25 fun conference ideas for your next event
Hello, there! Odds would have it that, because you’ve found yourself here, you’re busy planning a corporate conference. That’s great news: a conference is typically the best way to bring together clients, employees, partners, and stakeholders from a specific industry to network, share information, align on common company goals, and drive your business forward.
But with corporate conferences often stretching over an entire day—and sometimes up to three—how do you make sure your guests stay excited, energized, and inspired instead of bored and tired? We’ve compiled 25 conference ideas that will make your conference stand out from the rest—and guarantee your guests will look forward to it year after year.
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Table of Contents
1. Escape room experience
This is one of our favorite games for conferences. Challenge coworkers, encourage collaboration, and work on problem-solving skills among team members with an escape room experience set up in a room at your conference location. Several escape room companies, like Escapely, offer kits and MCs for hire to ensure the experience is fun, engaging, and accessible to everyone involved.
2. Live podcast recording
Treat your conference guests to something most people don’t ever get to actually *see*: a live recording of a podcast that’s relevant in some way to your conference or company, whether it’s the guest speakers or the overall podcast topic. Finish the segment with an audience Q&A so that your guests really feel like they’re part of the action.
3. Photo booth with props
Let your guests get a little silly and encourage social media sharing with a photo booth setup. There are so many options to choose from to fit the vibe of your conference and budget, whether you prefer old-fashioned booths that print black and white photo strips to modern digital options that come equipped with a live photographer and instant online uploads you can access online. Don’t forget to provide props for people to pose with and a branded backdrop—they’re an easy way to encourage people to get out of their shells and increase brand awareness.
4. Guided meditation or yoga breaks
All the socializing and schmoozing that goes along with a corporate conference warrants some kind of quiet respite from it all. Help your guests reenergize their minds and bodies with a guided meditation or yoga break at a station away from the main conference area. Even 10-15 sessions are enough to allow people to reset.
5. Human bingo
Help attendees get to know each other with a game of human bingo. Print bingo cards in advance with squares filled out with facts about people, like “originally from out-of-state” or “won a superlative in high school.” Then encourage guests to start mingling and crossing off their cards whenever they speak with someone who checks off one of their boxes. Just like in regular bingo, the person who strikes out a full line of squares first wins.
6. PechaKucha-style lightning talks
Keep things moving with PechaKucha-style lightning talks. Japanese for “chit-chat,” these short-form talks are the opposite of presentations that drag on and on. Instead, each speaker gets between five and seven minutes total to present and can only use a limited number of PowerPoint slides (typically 20 slides with 20 seconds allotted per slide), keeping audiences engaged and excited.
7. Hydration station and healthy snack bar
Feeling famished at a corporate conference is no bueno. Keep your attendees pleasantly full and comfortable with a healthy snack and hydration bar serving light, nutritious bites to boost endurance and mental energy, and wellness-inspired drinks like fresh-pressed juices and fruit smoothies.
8. Scavenger hunt
There are a couple of ways to host a scavenger hunt. One is similar to the aforementioned human bingo idea, where guests are challenged to find other attendees who fit certain clues and then take photos with them (or write down their names). Or, if the conference spans several days and is in an interesting area, you can have people play during their downtime and find certain landmarks or items and take pictures. Drive engagement through clues, challenges, and team tasks. Foster team-working skills by dividing guests into groups to play together.
9. Reverse panels
Give power to the people by hosting a reverse panel, where attendees voice their thoughts, insights, and opinions while leadership listens. Encourage panel participants to come ready with a topic, or choose one in advance so that no one feels put on the spot. The result can be impactful and invigorating for your corporate guests.
10. Massage or relaxation lounge
Offer attendees a *real* sense of respite from your conference (without actually leaving the grounds) with a massage or relaxation lounge. Hire licensed massage therapists, rent portable massage therapy chairs, and play calming music in a quiet area of your conference. Let people stop by for free five-minute shoulder massages and watch them leave feeling revitalized.
11. Interactive wall or digital graffiti board
Get your attendees’ creative energy flowing with a digital graffiti board. Installed by a company like One Chance Media, a digital graffiti board is a larger-than-life display that lets people pose for photos, then digitally “doodle” on them, add stickers, play with filters, and more. The resulting collages can be shared or printed. Alternatively, you can hire an artist to create a one-of-a-kind piece just for your conference.
12. Live polling and Q&A via app
Get real-time insights and participation from guests when you offer live polling and Q&As via an app they can download and access from their phones. Whether it’s an ongoing game of trivia or questions pertaining to the setup and content of the conference itself, it’ll get guests in on the action throughout their time.
13. Team-based trivia contest
Test your guests’ industry knowledge with a trivia game for teams of attendees to participate in. Depending on how well guests know each other, it may be helpful for you to assign teams ahead of time. To keep things on-theme, ask questions based on your industry or company. Feel free to blend in some fun general trivia to keep things light and moving.
14. Surprise guest
We’re sure you’ve thought to create a schedule of events for your guests to follow as your conference plays out, but sometimes, the best part is what *isn’t* listed. Enter the surprise guest, a speaker or VIP with a certain wow-factor who can show up at the pinnacle of the conference to energize, impress, and excite attendees. If you really want to up momentum, you can add “Surprise Guest” to your agenda or announce it over the speaker during opening remarks.
15. Two truths and a lie wall
This one’s always fun. During a networking break, have attendees participate in a guessing game that unfolds as follows: each person must write three brief autobiographical stories on a wall; two are true, and one is made up. Other participants will then guess which of the stories is the “lie” by putting a tick mark next to the responses. It’s a great way for people to learn more about one another in a casual, sometimes silly setting, and often leads to interesting conversations.
16. AR/VR demo booth
Want to see a line of enthusiastic people form inside your conference? Show off new products, create an immersive brand story, and engage guests in a whole new way with augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR) demo booths. Fun and memorable, these enhanced experiences will leave an impression on attendees using the latest in interactive technology.
17. Pet or therapy animal lounge
This one might seem a bit random, but it’s also the idea that’s guaranteed to get the most smiles from your guests. Invite a volunteer organization to provide adoptable puppies or kittens in a corner of your conference for guests to interact with during breaks and lulls. If you want to ensure your furry friends are well-mannered, you might choose to invite certified therapy animals instead. For many people, palling around with playful pets can be as relaxing and restorative as getting a massage.
18. Speed networking
Think of speed networking as speed dating, minus the romantic component. Make sure everyone participating is wearing nametags and has a pen and paper to take notes, then set a specific length of time for each guest to network with another guest—say, 3-5 minutes—and organize your guests at different stations or in circles, round robin-style. You can provide conversation starters to get things moving. Once each round of networking finishes, ring a bell or sound a buzzer to let everyone know that it’s time to network with the next person.
19. Live music or DJ lounge
There’s something about the right music that just livens everything up. Whether you’re considering a DJ to curate the sound of your whole conference or looking to hire a performer or band to perform at a specific time, your guests will appreciate the extra thought you’ve put into keeping the atmosphere of your conference upbeat and energized.
20. Custom swag bar
Most conference attendees assume they’ll go home with a bit of company merch, but why not take it up a notch? Create a custom swag bar, where guests have the chance to choose the customized gifts they want—cutting down on waste and sparking conversation. Depending on your industry and budget, the kind of goodies you provide can run the gamut from branded notebooks, pens, and water bottles to socks and first aid kits.
21. Two-minute hot takes
Keep things interesting—and moving—with an open mic “hot take” session. Guests can either line up or pass around a microphone to give their unfiltered opinions on industry trends. The catch? No one can speak for more than two minutes, and you’ll have a timer and buzzer to make sure everyone abides by that rule.
22. Interactive name badges
Turn your guests’ nametags into an opportunity for networking and conversation. Instead of simply displaying a person’s name, add a thought starter like “Ask Me About…” or a space for icons or stickers that you also provide, with each sticker representing a hobby, industry, or interest. You may also choose to give guests their choice of lanyard colors representative of their current hiring status (ex. red = hiring, blue = looking for partners, green = just exploring).
23. Gamification of sessions
Add an extra element of fun to your conference by turning the whole event into a “game” where, instead of just sitting through sessions, guests can play, compete, and win prizes. You can easily do this by assigning point values to things like attending a session, asking a question in a Q&A, or completing a survey or poll. Give out badges for being an “Early Bird” (arriving early to a session), being a “Super Networker” (connecting with 10+ people), or acting like a “Social Butterfly” (sharing content online), etc. Display a live leaderboard for guests to see throughout the conference, and award prizes for top earners.
24. Mini hackathons
Traditional hackathons can last days. Condense that innovative, collaborative energy into a few short hours at your conference. Give participants a specific theme or problem to focus on, then let them brainstorm, design, build prototypes, and find solutions in the allotted time. This abbreviated format can often lead to dynamic, rapid-fire thought and decision-making and produces real and experimental outcomes.
25. “What I learned” video booth
Want to gain real insights from your conference and have your guests feel like their opinions truly matter? Set up a “what I learned” confessional-style video booth to capture reflections, insights, and testimonials from guests. You can use the information you gather to help inform the way you run your next conference, and if you have the content, create a “blooper” reel to share with attendees in your follow-up thank you note to attendees.
Paperless Post can help make your work conference a success
Now that you’ve discovered so many great ideas for your corporate conference, it’s time to send out the invitations. Paperless Post can help you manage your event much more seamlessly than traditional invitations with instant RSVP tracking, built-in Guest Surveys, broadcast messaging, and more. You can include your entire schedule of events and any conference features and information you want to highlight using Blocks, which will appear directly on your event page. Increase brand awareness by adding your logo to your invitation, email, event page, and more. And on the day of the conference, you can use the Paperless Post app to check guests in on-site. With Paperless Post, your corporate conference is set up for success.
Does your business host several corporate events each year? Save time and money with the Paperless Pro subscription, which unlocks total access to all of Paperless Post’s invaluable customization tools and guest management features across events for a transparent fee based on your annual guest count. Learn more about Paperless Pro now.
Find sophisticated, business-minded designs that streamline planning and impress guests.
