Visual Table Topics: Instead of giving each participant a prompt individually, give everyone the same prompt and allow two minutes of prep time. Each participant looks for an image related to the prompt, and then shares their screen while giving a brief explanation of their choice. Multimedia communication at its finest!
Reverse Pictionary: Inspired by this idea from Museum Hack, try a game of Pictionary—in reverse! The Table Topicsmaster provides an image to the participant, who must describe it to the audience using geometric shapes. For instance, if the image is a snowman, the participant could ask the audience to draw three stacked circles with diagonal lines coming off each side of the middle circle. She could then instruct them to add two dots, an upside-down triangle, and a curved row of dots to the top circle. Afterward, everyone holds their sketches up to the camera to determine how effective the instructions were—and how creative the audience members are.
Telephone: Val Pramana from Leading Edge Advanced Toastmasters in Brisbane, Australia, suggests a game of “telephone.” The Table Topicsmaster reads a short story to the first participant while the others wait “outside” the meeting room. The second participant enters the meeting room, and the first participant recounts the story. The third participant enters the meeting, and the second participant tells them the story, and so on. It’s hilarious to see which details are remembered and which are forgotten—and how different the ‘last’ story is from the first!
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