Is your “fun” activity actually a test?

What happens when your “fun audience activity” makes people wish they’d picked a different table?

You wanted participation. They’re hoping you won’t call their name.

At The Engaging Retreat in 2025, Hall of Fame speaker Brian Walter showed how thoughtful game design can change that experience. His opening game invited people in the room and online to compete. Recognition was the prize.

Here are three lessons from his session you can use in your next program:

1. Give the game a job.

Before choosing an activity, Brian asks why use a game, why this game, and why at this point in the program.

Maybe you need people to reconsider an assumption. Maybe you need a sleepy group to connect after lunch. Those are different jobs.

Here’s my suggestion: finish this sentence before building your next activity:

After this, participants will be able to ______.

If you can’t complete it, the game needs a clearer purpose. Even a fantastic buzzer can’t do your planning for you.

2. Make getting it wrong feel okay.

Brian distinguishes a game from a test. A question about something participants should already know can put their professional credibility on the line.

His approach: use unexpected questions and create another way to win.

In one demonstration, a contestant who missed a question could choose someone else to receive the prize. That person still had a positive role in the moment.

For your next activity, let people confer in pairs before answering, offer a choice about participating, and celebrate their contribution. You can create suspense while protecting someone’s dignity.

3. Build yourself a kit you’ll actually use.

Brian’s closing lesson explains why so many good ideas stay in our notebooks: implementation gets easier when you’ve seen the activity done, have the slides, and have a script.

Apply that to your own preparation. Write the instructions, the reveal, and the question you’ll use to connect the experience back to your topic. Rehearse once.

A great idea now has a path onto your agenda.

Try this at your next meeting

Here’s a simple adaptation: take one common misconception about your topic. Offer two plausible answers. Give pairs 30 seconds to choose and explain their thinking; invite online participants to answer in chat. Reveal the answer and explain what it changes in practice.

No new software. No emergency trip to the party store.

Come experience the ideas in action

Brian’s session demonstrated the timing, the instructions, and the way a skilled facilitator responds when people play. Those details help you picture how you could lead an activity yourself.

That’s the value I want you to experience at The Engaging Retreat, October 20–22, 2026.

Come with a meeting, workshop, or keynote you want to improve. Use it as your filter: What could I adapt? How would I introduce it? What would my participants do differently?

You’ve just explored three ideas from one past session. Now give yourself time to experience engagement from the participant’s seat—and plan how to bring it to your next audience.

Register for The Engaging Retreat and sharpen your engagement skills →

When you register, I’m going to do something INSANE and send you a link to Brian Walter’s ENTIRE GAME ON Keynote from 2025 to see for yourself. Register and get the value now!

John Chen, CSP
Engaging Virtual Meetings

-John Chen

CEO, Engaging Virtual Meetings

Your experts in engaging virtual and hybrid meetings

PS: If you want the recordings and a 24-piece Engaging Toolkit, buy the $97 Virtual VIP ticket

PPS: If you want a 5-minute, 4-camera 4K recording and exclusive access to our 19 speakers, buy the In-Person ticket, only 54 tickets will be sold, EXCLUSIVE!

————–UPCOMING EVENTS———————————–

9/9/2026 8am-9:30am PSTThe Helix Mastermind Virtual

BY INVITATION
9/9/2026

8am-9am PST

The Engaging Ring featuring Juliane CooleyHow to Get Booked as a Speaker

https://zoom.us/j/96568144135?pwd=GWvM4j7wums5dA12edz38jnO1FT3FS.1

Meeting ID: 965 6814 4135

Passcode: engaging

9/12/2026 National Speakers Association Northwest Chapter Summer Social

5pm-8pm

https://nsanorthwest.org/content.aspx?page_id=4091&club_id=372276&item_id=3011325

Members and guests only