How to creatively gather 54 delegates into 9 different groups at a conference?

Recently I came across a question in my LinkedIn group, asking a question "I’m organising a conference for  54 delegates.  How can I creatively group the delegates into 9 different groups, without using the usual “lucky draw” style?”

If you are facing similar situation, here would my suggestion to run the process:

Pre-Event Preparation:
- Prepare 3 colour-coded zones: Red, Yellow, Green
- Each zone has 3 tables. The tables are colour-coded according to the zones;
3 red tables in Red Zone, 3 yellow tables in Yellow Zone, 3 green table in Green Zone.  You can consider using coloured table cloth to differentiate them
- At each table, place 6 chairs, but colour code them differently; 2 "red" chairs, 2 "yellow" chairs, 2 "green" chairs.This “chair colour-coding” could be done by placing coloured different coloured cards (i.e size of name cards) on the chairs

When the doors are open for the delegates to enter the conference room, let them sit anywhere.

Time to group the delegates into the different groups:

- Once the conference begin and when it is time to group the delegates up, invite the delegates to stand up while holding that colour-coded cards in their hands,
- Then invite them to move to the tables that match with their colour-coded cards.  Ie. Red colour-coded cards will move to tables in the Red Zone.

Conclusion:
In this manner, the delegates are grouped in 9 groups, each group having 6 new members to work with.
This can also serve as a high-energy good ice-breaker for the conference.

Towards your continued success,

Hazriq Idrus
Business Creativity & Speaking Strategist
Author of 4 books, including "The Stage Fright Antidote"

Hazriq Idrus is Asia's Trusted Business Creativity and Speaking Strategist.  He founded The Speaking Factory Pte Ltd with a mission to help corporate professionals elevate their values & visibility in their industry.  Hazriq is also the author of The Stage Fright Antidote and co-authored three other books.  Invite Hazriq to work with your organisation.  He is contactable at [email protected].