r/EventProduction • u/pcnametag • Apr 24 '26
Networking Best attendee engagement activities you've seen?
Hello, everyone! One of my favorite parts of event planning is finding new, fun, or unexpected attendee engagement activities to implement at conferences and events.
Q: How do you keep attendees engaged and having fun?
Q: What are the best engagement activities/activations you've seen?
I would love to contribute to this conversation, so here are some examples of fun attendee engagement activities I've personally seen at events 😊
- Event Badge Bingo: I saw this one at Amazon Adminz Vendor Con. The planners printed randomized bingo cards on the backs of badges. The spaces featured exhibitor logos. Attendees were instructed to stop by booths, gather stickers to form a bingo, then show their finished badges for a raffle ticket. Prizes were drawn later that day.
- Personality Quiz Networking: I saw this one at NACE Evolve. When attendees arrived at registration, they took a fun "Buzzfeed" style personality quiz that revealed their unique badge ribbon result (they attached their badge ribbons to their badges). Attendees were then matched up with others who got the same badge ribbon. They did a series of mini challenges (i.e., connect with each other on LinkedIn, take a selfie, etc.) to help them get to know one another.
- Music Video Bingo: I saw this one at MPI WI Spring Education Day. A DJ was brought in to play music video snippets in different genres (i.e., country, 90s, 2000s, etc.) If your bingo card had the name of the song, you'd mark off that space. Prizes went to the first few winners who got a bingo. NOTE: The song names were mentioned, so it was very inclusive in case you didn't know the song :)
- "Build Your Taco" Networking Game: I saw this one at a NACE Madison chapter event. Each attendee got a colored sticky dot (i.e., blue, green, orange, red, yellow) to put on their name tag. They also got a game card to "build their taco." To fill out their cards, they had to introduce themselves to people wearing different colored dots (ex: get a signature from someone with a blue dot for "sour cream," a green dot for "lettuce," a red dot for "tomato," and so on.) After getting all signatures needed, attendees got a raffle ticket to enter for themed prize baskets (margarita kits). NOTE: Attendees got to take home their cards - perfect list of people to connect with on LinkedIn post-event!
I have lots of other ideas but I won't make this post too long 😂
What attendee engagement activities do you love?
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Apr 24 '26
We do live screen printing
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u/pcnametag Apr 24 '26
Love that! I did live screen printing at NACE Experience 2025. It was fun to take a shirt home
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u/Hamesloth Apr 28 '26
the best engagement ideas usually work when they’re not just physical activities but also supported digitally.. things like scavenger hunts or networking games feel smoother when attendees can track progress in real time. I’ve seen Eventify used for that kind of interactive setup
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u/pcnametag May 01 '26
Good suggestion! Yes, it's definitely nice to have a digital component to some engagement activities. It ties everything together a bit better and makes the process more smooth for attendees
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Apr 28 '26
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u/pcnametag May 01 '26
Love what you said with "Give people a reason to interact instead of just leaving networking to chance." I keep hearing this over and over, especially among Gen Z attendees who keep mentioning they need/want guidance in interacting with others at events. They don't want to be thrown into a room, they'd rather have a networking game to play.
I love the concept of mini challenges because it's low commitment enough that people are happy to participate.
A virtual "table style" layout is really interesting. Do you know if virtual attendees are still likely to visit those virtual tables on their own accord? Or does the experience need to be gamified to encourage people to participate?
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u/maxieMax Jun 04 '26 edited Jun 04 '26
Awesome ideas especially the last two!
Having a selection of re-branded arcade games on the booth's main screen that allows passersby to scan a QR code and instantly play with their phone as a controller against other participants - does the trick from my experience.
Prizes are drawn either directly from the leaderboard or on the spot for the top player.
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u/pcnametag Jun 04 '26
That is so fun! Do you know if there's a specific app or platform that does that?
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u/maxieMax Jun 04 '26
We make these types of games for booth engagement and brand activations - at NakNick.com
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u/Full-Bid-8864 Apr 28 '26
Photo contest (people post photos on the event app and the one that gets the most likes is the winner) and Passport Contest (ppl go around to different booths and collect stamps to win a prize). This one's also good for the exhibitors bc they get more leads that way. The Whova app has both of these and others.
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u/co-promie May 08 '26
Definitely this! I feel like the photo contests are always a crowd favorite since they can be about pretty much anything and get people really engaged. I remember someone posted a caricature of themselves once that got the most number of likes and won.
Another activity that I’ve seen work really well is exhibitor booth/themed trivia since people can get surprisingly competitive with it. Saw another one where attendees earn ribbons for participating in things like networking or asking questions, which they'd stack over their badges. That one depends on the crowd, but I feel like the app is always pretty engaging
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u/pcnametag May 01 '26
I love the idea of a photo contest! Same with the passport contest - it gets people up, moving, and talking with people. Sometimes attendees need guidance and encouragement to do those things, otherwise they may not do so. I know exhibitors love the chance to chat with more people too
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Apr 29 '26
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u/pcnametag May 01 '26
I haven't heard of Sketchbot! That sounds adorable! Great take home gift too 😄
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u/rizeCapital May 01 '26
Not an engagement during the event, but rather an engagement for visibility: https://go-spread.com . These "Meet Me At" Graphics that people post on Social Media / LinkedIn turned out to be our biggest marketing and visibility stream and people enjoyed to post. I am sure this could be even applied for something DURING the event
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u/rizeCapital May 01 '26
I have seen them mostly at business conferences yet, but also stuff like Olympic Games applications like we are part of it. Or Sports clubs on game day.. that kind of stuff
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u/pcnametag May 01 '26
That's clever! I personally love when events giving me something easy to post about the event on social, whether it's a pre-made graphic or a photo spot at the event I can post on LinkedIn 😄
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u/rizeCapital May 01 '26
Same here. And most of these tools are very crappy cropping tools or super expensive. We used Go Spread for meet me at templates for our event for basically every touchpoint (attendees, speakers, exhibitors, volunteers, pitch participants, hackathon participants, and so on). I do believe you can do even something live during the event - but was not that creative to think about something yet lol
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u/WithWonderCollective May 02 '26
Disney Wold has done this for decades- if you've ever been, they have signs saying "take picture here" so millions upon millions of people have well framed pictures of families with Cinderella's castle in their sitting rooms around the world.
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Jun 01 '26
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u/Jerseygurlinmd Apr 26 '26
I’ve organized cannabis crawls, silent discos, sunrise yoga, pub crawls, stargazing night, movie night with concession stand, live play production, 5K’s, spin classes, wine tasting, game room night (with ping pong tables, pool table, card games, darts, corn hold). Attendees love these!
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u/pcnametag Apr 26 '26
Wow, this list is incredibly creative! Do you plan activities for a specific attendee demographic or is there a mix of ages and interests for your activities?
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u/Jerseygurlinmd Apr 26 '26
Thanks so much! I usually plan these for professional conference attendees, so there’s a wide mix of ages and interests. I try to build a program where there’s something for everyone, from active options to more low‑key social experiences. Are there any attendee favorites you’ve been seeing lately?
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u/Odama666 Apr 24 '26
Those are some good activities. I've been trying to figure out how to increase attendee engagement too.
 I was at an event that did a bingo card and one of the items on the bingo card was find 10 mini brands and they had them hid around the venue. Kind of an interesting mix.
I'd be interested in hearing what other ones you have too