Put a puzzle on a table at a conference and people will work on it while they talk. Someone may add one piece on the way to a session. Someone else might sit down for ten minutes. By the end of the day, dozens of people may have contributed without the activity ever becoming a formal part of the program.
At MPI WEC, CORT Events explored purposeful play: bringing play into professional events in ways that feel natural for the people in the room. Puzzles, tabletop games, coloring, building activities, and other familiar ideas give attendees something to do together without adding another scheduled activity to the agenda.
The activity still needs a reason to be there. Purposeful play should support what attendees are already there to do rather than compete with it.
Key Takeaways
- Give attendees something to do together while conversation happens around it.
- Choose activities people can pick up quickly without much instruction.
- Plan tables and seating around how the activity will actually be used.
- Use a few stronger choices in color and furniture to set the area apart.
- Leave room for play that isn’t competitive or tied to a prize.
Give Conversation Something to Happen Around
Walk into a networking reception and the assignment is fairly direct: find someone and start talking.
Put a half-finished activity on a communal table and there’s another way in. Someone can work on it while another person talks. A new person can walk up and start helping without stopping the group for introductions.
Activities that can continue as the people around them change work particularly well here. A puzzle, collaborative art piece, or building activity doesn’t have to start and finish with the same group.
Materials spread out. Coffee cups and phones end up on the table. People pull up chairs and leave them again. Plan for all of it.
Familiarity Is Part of the Appeal
Connect Four doesn’t need a tutorial. Neither does a deck of cards or a coloring activity.
When someone only has ten minutes before the next session, they can sit down and start.
The surrounding design doesn’t need to turn the activity into a theme. CORT Events’ Blade Chairs in sky blue or red, for example, can put a stronger hit of color around a tabletop activity while the rest of the setting stays restrained.
Design Around What People Will Actually Do
For a tabletop activity, start with the table.
If materials take up most of a six-foot surface, use the six-foot table. Don’t squeeze the activity onto a cocktail table because the cocktail table looks better in the rendering. Leave room for the game or materials along with the drinks, phones, and bags attendees will bring with them.
Then account for the group changing throughout the day. Vibe Cube Ottomans can be pulled over when more people gather and moved away when they’re no longer needed. Blade Chairs or Barstools can add color directly around the activity without carrying that palette across the entire room.
For something more physical, keep furniture out of the playing footprint. Movable seating nearby gives people somewhere to sit between turns without crowding the activity.
Play Doesn’t Need a Winner
Event games often come with points, prizes, or a leaderboard. Purposeful play doesn’t require any of them.
A collaborative art piece can change throughout the day as people add to it. A building activity can remain unfinished for the next group. Two attendees can play a quick game because they have ten minutes before the keynote.
There doesn’t always need to be a formal start, finish, or winner.
Would Someone Actually Do This?
Before committing to an activity, picture it set up in the actual event.
Is there enough room to use it comfortably? Can someone spend a few minutes with it and move on? Can conversation continue while they’re doing it? Does this kind of play support what you want people doing in this part of the event?
CORT Events can help planners work through those practical decisions, from selecting tables with enough usable surface to choosing flexible seating that can adjust as people join and leave.
Explore CORT Events furniture and décor for ways to bring purposeful play into your next event.
