Tickets,” and tape one ticket underneath random audience chairs. During the session, ask the audience to check under their chairs for the tickets.

You have a couple options for distributing prizes. You could award prizes outright to ticket-holders or add a twist by inviting each person on stage to spin a prize wheel.

Games for Corporate Events Boost Engagement and Add Value

Low audience engagement can leave your event guests feeling lethargic and uninspired. This often means they gain less benefit from the event they’re attending. By sprinkling a few games into corporate events like meetings and general sessions, you give your audience a chance to participate in the proceedings. This boosts their engagement, increases their enjoyment, and adds value to your corporate event.