Most conference “interactivity” is a poll. Here are formats that ask something more of a room, roughly ordered by how much nerve they take.

Show of hands, done properly

The most underrated tool available, and almost always wasted on questions with an obvious answer. A show of hands works when the split is genuinely uncertain and the room can see the result — “hands up if you think we are over-invested in this” beats “hands up if you had coffee this morning” by a distance.

Cost: nothing. Requires: a host willing to hold two seconds of silence.

Turn to the person next to you

Fifteen seconds of a room talking to itself changes the acoustics of everything that follows. It is the cheapest way to convert a room of individuals into an audience, because it forces the sideways look that people otherwise avoid.

The mistake is asking for too much. “Introduce yourself” works. “Discuss the implications for your organisation” does not — that is a workshop, and you have ninety seconds.

Physical positioning

Move to this side if you agree, that side if you disagree. Stand if this applies to you. The room becomes a visible chart of itself, and everyone can read it.

Works best with a standing audience or a room with aisles. Falls apart in tight theatre seating, which is most conference rooms.

Collective control

Something on screen that responds to what the whole room does at once, where no individual can move it much on their own.

This is the format we are building, so treat us as biased — but the reason it interests us is that it is the only one on this list that requires cooperation rather than merely inviting it. You cannot free-ride, because nothing happens unless enough people join in.

What to avoid

  • Anything requiring an install. The funnel between “get your phone out” and “you are participating” loses roughly half a room, and loses it unevenly.
  • Activities longer than five minutes. Past that, a warm-up becomes a segment, and you can watch the energy leave.
  • Anything that singles someone out. One person on a spotlight makes four hundred others relieved it is not them, which is not the feeling you were going for.