I'm organising a conference for 250 local authority housing staff.
It has to be informative and fun and has to engage with everyone from the housing assistant to the Director. It is especially important that we reach the front line who work in difficult circumstances and need motivation.
I'm looking for exercises and games that we can use for icebreakers and energisers and also for the plenary sessions, i need game suggestions to get people to mingle and problem solve. The problems we want them to solve will be real - ie case studies to do with housing issues, i just need the games/tools to aid the process.
Thanks
Susan Reid
5 Responses
Conference facilitation
Susan
If you are fairly new to this I’d suggest getting hold of the Large Group Facilitator’s Manual from Gower. It is not cheap but is a useful resource for running large group interventions and conferences.
Graham
Resources
Susan,
I would also suggest taking a look at the following sites for some great energisers/warm-ups/exercises:-
http://www.trainerslibrary.com
http://www.businessballs.com
Have you also googled training exercises for large groups? Google throws up lots of interesting free resources
Good Luck
Kindest regards
Buffy
http://www.rippleeffect.eu
I’m sorry but…
Susan
I’m sorry but I have* to ask a few questions;
-is a 250 person conference actually going to provide any lasting motivation for people who work in difficult circumstances?
-are the delegates, the politicos who hold the purse strings and the council taxpayers going to see this as an expensive jolly rather than a meaningful problem solving event?
-are there more measurably effective, less expensive ways to achive your aims; Action Learning Sets, Virtual Support Teams etc
I’m sorry to be questioning rather than answering
Rus
*it is a personal compulsion, not a right or a responsibility.
This may help
You’ll find a few large group warm-ups etc. here
http://www.firststepstraining.com/resources/activities/archive/activity_large_ice.htm
http://www.firststepstraining.com/resources/activities/archive/activity_large_ice2.htm
and you might find it useful to look at some of the “Open Space” information – works really well with whole organisation/large groups.
http://www.new-paradigm.co.uk/open_space.htm
http://www.openspaceworld.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Space_Technology
A possiblity…
Susan –
I just stumbled across this earlier today. A couple of the icebreakers may work. Try http://www.training-games.com/free-icebreakers.html