Ice Breakers For Large Groups

It’s important for groups to warm up both physically and mentally before beginning a training session, conference, or other organized activity. Ice breakers get people out of their chairs, put a smile on their faces and help them feel closer to their fellow participants. As a result, they are more inclined to answer questions and participate more fully in the main event. Even big groups of 100 plus people can benefit from well-planned ice breaker activities.

In a 2008 interview with Suite, Professional Trainer and Courseware Developer, Mark Swift, offered the following suggestions for ice breaker activities for groups of 25 or more.

Warm Up Activities

Silent A to Z (10-15 minutes)

This activity works if the participants have name tags or if everyone in the group already knows one another. Have participants stand up and let them know that the following activity must be done in complete silence. Tell them that they will be organizing themselves in alphabetical order, and designate where the As will start and where the Zs will end.

Keep it fun, but insist on complete silence. You can encourage them by making statements like: “Only one group ever has been able to do this on the first try! Let’s see if you guys can be the second!” Once they have finished, inspect their attempt and make any corrections as needed in a lighthearted fashion.

Says Swift, “This activity is especially fun if everyone supposedly already knows each other’s names. There is a lot of jostling and bustling around trying to get themselves in position without the benefit of name tags. It’s a hoot!”

Getting to Know You Activities

Unique Qualities (20-40 minutes)

This exercise focuses on diversity, accomplishments, and interests, and works both for groups who already know each other and those who don’t.

Depending on the size of your group, break the participants up into smaller groups (for 25-50, groups of 4; for 50-100, groups of 5-6; for over 100, groups of 8). In their groups, participants discuss one thing that might make them unique. It may be something extraordinary, or just something out of the ordinary. For example, someone might tell his group that he was a former Olympian. Another might speak 3 languages, own 4 dogs, have 7 children.

Give the groups about 10 minutes to talk about their unique qualities. Warn them as the time ticks down so that no one person usurps the conversation. Call stop, then go around the room asking each group to nominate one person with the most extraordinary story to share with the entire room.

“One pitfall to watch out for,“ warns Swift, “is when someone misunderstands the instructions or is too humble. He or she ends up talking about the whole group instead of the one story, and that takes up too much time.”

Introduction Spiderweb (30 minutes)

Tell your participants that it is their mission to find 3 different people in the entire room that they have something in common with. They can only share a commonality with one other person. For example, if they like skiing, they can only find one other person who also enjoys skiing. They must then find two other people who share two completely different commonalities with them.

Says Swift, “This activity is neat because it starts as a scramble and ends up as camps of people with a commonality-- little pockets of interest around the room.”

When they have found their three people, they can sit down or raise their hands. As a debrief, each person introduces the 3 other people that he had commonalities with. They do not talk about themselves at all. To cut down on time, each person can choose just one other person that she had something in common with. The facilitator can ensure that everyone has a turn by having the person who was talked about speak next, and stepping in as needed.

Ice breakers can be a fantastic way to kick off a conference or event where large groups of people will be expected to interact. They lighten the mood, foster trust, and make participants more willing to fully invest in the activities that follow. Don’t let the size of the group deter you from incorporating a relevant warm-up activity. In subsequent Suite articles, Mark Swift provides more ice breakers for large groups and recommendations for small and medium-sized groups as well.

Large Groups Benefit From Ice Breakers

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