Icebreaker Bingo — Find Someone Who…

The first session of any training has the same problem: twenty-five people who have not met, sitting in rows, waiting to be spoken to. Icebreaker Bingo gets them out of their chairs. Each phone shows a grid of prompts — "…has trained more than 50 people", "…speaks three languages", "…can fix a printer" — and the only way to fill a square is to find the person it describes and ask them.

Tapping a square opens a small box; the participant types the name of the person they just spoke to and saves it. A filled square turns navy so the card fills up visibly as the conversation goes on, and the moment a full row, column or diagonal is complete the phone shows a bingo banner. The card survives a locked screen or a dropped connection, so nobody loses their progress halfway through the room.

The trainer does not have to referee. The projector shows a progress bar for every participant, sorted so whoever is closest to bingo is at the top, and the first person to complete a line is highlighted at the top of the screen. That is usually enough to turn a polite mingling exercise into a race, and it tells the facilitator exactly when the room has had enough and it is time to move on.

Sixteen prompts written for humanitarian and development teams come with the activity, and every single one is editable before you start — swap in prompts about your own organisation, the project you are launching, or the module you are about to teach. Choose a 3×3 card for a short warm-up or a 4×4 card when you have a big group and a long coffee break to fill.