10 Great Reasons to Use a Conference Game
by Ron Kaufman

A well-designed, well-delivered game gets your audience involved with the conference topic and with each other. Here are 10 great reasons to use a conference game in your next special event.

1. Break and Melt the Ice
   Games give everyone the opportunity to break out of traditional roles and express themselves more freely. What a great way to start a conference!
   
   
2. Draw Out Quiet and New Participants
   Games can require everyone to contribute for anyone to achieve success. New or quiet participants quickly become valued members of the group.
   
   
3. Reveal Hidden Issues
   What isn't seen, discussed or understood in "real life" can come screaming to the surface through a well-designed conference game. Expert processing then helps participants recognize the real issues and the implications.
   
   
4. Reveal Hidden Talents
   Who knows what skills and talents lie just below the surface of your colleagues? Game conditions can set people loose to invent, create, design, negotiate, set targets, take bold actions and succeed.
   
   
5. Generate a Mood of Energy and Enjoyment
   Conference games let people have some fun. A good game can deliver key learning points with involvement, excitement and entertainment. A great way to launch your program, or wrap-up the entire event.
   
   
6. Establish a Reference Point. Introduce a Lasting Metaphor
   People refer to effective conference games for years. Let the activity and insights from your conference become an anchor for group understanding.
   
   
7. Highlight a Specific Theme
   Whether your focus is teamwork, leadership, customer service, competition, motivation or innovation, an effectively designed game can bring that theme to "top of mind" and keep it there throughout your event.
   
   
8. Gather New Ideas
   Games put participants in a totally different perspective. All kinds of new ideas and insights tend to grow. The best ideas can be pursued long after your conference is over.
   
   
9. Game Solutions Can Become Work Solutions
   What succeeds in a game can sometimes succeed in the real-world, too. Lessons learned in conference games can be useful throughout the year.
   
   
10. Games Add Energy to the Mix
    Every conference should boast a mix of interactive methods and techniques: speeches, workshops, exhibitions, demonstrations, meals, social gatherings, multi-media presentations. And, in the right situations, effective and entertaining Conference Games.

Copyright, Ron Kaufman.