Large group energizer activities

Crowd energizers are a fun way to shift focus and rejuvenate a group’s attention, bringing fresh energy to a busy schedule during events like team retreats or hackathons!

0:00 Intro
0:36 Sit Stand
1:15 Backward Names
1:54 Group Postcard
2:25 Candy Questions
3:09 Telephone

I’ll be sharing five of my favourite large-group energizers, ideal for thirty people or more.

First up, we have Sit Stand, a physical activity that requires ample space for moving around.

To play, have the facilitator instruct the group to do simple, engaging activities. For instance, they could start by saying, “Stand up” or “Walk around.” When the facilitator says, “Stop,” the instruction is switched to the opposite. So, if participants were asked to “Stand up,” they must now sit down. If they were asked to “Walk around,” they must now freeze in position.

As you can imagine, this results in pure chaos and a lot of laughter. Plus, it’s a great way to work on communication skills!

Our second game is Backward Names, and it works best when your group is already familiar with one another.

To start, divide everyone into two groups of less than twenty. Hand each participant a piece of paper and pen and have them write their name down. Afterward, have a team leader collect all of the papers and re-distribute them to their group at random. Each player must then read the name on their paper out loud to their teammates — but here’s the catch. They have to read the name backwards. The first person to guess the actual name being read wins a point! Keep score, or just enjoy open-ended guessing for a more laidback variation!

Next up, we have Group Postcard, a creative game that gets your team working collaboratively.

Begin by handing out several blank postcards. Then, have your team decide how they'll work together to create one big picture. Some groups like to choose an image at the start and discuss who will contribute what, while others like to add postcards one by one and work incrementally towards a growing image.

Either way, it's a great way to facilitate teamwork, cooperation, and creativity all at once!

Fourth, we have Candy Questions!

For this game, you’ll need several different coloured candies and a whiteboard.

To play, write a question on the whiteboard for each coloured candy. For instance, a red candy might mean “Do you have a pet?” while a yellow candy might mean “Did you go to college and where?”

Have everyone take three candies randomly from your supply. The three colours they get represent the three questions they’ll ask their neighbour. It’s perfect for sparking fresh conversations without repeating the usual get-to-know-you questions over and over! Plus, who doesn’t love a sweet treat?

And then we have our final game, Telephone.

This large-group energizer really emphasizes the importance of communication (and why gossip is a bad idea!).

To start, have everyone stand in a circle, close enough that each player can whisper in the ear of the person next to them. Choose one player to begin the “telephone.” Their job is to make up a sentence of no more than five or six words and whisper it in the ear of the player to their right.

That player then whispers what they heard in the ear of the person to their right, and so on. Once you reach the last person in the circle, have them announce what they heard out loud to the group and see if it has stayed the same or changed along the way.

Some of the variations can be quite funny, and often they don’t even make sense, but regardless, it's a great example of why “playing telephone” can be detrimental to a team!

And that’s it for our five favourite large-group energizers! Now, before you go, can I ask you a small favour? If you enjoyed this video, please consider subscribing to our channel. Your support helps us continue to create more content just like this in the future. Until next time!