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During the pandemic, I, who previously found social events hard to attend and even harder to host, started thinking of interesting event ideas.
“Toastmasters, but about actually interesting things, extra friendly to anxious people”. You come with a 5~20 minute talk on an actually interesting thing (if I were going to one in the next week, I’d do ancient human populations and admixture) and give the talk. And because this is for anxious people, the accommodations for giving a talk are extremely flexible. Do you want people to not look at you? Have the other participants sit facing away from you! You can also put a divider screen between you and them, or wear a blindfold.
On the other hand, are you pretty good at normal speaking but want to kick the pressure up a notch? Ask everyone to wear a very critical expression, or stand in a close ring around you holding improvised weapons, as if your life depends on how much you impress them! Maybe you can pick a challenge out of a hat containing constraints like “don’t use your notes”, “sing your presentation”, “present in the form of a dialogue”, “Russian accent”, “integrate hand puppets into speech”.
Update: I ran this one five times, and have posted the event outline, cards, and tips.
(or Conflict Against Humanity?) is a social event where people can play out mock conflicts with given strategies, and then analyze which strategies are ideal in which situations.
A set of blue cards will have conflict strategies written on them: e.g. ‘smiley but unyielding’, ‘social norm enforcement’, ‘appeal to own desperation’, ‘be so weird that the other person goes away’, 'out-reasonable them’, 'bluff for social power’. A set of red cards will contain a sentence to a paragraph of description of a face-to-face conflict scenario – these, the participants will fill out at the beginning.
In each iteration, two people will be selected to play. Each draws a blue card, their strategy. Then the pair draws a red card, which is their conflict scenario. Before the scene, they spend a few minutes coming to an agreement on which one is taking which side (unless argument is symmetric, as in the case of taking a parking spot they’ve simultaneously arrived at), and fleshing out the scenario a bit if needed. They start the scene, which ends either when 5 minutes elapse or a participant taps out. A participant can also say 'new strategy’ and get a new randomly chosen strategy card, and they must immediately transition to that strategy.
This doesn't really fit in with the other ideas - it is a multi-day festival specific event where you support people who aren't having fun at the festival or con - but since I ran it, I'll add a link here.
Lame name, sorry. This is a variant of hot seat (intrusive questions game) where, instead of going around a circle and having each person taking 3m to field questions from everyone else, you go around a circle, have a person ask a question, and have everyone else point at the person they most want to hear answer that question. Best for groups of 9 or so, 15 at most. List of questions I've compiled is here.
is for people who like programming and are fine with drinking. Come to solve programming interview problems (e.g. on leetcode, codewars, 4clojure). If you’re the first one to finish, take a shot. Second one to finish, take half a shot. Third one, take a third of a shot.
When everyone is 1~3 drinks in, do behavioral interviews.
Pick a handful of questions from Good Judgment Open or Metaculus, like
Will there be a complex coordinated terrorist attack (CCTA) in the United States before 1 September [YEAR]?
Will the border conflict between India and China escalate to a deadly clash involving gunfire or explosives before [YEAR]?
and divide people up into subgroups, one or more per question (this is because I think the ideal size of a group discussing such a question is 3~5, but your mileage may vary). Some adjustment may have to be made for the fact that Metaculus/GJO questions are dominated by politics predictions, which is not everyone’s jam.
Everyone is given a different Wikipedia link on a big topic with lots of outgoing links. For the next 60~90m, they click through randomly as they wish, and prepare a 3~8m talk on the most interesting fact or anecdote they find. Determine winner by voting.