Front & Center - Information and Events from the Georgia International Convention Center

4 Fun Ways to Foster Connections at Your Event

Connecting with others is a basic human need, and an event filled with like-minded people is a natural setting to satisfy that need. As a planner, it's up to you to make the networking magic happen. Throw in one of these icebreaker ideas and your guests will be fostering connections in no time.

Here are five of the top amenities available to your group when you choose the GICC

  1. Name Tag Switcharoo
    Give each person a name tag with another attendee's name on it and then challenge them find their name tag by wandering the room and networking. When they find the person with their name tag, they have to answer 3 ice breaker questions before they get to have it back. This game guarantees that each guest will be connected to two people right off the bat! However, it can be challenging for large groups, so we recommend trying this one on a smaller group.

  2. Human Bingo
    Provide attendees with a bingo sheet, with each square being a quality. This can be anything from "blue-eyed male" to "afraid of clowns." The bigger the event, the more challenging the squares should be. Consider giving a prize to the first attendee to get bingo and to each guest to get bingo within a period of time.

  3. 5-Minute Handshake
    Even if your guests are already great at mingling, they may not really be connecting. Focus on developing the quality of connections rather than sheer quantity by organizing timed

  4. 5-minute meetings.
    (Think: speed dating for networking!) Challenge the pairs to find 3 things they have in common and write them on their business cards. No matter how many more people guests meet throughout the event, they will always be able to go back to that person's business card and recall what connected them. 4. Crazy Job Interview Have guests write down 3 jobs and 3 qualities/traits on separate slips of paper. Put all the slips into a bowl and let each person pull out 3 jobs and 3 qualities. Next have everyone "interview" for an imaginary job, but they can only use the jobs and qualities they have on the paper!

No matter the event, attendees are more likely to make memories when they are making new connections. Help them loosen up with one of these icebreaker and the connections will foster themselves.

Have more ice breaker ideas? Tell us on Twitter at @TheGICC.