We’re not all natural-born networkers.
It takes a lot of courage to march up to somebody to pitch yourself or your business. That’s why people love networking activities.
Networking is an incredible way to build relationships and boost your business. But your activities must break the ice and get people talking to avoid awkward silences and facilitate meaningful connections. That’s why 47% of all business-to-business (B2B) events include networking or social activities.
At Eventbrite, we love networking. That’s why we support event organizers worldwide with advanced marketing tools and integrations with important B2B platforms like LinkedIn.
Explore these fun networking activities for professionals, try out one of our icebreaker games, and draw inspiration from real event organizers to create amazing experiences for your attendees.
Networking events to help guests break the ice
Networking activities for professionals
Networking activities for large groups
Networking games for small groups
Business networking activities
Networking icebreaker games
Organizing big crowds into smaller groups for corporate icebreakers encourages high engagement and honest conversations.
To help you get started with an icebreaker and networking activities for large groups, here are some of our favorite conversation starters to increase engagement among guests and help everyone feel comfortable.
1. Craft workshops
Craft workshops are the perfect icebreaker activity to start your business networking activities on the right foot.
You could collaborate with local artisans to teach your event guests how to do a basic craft like basket weaving or drawing — or do a series of photo craft tutorials like Eileen Vierra does for her regular In-Person Friday Coffee Crop (Craft Workshop) events.
To gamify your workshop, you can divide your attendees into teams and offer an award for the best creation. This is a great way to ignite friendly competition and loosen up your guests.
2. Speed-networking
Like speed-dating, pair participants up for two to three minutes at a time. Ask them to get to know each other, exchange contact info, and find a takeaway they’ll remember about the other person.
For lessons in best practice, check out the Tampa Business Club and their recent Tampa Speed Networking event. Their speed networking session united 100+ professionals, allowing them to make meaningful connections and get networking faster.
3. Poll the audience
If breaking into small groups isn’t feasible, try audience polls. Explore extensions that enable digital polling and interactivity that display real-time results on a screen.
To see audience participation done correctly, look at The Lab’s N Crowd: Game-Based Comedy event. Using audience suggestions and crowd participation networking games, event organizers created various scenarios and skits that placed guests in the driver’s seat.
You could replicate that concept at future events by allowing audience members to choose the conversation topics for breakout sessions.
4. Invent new words
Get attendees to think creatively with the “invent a new word” challenge.
Hand out flashcards naming everyday objects — ocean, rainbow, star, tree, house — and have participants brainstorm new names together. This will challenge preconceptions and bring people together in an unpredictable way.
To see how to incorporate flashcards into your next event, look at Lotus Grove Wellness and their Beginner Runes Class 101. Their workshop taught attendees a range of rune symbols, and each attendee had a set of flashcards to help one another memorize what they’d learned.
5. Paper telephone game
Social games always spark conversation. For networking activities for professionals, give everyone a piece of paper and have them write a sentence or word before passing it on to the person next to them.
The receiving person draws what’s written on the paper, folds the written part, and passes the drawing to the next person. Networking games like this get people thinking creatively and can prompt a few laughs, too.
Ready to start planning your networking activities?
6. Silent disco
If you’re looking for a way to create a more relaxed environment for your business networking activities, why not start things off with a silent disco? After all, music unites people.
Give each guest a headset, let them choose their preferred music station, and allow the fun to commence.
That’s what Red White & Brew did for their Silent Disco event. By deploying three DJs, guests could choose their music at their preferred volume — or take a break from dancing for meaningful conversations with the other guests.
Networking activities for professionals
If you’re looking for networking activities that cater to a more serious audience, you might want to try something more cerebral that helps guests work towards a common goal.
Here are some of our favorite activities to help inspire you.
7. Networking bingo
Networking bingo is another of our favorite networking activities for large groups, as it allows guests to move around your event space and build business relationships.
Give guests bingo cards and pens on arrival, and let attendees tick their cards off as they connect. You could do categories on your card for meeting vendors, entrepreneurs, freelancers, someone from the same city as you, or anything in between.
To see it done the right way, observe Susan Beavers, Michelle Doeffinger, and Sherri Everett’s 2024 Networking Bingo event. They accepted donations for their local food bank to support an important cause and upped the ante by introducing fabulous prizes for guests who completed their bingo cards first.
8. Q&A prep
Pair off participants and have them come up with two or three questions to ask panelists or speakers, creating interactive Q&A sessions (simultaneously ensuring you have enough questions.)
Audience engagement significantly increases during sessions where they can present questions or provide input.
For example, see LAWB’s three-hour Networking Masterclass event. They provided a dedicated slot one hour before the event for attendees to mingle. Guest speakers across various industries shared their experience of networking to offer tips.
9. Brainstorm goals
Pair off participants to brainstorm what they want to accomplish at the event. These icebreakers are great networking activities for professionals. They aren’t just about getting people over their initial shyness — they can also serve as productive kick-off sessions.
Tifany J Inspired Creative Co did exactly that for their 2024 Goal-Setting Gathering. This casual brainstorming event enabled like-minded women to get together and help one another develop their goals and visions for the year ahead.
10. Provide prompts
Use prompts to create sentence-finishing networking games. Offer starters like, “The first album I ever bought was…” or “The best way for me to relax is…” Participants fill in the blanks.
That’s the approach the Founder Institute took for their Pitch Your Startup Idea to GCC Investors & Experts session. This virtual networking event used a mad libs approach to help virtual attendees develop a one-sentence elevator pitch for companies.
Networking activities for large groups
Don’t let attendees discuss the weather during coffee breaks and cocktail hours. Instead, help them connect via these unstructured networking activities.
11. Unstructured time
Leave plenty of time for non-structured networking. Onsite luncheons, happy hours, and other “free time” are great opportunities to meet and greet.
Jake Maines is doing something similar for his upcoming Networking Happy Hour. This event has a low-key vibe with an emphasis on guests to arrive any time they wish within the three-hour slot.
Planning virtual business networking activities? Even online events let users hop into rooms with different purposes. Some event apps also allow you to add gamification elements and live forums to the mix.
12. Enable networking apps
Help event-goers tap into the cloud to determine who they want to connect with on the ground. Apps like Presdo Match let event attendees embed their LinkedIn profiles, making it easy for attendees to find out about each other.
This can also be seamlessly integrated into virtual events, as the user ID is already connected to a cloud server, which can be coupled with check-in apps.
For inspiration, check out John Ortiz and his Business Networking for Growth: Meet Key Contacts in Anaheim event series. By deploying a networking app for guests to download, attendees can easily exchange referrals and details to amplify their connections.
13. Competitive networking
Make networking activities competitive by instructing attendees to collect business cards from every person they speak to at the event.
After the gathering, the person with the most business cards receives a prize and recognition for their networking aplomb.
Want to see how to up-level your next networking activities for professionals?
The Social Edge – Marketing Solutions and their Marketing on Main networking event allowed guests to present to up to 300 community locals so attendees could present their services. They also incorporated a business card exchange, giveaways, and multiple prize opportunities to engage guests.
14. Connect attendees online
Custom event hashtags let attendees connect online before, during, and after your event. As well as building buzz around events, hashtags get your registered attendees excited and conversing.
For inspiration, take a look at Christine McShane Creative’s Virtual Networking series. Including a guest speaker and multiple online breakout rooms, these events are a great way to connect busy entrepreneurs worldwide.
15. Continue the connection
Don’t let the energy wane just because your event is over.
For networking activities for large groups, encourage participants to stay in touch with you and each other via your website, forums like Facebook or LinkedIn groups, other social media platforms, or your mailing list.
That’s what Your Social Media Consultant did for their Grow Your Business Through Facebook- 7-Day Bootcamp!. By encouraging guests to join a private Facebook group, organizers offered guests a chance to connect long-term to get meaningful tips and tricks.
Networking games for smaller groups
Networking games promote teamwork and help attendees build meaningful connections. They also allow everyone to de-stress and relax. Creating networking games for smaller groups and placing your attendees in a more private setting is a great way to encourage them to let their guard down.
16. Social café
Social café is a fun and simple game that helps players get to know each other. Divide attendees into small groups of three or four individuals and give them a problem to solve. You can also assign different topics to the groups to discuss.
Topics can be industry-related or applied to personal experiences. Give the groups around 20 minutes to discuss the issue before they form new groups. Coordinators can repeat this event activity until everyone has a chance to connect.
Want to see business networking activities aced? APM CUA 5’s‘We Are One’ Parent Networking Cafe is the perfect example. Organizers set up a relaxed environment for parents to open up, share ideas, and make connections — with plenty of tea and coffee to keep the conversations flowing.
17. Networking scavenger hunt
Instead of searching for specific items, this networking game involves finding people. Event organizers create a list of unique qualities and characteristics individuals typically have in the industry.
These characteristics might include someone holding a management position or someone with a specific number of years of experience. Hand the list out to players and have them hunt for those who meet the criteria.
Lucky enough to have a big event space for networking activities for professionals?
You could take your scavenger hunt outside like Dig the Dunes is doing for their Dunes Area Scavenger Hunt — enabling teams to travel from spot to spot to find their next clue.
18. Two truths, one lie
Two Truths and One Lie is a simple and classic game. The rules are pretty self-explanatory, but the goal is to discover which statements are factual and which one is false. Divide players into smaller groups or allow everyone to play together.
River’s Edge Theatre Co. and their immersive 2 Truths and a Lie show is a great inspiration. The event saw actors take to the stage to tell the audience their stories — before letting guests decide who was telling lies.
19. Switch sides if…
Start this game by organizing attendees into two groups: one on the “yes” side and the other on the “no” side. The host reads aloud questions, and attendees shuffle over to the side of their answers.
Since players move from one group to another depending on the question, it’s a great way to break the ice and form connections.
Looking for networking activities for large groups?
Look at Shawnta Wright’s upcoming Mindful Bodies Sun 4/7/24 Mental Health Professionals Virtual Networking event. To prep virtual attendees, they’ve loaded guests with all sorts of icebreaker questions to help them make connections and share their passions with one another.
20. Murder mystery networking
A murder mystery is the perfect way to get your networking guests to work together to reach a common goal (in this case, to find the fictional killer.)
For lessons in best practice, pay attention to NYC Social Group’s Valentine’s Murder Mystery Mixer (+ After Party) pop-up event. Each guest received a character and was brief when they arrived before mingling began — creating a unique and immersive experience for everyone.
21. Gingerbread house competition
Want to go for a seasonal event theme? Get your guests chatting by placing them into teams for a gingerbread house competition.
Supply each team with all the construction tools and candy they need to make a fantastic creation and let them laugh and chat away as they build.
If you want to see how this concept works, look no further than the link’s family Gingerbread House Competition. Instead of entrepreneurs, this contest pitted family teams against one another for some major prizes.
Business networking activities
Dealing with a more corporate audience? Here are some business networking activities perfect for business clients or more formal settings.
22. Quick-fire questions
Gather attendees in an area with a whiteboard to write down simple questions to ask each other. Questions can be industry-related or about an individual’s role in their company. Some examples include asking:
- What’s your role in the company?
- What industry are you working in?
- What types of individuals are you hoping to network with?
Pair attendees up and keep switching until everyone meets each other.
You can even launch a quickfire Q&A online for your next networking activities for professionals like BFI NETWORK South West did last year for their Early Development Fund ‘quickfire’ Q&A. Organizers invited virtual attendees to join them on Zoom to ask as many questions as possible in the allotted time — giving everyone an equal chance.
23. Business card collection contest
This event networking activity works best with large groups. The goal is for attendees to connect with as many people as possible by collecting business cards — the winner then gets a prize.
Carlie Gianotti-Sessum & Daniel Camp did something similar for their 2024 Kickoff ~ Bring Your Own Business Card (BYOBC) event. By encouraging guests to arrive with business cards, organizers allowed guests to maximize the number of new contacts they could make.
24. Shared storytelling
Storytelling should be at the center of any networking event strategy, thanks to the success of organizations like The Moth. Their events allow everyone to take to the mic to tell their story — with prompts from new friends in the audience to keep the stories going.
At your next networking activities for large groups, use questions such as “Tell us about a time you impressed your co-workers” and “How did your first job help you to get to where you are?” Ask attendees to prepare a quick story to share with small groups or on stage.
Connect with Eventbrite for your next networking event
Networking events don’t have to be boring. As an event organizer, it’s your job to inject some fun into business networking activities and offer themes that suit your attendees.
No matter the type of networking event you host or the audience you cater to, there’s an amazing networking activity that’ll be perfect for your next event.
From learning from your peers by exploring their events to creating custom event pages, selling tickets, or keeping your audience in the loop with emails, Eventbrite can help.
