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Games for Meeting People

Whether it's a convention, a meeting, a singles' activity or the first day of school, being in a room full of people you don't know can be awkward and uncomfortable. With some people, meeting new people comes naturally, but others may need some prompting, which can be done through icebreaker games and activities.

Signature Bingo
- Create a bingo card grid on the floor with masking tape. Create 24-inch "description cards" on poster board and place them in the square in lieu of numbers (the middle square is a free space). Description card examples include "people who wear glasses," "people who own pets" and "people who love jazz." Each participant is given a marker with a symbol on it. When the game starts, participants must engage in discussions with one another. If a player finds someone who owns pets, for example, he must collect her signature on one of his markers and then place it in the corresponding square (people who own pets) on the grid on the floor. The first person to get five squares in a row is the winner.
Name Tag Elimination Game
- This game works well for large groups. In turn, each participant stands up and introduces herself by her first name along with an adjective that begins with the same letter, such as Affable Alice, Sarcastic Sam, Fabulous Frank or Jolly Jennifer. Each player has 10 seconds and cannot repeat an adjective that's already been used or they are out of the game. Last player remaining is the winner.
Listen and Tell
- Each participant must engage the person on his left and the person on his right in conversation and obtain three pieces of information about them, such as life goals, regrets, pet peeves, countries they'd like to visit and favorite sports team. One at a time, each participant is called upon to come to the front of the group and introduce one of those people to the rest of the group using the information she obtained.
Name Tag Matchmaker
- Each player is given four 5-by-7-inch name tags and writes his name in the center of all four tags. On the first name tag, he should add four things he would like to do someday and then put on the tag. He then mingles silently taking note of the info on the others' tags. When time is up, he is to find one or two people who are most like him and engage in a conversation for a few minutes. The three remaining name tags should include four favorite singers or groups, four favorite movies and four adjectives that describe you. Repeat the process for those name tags.

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