Arriving at an event can often be an uncomfortable experience for some people, particularly if attending alone. Some guests get on with the job of meeting and greeting really well, but others dread the networking elements and wish for the main function to get underway rapidly

To bypass this scenario, using an ice breaker game the moment guests Cheap Accutane set foot in the room, gives them an excuse to start conversations with other guests straight away. Try this easy ice breaker game to get your event kick-started. Soon they’ll be laughing, joining in and having fun.

On arrival, give guests a prepared list of people attending. This should contain contact details together with some space for more notes. Invite them to find around 5 people to talk to, and record 2 notable features about each person next to their name e.g. nice smile, blue jacket and then a few more notes about where live, work etc.

When all your guests have turned up, get people together for a quick welcome to your event, and then using the lists, have each person in turn introduce someone else to the group.

It’s a really easy way to create the right atmosphere and set the tone for your event, giving people an excuse to meet and chat to at least 5 new people as well as giving them a record of attendee details to take home.

Sharon Naylor is passionate about icebreaker games, and has used them extensively to have fun and quickly put people at ease in her professional training and events company, and in her social life for over 30 years. Her “how to” guide “My 4 All-Time Favourite Ice Breakers” is available free online, for a limited time, from her icebreaker games web-site.

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Cheap Accutane medium none; border-top: medium none; margin-left: 5px; border-left: medium none; margin-right: 5px; border-bottom: medium none” src=”http://cdn.content.compendiumblog.com/uploads/user/0da1f4b5-6d49-4164-9009-9f4d0114ef86/e5cc468d-0810-41b1-89b0-87b5a2bbfb03/Image/51a94e00ce78fe432866affba82a622b.jpg” />One of the reasons I’m excited to add the new email communication I wrote about yesterday to the mix of our subscriber offerings is because it’s a win for us in terms of expanding our dialogue with the small business leaders and other folks in our network.

After I sent out this week’s bottom line-improving people practices email yesterday, Collaboration King Founder Brandon Klein replied saying thanks, and shared a link to an interactive presentation he created that highlights employee engagement best practices for holding town hall meetings – a common theme among the small firms that have won our annual workplace award.

I’ve embedded Brandon’s presentation below:

If you can’t see it in your RSS feed, click here.

It may take you a few minutes to get the hang of moving around in it, but it is to your benefit to do so: he places many common town hall initiatives in a matrix that weighs cost vs. interactivity with workers – so you can find the initiative(s) that strike the right balance for your organization.  Additionally, Brandon places several of the same initiatives in a timeline, representing one scenario of a systematic approach to using town halls to keep employees engaged.

Related: As I am now following Brandon’s Collaboration King blog, I added it to my Twitter list of the blogs I follow.  Check out my current list of 88 blog authors/business experts for both networking and insights.

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I’ve been telecommuting for Winning Workplaces, which is based in the Chicago area, from a home office in Los Angeles since last August.  Until a few months ago, we connected for staff meetings every two weeks or so via phone.  Since then, we’ve used Skype and it’s been great in terms of communications team building.

We actually held a staff meeting today – here’s a screen capture I took of it:

Because everyone’s time is more valuable in a down economy, and because growing organizations must increasingly manage well over distances, it’s extremely important that virtual meetings deliver ROI.  But what goes into making them successful?

Based on my own experience, I have five general/employee engagement practices to share:

1. Double check your Skype or other software connection before the meeting starts.  This includes testing your webcam, as well as settings in Skype (or other programs) such as microphone and computer speaker connection/volume, webcam view of your office or workstation (you may need to zoom in or out with your webcam), and Internet connectivity level.
2. Dress appropriately.  This might go without saying in an office setting, but it’s a more important consideration for folks like me who, in working from home, dress more casually during other times.
3. The meeting leader should make a point to check in with the one or more people who are connected virtually if they have not been given a chance to speak up.  This can happen if the group in the room together gets going on a tangent and the discussion quickly veers in a different direction.  Sometimes audio quality issues coupled with this can hurt productivity if they lose the chance to contribute at an appropriate point.
4. The leader should also be clear at the end of the meeting about next steps for virtually connected employees.  The tendency can sometimes be to do this for people on site, and then simply say goodbye to those connected via Skype, et al.
5. As with other tools and processes, don’t assume that the virtual meeting solution you have in place now is necessarily the best one moving forward.  The meeting leader or another senior person in the company should check in with the appropriate team members twice a year, at Provigil pharmacy a minimum, to assess whether the solution you currently use is delivering maximum effectiveness for all parties.  You may find this leads you to evaluate new communications tools that will save your business money.

Related: One of our most popular posts is this one, which shares three benefits of virtual team building.

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