Introduction game to start BarCamp - proposal

[Carin_C]

Hi,

Morena and I had this idea yesterday...

Guessing game

Aim:
- Mingle with people you don’t know
- Talk and listen actively to them (break the ice and get to know them
a bit)
- Use pre-written phrases (no pressure to invent something brilliant)
- Loose the initial fear of speaking in public
- Have fun, be surprised, and learn something new

Setting:
- People are grouped together alphabetically, so they stick less to
their mates and have a hint in memorising the other people’s names
- Best: split into 10 rooms (max 30 people per room), indicating the
alphabet-characters on the outside
- Alternative: Remain in the main room (‘Central line’) with 5-10
people around each table, indicating the alphabet-characters on each
table

Game:
- Each player takes a card from a pile. Each card has different list
of phrases that all start with “I guess that you...”
- The player whose name comes first alphabetically starts the game
(more help with memorising names, by comparing them)
- The player turns to his left neighbour to guess something about him
from the list on his card (so he has to look at, analyse, and talk to
his neighbour), while all the others listen (only one player talks at
the time).
- The neighbour then reveals the real answer (so the whole group gets
to know a bit about him, and can ask about the answer if they’re not
familiar with it – e.g. about an unfamiliar pop group, movie, snack or
app)
- The neighbour or the whole group rates how close to the truth the
player’s guess was (0 = completely wrong, 10 = perfect)
- The game continues (now the neighbour guesses something about HIS
left neighbour, etc.), until time’s up and the player with the best
guesses wins.

Guesses:
Each guess should be about something that’s interesting to know (but
not really important), that we all share (e.g. nothing UK specific),
and that can’t be offensive. Here are some examples:
- I guess that your profession/study is (about): ...
- I guess that you’re from (country/town): ...
- I guess that your BarCamp session will be about: ...
- I guess that your favourite hobby is: ...
- I guess that your favourite place/holiday destination is: ...
- I guess that your favourite gadget is: ...
- I guess that your favourite website/app/software is: ...
- I guess that your favourite cartoon character is: ...
- I guess that your favourite game is: ...
- I guess that your favourite movie is: ...
- I guess that your favourite book/author is: ...
- I guess that your favourite song/group/music is: ...
- I guess that your favourite animal is: ...
- I guess that your favourite (kind of) shop is: ...
- I guess that your favourite food/breakfast/snack/candy/fruit/drink
is: ...

Please add more...

Hope you all like this game? :-)

If so, Tom Morris might be able to print the cards?

If not, please suggest other games that involve people actually
talking to each other.

I thought about games in which each group builds something (e.g. bendy-
balloon figures with marker drawings on top), but the risk is that
only a few people per group will be really active, and nobody really
gets to know (anything about) anybody...

Carin Campanario

[Carin_C]

Hi,

I just read the ‘signatures’ idea (see below) in the other thread, but
don’t really understand how it works - how do you know about the
others’ achievements and recognise them at the venue? And how many
would actually dare to approach others for a signature? If it’s made
easy, I’m willing to try this, because it takes less time and doesn’t
need grouping... :-)

Alistair MacDonald:
The best introduction "thing" I have seen is when people are mulling
before the event are given the challenge of gathering signatures of
people who have achieved something on the list. Appeared on TV, been
married abroad, and speak 3 languages or examples.

Carin

[Kate Reader]

Hi Carin,

The signatures game is the same game I was describing last night at the meeting.  You select some things like "has ridden a camel", "can give me a describe drupal" it's great for big conferences where everyone is arriving at a different time you give everyone the piece of paper with the list on the way in, then everyone has to go around collecting signatures from people who have done these things.  Conversations start because you have to walk up to a stranger and ask them for a definition or if they can name all of the seven dwarfs, or if they have dived on the barrier reef - they usually reply with no but I have... and gradually you fill your card/piece of paper out.

It is completely inclusive for everyone, it has no time limit, no minimum/maximum space to take place in and everyone can start at a different time as they come through the door.

Kate

[Kate Reader]

Oops half asleep - read that back - bad description - you only collect the signatures off the people who can - for instance name all seven dwarfs - you don't have to write down the answers - hence why it's described as collecting signatures.

[Carin_C]

The poor man at King's Cross prevented me from hearing you about this
yesterday... :-(

Sounds like a nice guessing game - you just go up to someone to guess
he's done something specific, right? :-)

Is the list completely made up by the organisers?

On Oct 26, 10:46 am, Kate Reader <kate.rea...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Carin,
>
> The signatures game is the same game I was describing last night at the
> meeting.  You select some things like "has ridden a camel", "can give me a
> describe drupal" it's great for big conferences where everyone is arriving
> at a different time you give everyone the piece of paper with the list on
> the way in, then everyone has to go around collecting signatures from people
> who have done these things.  Conversations start because you have to walk up
> to a stranger and ask them for a definition or if they can name all of the
> seven dwarfs, or if they have dived on the barrier reef - they usually reply
> with no but I have... and gradually you fill your card/piece of paper out.
>
> It is completely inclusive for everyone, it has no time limit, no
> minimum/maximum space to take place in and everyone can start at a different
> time as they come through the door.
>
> Kate
>

[Alistair MacDonald]

Yes the list is completely made up and there is no guarantee all boxes can be signed. To find people to sign the boxes you literally need to ask random people if they can sign any of the boxes. It just heat people mingling and does start conversation. We would presumably want to tailor the list of things to our audience, but it is not hard to implement and works.

Alistair

[Carin_C]

Sounds good. I'm all for it!

On Oct 26, 11:43 am, Alistair MacDonald <alistair.macdon...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Yes the list is completely made up and there is no guarantee all boxes can be signed. To find people to sign the boxes you literally need to ask random people if they can sign any of the boxes. It just heat people mingling and does start conversation. We would presumably want to tailor the list of things to our audience, but it is not hard to implement and works.
>
>   Alistair
>

[Tom Morris]

On Tue, Oct 26, 2010 at 11:43, Alistair MacDonald
<alistair....@gmail.com> wrote:
> Yes the list is completely made up and there is no guarantee all boxes can be signed. To find people to sign the boxes you literally need to ask random people if they can sign any of the boxes. It just heat people mingling and does start conversation. We would presumably want to tailor the list of things to our audience, but it is not hard to implement and works.
>

I've approved you for the wiki.

If people want to draft up questions for the intro game:

http://barcamplondon.heroku.com/projects/bcl8/wiki/Intro_Game_Questions

--
Tom Morris
<http://tommorris.org/>

[Alistair MacDonald]

Cool. I have put in an initial list of questions. 21 questions worked
well in the past for a few dozen people. Although we have more people
we don't have much time to actually do this so I suggest we keep it to
around 21, or whatever fits on the page. Any thoughts?

Alistair