35 Ideas For Conference Activities To Excite Event Attendees

An attendee signs up for a conference expecting to gain new connections on their network, learn actionable insights, and have opportunities for fun skill-building activities. Don’t miss the chance to engage your attendees once they show up at your conference. If you’re an event organizer seeking to increase attendee engagement and keep your audience interested all through your conference, here are some interactive conference activity ideas you can try.  

Interactive Conference Activity Ideas

• Trivia Games

Start your conference session with an icebreaker of trivia questions. Choose trivia questions that are relevant to your audience’s background. Boost audience engagement and test your attendees’ knowledge of the industry, company, pop culture trivia, etc.

• Solve a Problem

Give exercises like a scenario or puzzle that your audience can solve. You can divide attendees into groups for a brainstorming session on the problem. Groups can present their solution and pitches to the whole group for an engaging discussion. 

• Brain Breaks Activities

Amid a packed conference schedule, offering brain break activities can be a refreshing and energizing way to refresh attendees’ minds and bodies. One creative brain break activity is a quick guided meditation session. A skilled facilitator guides attendees through relaxation techniques, deep breathing exercises, and mindfulness practices designed to reduce stress, improve focus, and enhance mental clarity.

• Craft Section

Set up a booth for attendees to create a fun little craft as their souvenir. Engaging in fun crafts can be a therapeutic break and activity, especially for corporate events like a conference. Some craft ideas are badge making, sip, and paint, origami workshop, t-shirt making, etc.

• Create your Fruit Drink

Serve organic and healthy fruit drinks by setting up a DIY fruit drink stand at your conference area. Allow attendees to choose a fruit and place them in a blender as their refreshment. 

• Coffee Bar / Hire a Barista

Give your attendees a caffeine boost by setting up a coffee booth or hiring a barista to serve premium crafted coffee drinks. Nothing says personalized more than giving your attendees an experience of getting a drink that’s thoughtfully crafted for them. 

• DIY Snacks

One creative idea is to set up a trail mix station where participants can customize their snack mixes. Provide an assortment of nuts, dried fruits, seeds, chocolate chips, pretzels, and other tasty toppings, along with scoops and containers. Attendees can mix and match their favorite ingredients to create personalized trail mixes that cater to their preferences and dietary restrictions. 

• Guess My Job

Another fun icebreaker activity is a fun game of Guess My Job. You can divide your attendees into groups and initiate a game where they can guess each other’s jobs. Make it exciting by adding clues or additional questions. 

• Bring Me

A classic party game works for a conference too. Offer exciting prizes to get your attendees to participate. Ask attendees to bring items related to their industry or profession. For example, a branded pen, swag bag, company’s marketing material, etc.

• Relay Games

Whether it’s passing a baton building something, solving a puzzle, or finishing an obstacle course relay game energizes participants because of its time-bound nature. 

• Interactive Show/ Performance

Include an interactive show or performance on your event program to get attendees’ attention. Hire singers, artists, or performers to render a performance or show that can complement your event. 

• Scavenger Hunt

Gamify your conference by hiding “easter eggs” that your participants can look for. Hide materials that are related to your topic. For example, if the topic of the conference is increasing sales, you can hide play money all over your conference venue. 

• Note Sharing Activity

encourage attendees to take notes and share their insights. People learn best from people so being able to share notes can be a way to make new friends and learn from one another. 

• Video Making Contest

Make content from your conference by asking participants to shoot their short video from your conference. Give prompts or criteria on video ideas they can do. You can use this content as social media promotions about your event.

• Ted Talk Segment for Participants

Present a TED talk material related to your conference topic for your participants to watch. Divide them into breakout groups to discuss and analyze the talk together. Additionally, you can engage your audience by giving them the mic and presenting a topic, Ted talk style.

• Virtual Reality Game

Bring a unique and engaging experience through a virtual reality booth at the conference location. Design a game or series of challenges with the help of a virtual reality program. For example, if the conference focuses on innovation, the VR challenges could involve problem-solving in futuristic scenarios or navigating through virtual representations of cutting-edge technology. Participants can compete individually or in teams, and you can track scores or progress to add a competitive element. 

• Booth Pop-ups

Bring your conference venue to life by opening spaces for booth setups. You can invite your conference sponsors to sell their products and services or set up an informational booth to display and bring awareness to their business. 

Alternatively, you can also make an invitation for people who are interested to rent a space and set up their booth like games or snacks for additional revenue for your business. 

• Event Seating Activities

The different potential event seating and layouts can be used to shake things up for your conference. For example, conference organizers can introduce different seating arrangements to encourage participants to mingle with each other. 

One approach is to use themed seating, where tables are designated based on interests or industry sectors, prompting attendees to join tables aligned with their preferences. 

• Selling of Items / Auction

Incorporating a selling or auction segment into conferences adds an exciting dimension to the event, providing attendees with the opportunity to discover unique products or services while supporting worthy causes or businesses. Conference planners can partner with non-profit organizations for a win-win event partnership.

• Fundraising Activities

Conferences can also be an effective avenue for Raising funds for a charity or nonprofit. Conferences attract specific niches or target audiences making it easier to know what type of nonprofit your organization can collaborate with. 

• Short Exercise Routine

Short exercises can help boost attendees’ mood and focus. Jumping jacks, yoga, Zumba session or a stretching session can go a long way for your attendees especially if your conference event lasts the whole day 

• Escape Room Challenge

Take engagement to a different level by preparing obstacles and puzzles related to your topic. Participants can enhance their problem-solving skills and teamwork as they work together with fellow participants. 

• Personal Discovery Tests

Understanding one’s self is important to excel in your chosen career paths. Discovering your personality tests can be through the Myers-Brigg personality, enneagram, strengths finder, and more. Conference attendees will appreciate how personalized their experience with you is and will most likely remember your conference. These tests can also spark conversations among participants and encourage networking with one another. 

• Team Oriented Workshops

Invest in an expert or instructor to impart hands-on and practical skills to your conference participants. To make it more efficient and interactive you can model the workshops in such a way that they need to collaborate with their teammates.

• Counterpoint/ Debate Practice

Counterpoint or debate practice sessions offer attendees the opportunity to hone their persuasive communication skills and engage in lively intellectual exchanges on relevant topics or issues. Before starting the session, it is helpful for hosts to set up ground rules, provide training, and create a safe space for attendees to participate. 

• Agree or Disagree Spectrum Activity

Inspired by the popular game show format seen on media company Jubilee, this conference activity offers an engaging way to gauge the opinions and stances of attendees on various topics. Here’s how it works: The host presents a statement, such as “Virtual events are better than in-person events,” and participants move to designated areas labeled “Strongly Agree,” “Agree,” “Disagree,” or “Strongly Disagree” to indicate their stance. 

This interactive setup encourages attendees to express their viewpoints openly and facilitates discussions on differing perspectives, fostering a dynamic exchange of ideas within the conference community.

• Defend your Favorite

Prepare an intellectually stimulating conference activity by pushing your participants to think of ways to defend something. Whether it’s their favorite movie, book, or even a controversial issue, and participants prepare to defend their stance in a friendly debate format. 

• Werewolf/ Mafia

Add a sense of mystery and thrill to your conference. Gamify your activity with a game like Werewolf or Mafia. The game typically begins with players secretly assigned roles as either villagers or members of the mafia (or werewolves). 

As night falls, the mafia chooses a victim to eliminate, while other roles may use their abilities to gather information or protect themselves. In the daytime, players must discuss and deliberate, attempting to identify the mafia members among them through careful observation, intuition, and persuasive argumentation. Through a series of tense accusations and counter-accusations, the group votes to eliminate a player they suspect to be part of the mafia.

• Spyfall

Similar to the game of Werewolf, Spyfall is a game that assigns secret roles as spies or innocent bystanders, with the catch being that no one knows who is who. Through cunning questions and subtle clues, participants must navigate through the ambiguity to uncover the spies among them, fostering communication skills and camaraderie in an atmosphere of secrecy and suspicion.

• Speed Chats

Think of speed dating but make it in a conference setting. Breaking the ice through rapid conversations helps build relationships among participants. Participants rotate through quick, timed exchanges, engaging in lively discussions on various topics. With each interaction, attendees broaden their professional network and exchange valuable insights, making every minute count in this fast-paced and engaging experience.

• Give Incentives / Gamification

Get your attendees excited to participate in your conference activities by giving incentives to them. Turn your conference program into one big game by incorporating rewards and incentives into conference activities. Whether through points, badges, or prizes, gamification adds a competitive edge to proceedings, inspiring attendees to push their limits and strive for success while enhancing engagement and enthusiasm throughout the event.

• Breakout sessions

The learnings become more meaningful when there is an exchange and discourse among participants. Include breakout sessions for group discussions throughout the conference so attendees can share their insights and learn from one another. 

• Social Wall/ Freedom Wall

A sense of community is nurtured when participants are given a safe space to express their thoughts and feelings and listen to others. A freedom wall or social wall can be an inclusive activity where participants can give their opinions on certain topics and read what others are thinking. 

Alternatively, event organizers can create a letter wall with an envelope of all conference attendees’ names. Fellow participants can write a letter of appreciation to one another or exchange calling cards by dropping it on their envelope

• Pair up and Market your Partner

Embrace the power of collaboration and creativity with Pair Up and Market Your Partner, a collaborative activity that challenges attendees to showcase each other’s strengths and talents. Participants pair up and work together to create compelling pitches or presentations highlighting their partner’s skills, expertise, and accomplishments. 

Through this exercise, attendees strengthen their bonds with their partners and gain valuable insights into effective marketing strategies and storytelling techniques, fostering teamwork and mutual support.

• Giveaways / Raffles 

Finally, who doesn’t love cool prizes and raffles? Collect the names of attendees at the beginning of the event or through the event registration forms. After the event, hosts can randomly select a name to give a prize to. 

For prizes, event organizers can allocate a budget or use in-kind donations from your sponsors. 

Best Practices for Hosting Conferences

Utilize Technology

Maximize the potential of your conference by making the most out of the technology available today. Here are some tools that you will need when you organize your conference:

Event Smart – Event Registration and Ticketing

Zapier – Integration for sites

Meta – Ad Buying

Google Ads – Analytic Tools

Salesforce – Customer Relationship Management

Slido – Audience Interaction Tool

Consider Logistics

Venue, audio-visual production, speakers, and transportation are very important aspects of the event that tend to be taken for granted easily. Without smooth logistics operations and strategy, the event can end up in a disaster.

Think of Networking Opportunities

Conference participants are looking forward to opportunities to network and meet people from their industry. Include the interactive conference session ideas mentioned above throughout your conference program or breaks.

Gather Feedback and Documentation

Be proactive in creating a memorable conference experience for your audience members. Actively hand out surveys and feedback from your attendees to know what to improve on. 

Additionally, establishing comprehensive documentation practices, such as capturing session recordings, compiling speaker presentations, and documenting key takeaways, ensures that valuable content and insights are preserved for reference and dissemination long after the event concludes. 

Engage your Speakers and Vendors

Think about the conference experience for your speakers and vendors to create a memorable conference for everyone. Providing speakers with opportunities for pre-event collaboration, such as brainstorming sessions or content reviews, not only enhances the quality of presentations but also demonstrates appreciation for their expertise and contributions. 

Similarly, involving vendors in the conference planning process, such as soliciting input on exhibition layouts or offering sponsorship opportunities that align with their objectives, fosters a sense of partnership and investment in the event’s success. 

Organize Conferences with Event Smart

We hope these interactive conference session ideas have been a help in your conference planning. Start planning for profitable conferences with the use of a reliable and affordable event registration tool like Event Smart. Unlike other ticketing platforms, Event Smart has the lowest fees because it does not charge any commission fees on an unlimited number of tickets sold. 

Event planners can easily create customized experiences because of Event Smart’s customizable registration forms. Furthermore, Event Smart supports different secure payment gateways so planners can get their funds immediately. 

If you’re planning to start a conference for your business or client, it’s time to check what Event Snart can do for you. Get our no-commitment 14-day free trial now.