Posts Tagged ‘party icebreaker’

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Don't you just love it when the kids go back to school and we are all returning to work after the long summer holidays and the Christmas offers start pouring in - Christmas cards and Xmas gifts; Christmas parties; Christmas travel; party venues; Christmas food (the supermarkets have already stocked up) etc. etc. In fact we have just bought chocolate coins for our treasure hunts from the local supermarket.

Uggh.. I find it really annoying.. corporate Christmas stuff has been coming through the post for months even before summer. Me, I want to linger with the fine summer days for as long as possible. I don't want to think about Christmas now when there's 3 months to go!

This year we've been innundated with corporate Christmas stuff well before the summer holidays: "Get your corporate parties booked before it's too late." "Limited space available - book your venues now!"

If you want to avoid the ostentatious corporate Christmas party scene you might consider running one yourself in your offices or local pub. Rope a few friends in to help you and have an evening of traditional party games and ice breakers. Nothing beats traditional games for good wholesome fun!

Develop team spirit by asking each person to bring an icebreaker game or party game so you don't have to do it all yourself. Think:

• Pin the tail on the donkey
• Musical chairs
• Charades
• Pass the Parcel
• Secret Santa
• Christmas bingo
• The Chocolate Game
• Forfeits

Most people will know how to play these games - if not be sure to leave a comment and I'll explain or you can go to our web-site ice breaker ideas  where we have hundreds of great ideas for party ice breakers and games. So don't forget the party bags and run a party to remember!

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This morning there was definitely more than a sniff of autumn in the air. The kids are back to school and our attention will turn to closing down the shutters and stocking up on firewood. The onslaught of winter slowly approaches...

This reminds me of one of the best parties I ever attended. I say attended, but actually we jointly threw the party, shared with another company in our dilapidated mansion house set of offices.

Some of you may know of Newton House, Dinefwr Park in Carmarthenshire, West Wales? It is currently in the hands of the National Trust, but not that many moons ago it was privately owned and rented out as offices to local firms. When we started our business 20 years ago it was the only place in the locality where we could find office space to rent. The room was shabby and damp, and the only saving grace was that it was huge and we had the run of the whole place. And as a bonus we had a turret as a storage room!

Reportedly the house had several ghosts. A maid apparently threw herself to her death from our office window ( high second floor) after the mistress of the house discovered her having an affair with her husband. Now the house is subject to many TV programmes and ghost hunts - but I can tell you in the 2 years we worked there when i was often on my own in the whole house - I never heard or saw a single thing. And this is an isolated building, surrounded by parkland and woods. At that time there were no outside lights and even the corridor lights were on a timer, so you would often find yourself feeling your way along the corridor, if you mistimed your trip to the loo!

Anyway back to the party... It was Christmas 1990 and we were chatting to the guy in the office next door one day and somehow agreed to share a Christmas party. With two disparate sets of people we had to come up with some ice breaker ideas to get this party to work.

Being in the events and team building business it didn't take long to realise that our spooky, collapsing mansion would be the perfect setting for a murder mystery type ice breaker game. We had the run of the whole building, including dark, rotting cellars and star-gazing rooftop. We started to get excited about the possibilities.

Quickly we had drawn up a plan of the whole house and committed it to a big board, a bit like a Cluedo board. When guests arrived they were split into teams and we played the board game, shaking the dice and moving from room to room. Each time teams landed on a room they set off with flashlights to visit the room in the house. The house was in darkness and at its nighmarish best. Teams gingerly entered rooms to find hidden clues and chilling audio greetings added by our media friends next door.

What fun a hoot! Everyone absolutely loved this ice breaker game and didn't want it to end. It was meant to be a party icebreaker to get people interacting and having fun, but it became the whole focus of the evening and has been talked about ever since. It was quite simply one of the best parties ever! And it's a game we have since used for many of our corporate events and private parties ever since.

If this story has inspired you, you may want to visit our web-site to find more creative ice breaker ideas and games for your parties, events, reunions, team meetings and social and work functions. If you are also interested in running this game for yourself for Christmas or Halloween, or any other time please get in touch or leave me a comment.

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What's a good ice breaker I'm always being asked?

 First we find out who the ice breaker is for; is it  a corporate ice breaker or for a work group? Or is it for a party, youth group or family reunion? Is it for a group who do not know each other at all or a group that know each other a bit?

This is useful to know as you can take more risks with with a group that know each other and even more with groups that know each other well. Play safe with groups that don't know each other at all. An ice breaker is meant to help people relax and get to know each other and should never make people feel uncomfortable.

Once we know about the group we then look at what we're trying to achieve with the ice breaker. You might be looking for quick and easy fun introductions or something related to the topic of the day or something that will not forget!

You will find after a few goes of using ice breakers that they will become second nature and you will soon develop favourites. Particularly ice breakers are ones that can be used for many different types of groups.

A word of warning though; you should never trial your ice breakers on a group without carefully thinking them through. Better still, try them out on your family and friends first!

A good ice breaker therefore, carefully matches your target group, is non-threatening and allows people to have fun together.

A good ice breaker that we use a lot with corporate groups is "Speed Dating" - arrange 2 long row of chairs according to the number of people attending. Have them facing each other so people can sit face to face and get everyone to sit down. Announce that you have a minute each to introduce yourselves. Blow a whistle after each minute and then after each couple have introduced themselves, instruct all participants to move to the seat to the right. Each person will get a new partner to talk to. Carry for as long as you have time or until all introductions have been made.

Learn how to play this fun, fast, ice breaker and hundreds more at ice-breaker-ideas.com

Don't have just an ordinary event - make it memorable with ice breaker games.!

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On Friday we will be enjoying the last few days of the school holidays with friends - we're off to the theatre in Cardiff with friends who have 2 children, similar ages to ours.

Everytime we meet up the kids insist we play an ice breaker game we have played with them since they were small. We know it as "Killer" but you might know it as "Wink Murder" or some other name. It's a great party ice breaker!

They find it so much fun, that even though they are now 13 and 14 years old, we still have to play it. Here's how it goes:

How to Play Killer:

Tear a peice of paper into strips, enough for each person in the room. On one peice write Policeman and on another write Killer. Fold all the strips of paper up and place in a bowl. Pass the bowl round and get each person to take a peice of paper. Without saying anything each person looks at the paper, folds it back up and places back in the bowl.

When asked the policeman reveals themself. The killer keeps quiet. The object of the game is for the policeman to catch the killer before the killer, kills all the players. How does the killer kill all the players? By winking at them!

Everyone is silent during the game apart from the policeman who is the only person who can speak when trying to identify the killer -if they get it wrong the killer has won.

When a player has been winked at by the killer they can let out a blood curdling cry as they slump to the floor or silently crumple! Obviously the killer has to try and wink at people when the policeman is not looking at them and it helps if you sit in a circle!

Give it a go and let me know your favourite ice breaker game.

Don't forget we have hundreds of "killer" ice breaker games and ideas on our web-site and many can be instantly downloadable in formats for youth groups, parties and corporate groups.

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Are your children celebrating a birthday this summer? Our youngest is going to be a teenager tomorrow - the youngest of her friends and the youngest in her school class.

How will she celebrate?

A day on the beach is beckoning - full of teenage fun and lots of games. It's a good job we've got stacks of ice breaker games and team building ideas to choose from, to keep the girls happy.

Although it's our trade - running team building events and ice breaker games for corporate groups, schools and public companies - we find we are always using them for various fundraising events, parties and social gatherings too. Having a stock of ice breaker games to call upon is such a useful resource. You will never be without some form of entertainment and you will always be in demand at parties.

Learn how to keep your kids entertained this summer , whether you're on the beach or at a friend's BBQ. Our instantly downloadable ice breaker games collections are full of fun ideas and a definite must-have this summer.  All 3 collections for corporate groups, parties and youth groups are all interchangeable and work across all groups really well. Check-out our website for great ice breaker ideas.

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Last night we spent a great evening at the local pony club camp where our daughter is in attendance!

The final night BBQ was looking a bit flat without any kind of entertainment or breaking the ice  activities for kids and parents so we offered to bring some of our old fashioned pub type games and a few not so old games - like Spacehoppers!

What fun! The kids went mad for Splat the Rat, Ring the Bull and Giant Jenga - but being an ingenious games master, Phil had the kids playing all sorts of games with the Giant Jenga - at one point there was a giant track of jenga peices around the field with 20 kids carefully balanced on the bricks trying not to fall off. Every time they fell off they went to the back of the queue! Phil kept adding more and more bricks to make the track longer, even up and over jumps!

But the biggest laugh of all was reserved for the Spacehopper Gymkhana - a bending race with 4 spacehoppers and plenty of screaming kids. Well not just kids but parents too!

Just goes to show with a bit of imagination how you can use your ice breaker games in lots of different ways and make sure your parties are always as much fun as they can be!

For more ice breaker ideas and games to make your parties the ultimate place to be check-out our web-site ice-breaker-ideas.com

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At that same business meeting I've been talking about just recently, one of the participants was so enamoured with the ice breaker game that I organized that she decided to play it at her wedding a few weeks later.

So learn how to run a great icebreaker and it will be indispensible at any event - even a wedding!

Check out our latest icebreaker games and ideas at ice-breaker-ideas.com

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A journalist attended the launch party of the Business Club, where I had run a very successful ice breaker just recently. The organizers had said she had been amazed at the impact of this simple ice breaker to get the party started.

Expecting the usual stuffy business meeting with drinks, canapés and a speech and over in about an hour, with a short peice to follow in the local paper; this time she had been amazed.

She was drawn in by the ice breaker game which ended with people sitting in tables with 5 new friends and they eventually had to throw her out with the rest of the group 3 hours later. What followed was a peice eulogizing the benefits of the Club.

So your simple ice breaker game can be a powerful and influential tool. Learn how to run a great ice breaker and you will influence more people than you can imagine...

Find out more at ice-breaker-ideas.com

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Not that long ago I was asked to run an ice breaker game at the launch of the Swansea Foundation - a new business club.

The organizers were keen that The Foundation should have a different kind of ethos - that it should be more of business family - supportive, creative, dynamic and forward thinking and not just another networking group.

They asked me to provide an ice breaker to kick-start the party - a gathering of 40 or so local business people, most of whom did not know each other.

I used one of my favourite ice breakers to get people interacting and getting to know each other. Within 20 minutes everyone was chatting and having fun. The organiser was so pleased with the ice breaker and said it was the perfect introduction. It set the tone of the whole evening - fun,friendly and dynamic.

In fact he said it established an ethos for the rest of the Club's meetings and events as we continued to use ice breakers and interactive games and ideas at every meeting.

The business club is now a thriving and fun filled place with a booming membership and full participation and enthusiasm from members at every event.

Ensure your clubs and meetings are a fun, friendly and a learning place to be by learning how to use ice breaker games. Visit our web-site ice-breaker-ideas.com and we'll show you how.