Top Motivational Speaker Meeting Energizers

Written by Jody Urquhart | Fri, Jan 18, 2013 @ 05:04 PM

This article was originally published on 1/18/13, but has since been updated with new and more relevant content.

Meeting energizers boost enthusiasm and learning potential. Energizers are short activities designed to raise the energy levels of the group. They help people get to know each other, encourage team building, networking and learning. When audiences are sleepy or tired, they need a boost to keep them engaged.

Introduce any of the top meeting energizers below to lift people up!

Music. Uplifting lyrics have proven to boost positive endorphins in listeners. Pumping happy music before, between and after speakers sessions makes the lull between content more engaging. As a motivational speaker, I once had a live band that played lyrics that incorporated some of my learning points after the speech.

Interaction. Anytime you get audience members to participate, they are more engaged. Interaction can include simple rhetoric questions, audience surveys, interaction with the person next to you and quick physical activities ( i.e. a high five). Facilitating games and ice breakers between sessions helps to keep energy levels high.

Humor. When people laugh, they are engaged. You cannot be angry, stressed out or worrying about something, and laugh at the same time. Today, audiences are very distracted, humor brilliantly serves to bring their brains to a session and makes them more focused and aware. A humorous motivational speaker, MC or comedian can add short bursts of humor to keep people involved.

Group Photos

I was recently a motivational speaker for a franchise event, during breaks, they regularly showed fun photos of participants throughout the event. People were eagerly looking for themselves in photos. It created a sense of culture and belonging.

Make it Relevant- Reinforce Themes or Important Content

Audiences today are busy and goal oriented. People do not want to to feel forced to participate in meeting activities just to fill (or waste) time. Any interaction needs to be catered to the group and reinforce the theme or purpose for the meeting. Never do silly activities just to do them. Meeting Energizers need to be centered on specific learning and reinforce meeting content. If there are important themes that carry your event, reinforce these with energizers.

In longer training sessions I love to experiment with meeting ice breakers, here are a few I have used or seen used in the last year:

Autograph. Create a handout that lists 15 to 25 questions relevant to your workplace. For example... has worked here over 20 years, has completed XYZ training, or prefers to work alone. Questions could also be more generic like Is an extrovert or Loves the color purple.

Participants circulate the room and get autographs from people who satisfy the criteria. A fun, interactive meeting ice breaker and a great way for people to get to know each other. To increase the impact of this motivational speech activity, gear questions to the workplace.

Name Game. This motivational speech activity helps people remember their colleagues names. Participants each introduce themselves using a rhymn or characteristic used to identify themselves. For example Mark could call himself as Check Mark, Frenda Brenda, Bad Brad, etc.

Participants circulate the room, shake hands and say there name rhymn a couple of times each. Rhymn are great because of the cadence, often people will break into song or an extended rhymn stringing their names together. ( ie- Check Mark made a Frienda Brenda). Encourage this.

Google Search. I was a motivational keynote speaker at an event several years ago where another guest speaker did this hilarious meeting icebreaker. Every member of the group is assigned another member to investigate( before the meeting) on google. Each is instructed to do a google search on there designated person by First Name, Last Name and come back with certain criteria. Potential criteria may be:

positive news stories, interesting facts, etc. Steer away from potential negative or overly personal or sensitive information ( ie- facebook shows someone is recently divorced- although if they post it on facebook, it is public knowledge- keep in mind, sometimes these facts are posted by other parties). As the guest speaker outlined, sensitive information is off limits.

When the group meets ( depending on the size) each member introduces their designated partners google personality. It is often very humorous and creates some surprizing interaction and information that even the person being searched doesn't know! Suddenly everyone is compelled to pay attention to what they post online. The guest speaker led a lively discussion about the pro's and con's of posting online.

Energizers are short activities designed to raise the energy levels of the group. They may be used to:

provide movement to get the blood flowing to the body and brain;
release tension or conflict;
provide some fun and laughter;
enable people to be physically closer
encourage interaction and connectedness

For longer sessions of motivational and inspirational speaking, interaction is essential to keep the audience engaged.

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