Ice Breakers 1 - Why do it?

People get together to be social.   Every social environment will be unique, a different place, different people and at least at a different time.  Even the same group of people in the same place but at a different time will have a different feel, those people will be at least be a little older, even wiser.

Add to that, some people are naturally more social than others.  So sometimes it's helpful to encourage things along a little. When individuals can relax into that social environment, they are more likely to have a more enjoyable time.  And so it then stands to reason, that the sooner individuals relax and get comfortable, then the longer they can spend enjoying themselves.  So there's great benefit in getting people comfortable and enjoying themselves quickly.... more people can have a great time sooner.

Ice breakers are a great way to accelerate that process of getting comfortable.  There are lots of different ice breaker approaches, and some more active than others.  This is not really about structured games, which themselves can be really good at engaging people in the right circumstances, but more about enabling and stimulating conversation.  This about using light, informal approaches, mostly built around simple questions, and can be picked up and put down to suit.  This really suits small groups, and often around the naturally occurring tables.

One of the simplest and quickest ways is using neutral, curious, interesting, and sometimes odd questions, to create some common dialogue and build some rapport.  The right questions can generate a flurry of interesting and humorous responses that allow people to start to talk naturally with each other.  It's about creating and having some fun.

So over time here's well share some of those approaches and questions. Here's a sample of those coming ice breakers....

What if....

• If you could have a superpower, what would it be?
• If you owned a shop, what would it sell?
• If you could have a secret camera in any room in the world, what room would you choose?

Favourites...

• What's your all time favourite movie?
• Who's your favourite TV detective?
• What do you order when you have Chinese food?

Experiences...

• What's the longest you've ever gone without sleep?
• What's the best bargain you've ever found?
• What's the biggest surprise you've ever had?

Choices....

• Brown sauce or tomato sauce?  
• Bath or Shower?
• Spring or Autumn?

Multi Music Genres

Whenever someone is asked what sort of music they like, it can be become quite a difficult question.  The number of music genres and their sub genres is ever increasing.  So House music has loads of sub-genres including funky, electro, deep, tribal, hip, acid, hard, tech.....

So some wonderful and even odd terminology has emerged.   How about.... liquid funk, booty bass, folktronic, rave breaks, ragga-jungle, atmospheric, glitch and grime....

Here's a common selection is a wordcloud....

Testing... one two... one two...

Ever heard a mic sound test.  You'll almost certainly hear something along the lines of testing "one, two, one two".  For many it's just what's always used, often to set the volume.  But there's another good reason behind this too.

It's not usual to assume that it's a very unimaginative and short test.  In fact it's a very specific test.  Firstly it's short for convenience and subtlety  but most importantly, it's testing the sounds that microphones struggle most with to reproduce well.    It's the "w" of one and the "t" of two which are the especially tricky sounds and so important to to test out in more discerning situation.  In these situations, it;s not just about setting the level or volume but tweaking the equalisation - the high, middle and low frequencies to  get the right balance for the venue.

Bare in mind that microphones are hugely variable in their quality and price too.. having seen new mic for sale at staggering 99p!  More expensive, to certain limit, does tend to give a better sound, but some much is down to all the other factors at play and especially the tone of the voice being amplified too.