Last updated: 4th October, 2023
1. Additional ideas for non-EA-themed activities
Some EA groups have arranged activities that are not EA related but can be a great way for members to get to know each other outside the context of EA (or have conversations about EA topics they're interested in.
- Walk or Hike: Going for a walk or hike can be ideal for naturally generating smaller two-person conversations, it is cheap and is good exercise too! While many people like walking, some people may be hesitant to come if they don’t know how long, difficult or fast the walk will be, as it is never nice to feel left behind or feel like you are struggling to keep up. Recommendations to reduce this problem:
- Give a description and, if available, a map of the proposed walk, including the exact meeting location, distance, expected time, and approximate elevation gain if the area is hilly. Indicate if you think this is likely to be challenging for people with a low to moderate level of fitness.
- Have a plan B route in mind if it looks like the group is travelling much slower than expected.
- State on your event details that the walk will go at the pace of the slowest person, and enforce this on the walk by having a quiet word with people who are likely to be fast walkers, and suggesting slowing down and stopping. Sometimes people can get carried away walking faster while chatting, but if they’ve been told to stop at regular intervals (and at all intersections) and wait until everyone has caught up and has had a break before leaving again then this can be managed.
- As a facilitator, it is suggested that you bring a first aid kit, and give people a suggested list of items to bring in a backpack (water, raincoat, snacks).
- You can also check out this picnic guide by Vaidehi Agarwalla
- Meditation Events
- Obstacle courses
- Easy rock climbing
- Easy kayaking
- Soccer, frisbee, or some other team game
- Geocaching or Orienteering (some areas have permanent courses set up and can be used for free)
- Board Games, Card Games or Role Playing Game nights - while a game doesn’t need to be EA-related, these can be made EA related by choosing a game such as Pandemic. Pandemic is a cooperative board game that involves 2-4 players (up to 6 with expansion packs) fighting a global pandemic - thus making it EA related, although we can’t comment on its scientific accuracy. Other games that are cooperative or resource-oriented may also present interesting discussion topics. See EA Melbourne's guide on virtual game nights here.
- Movie nights - these can be made EA related by choosing an EA-related movie.
- Vegan cooking classes - this can be as simple as having some group members teach other group members how to create their favourite dishes.
- Escape rooms
- Karaoke
2. Additional ideas for EA-themed activities
a. Charity Superfight
A game where participants choose three cards to make up the purpose of a silly charity, in the form of “My charity (activity) (recipients) in (location/additional info)”. Participants then have to argue why their charity is the best using the “Scale, Neglectedness, Tractability” framework. Instructions and sample cards are here.
b. EA Jeopardy
Jeopardy is a quiz game format where contestants or teams answer questions to get points. This EA Jeopardy game has a variety of questions already. Click “edit” and then clone the template so you can create your own version. A data projector or a large screen is required.
c. Wits and Wagers
This is a game where people in teams of 2-4 people are given questions with numerical questions. Everyone’s answers are then displayed on the screen then each team bets some or all of their points on the answers they think are the closest. The real answer is revealed then points are awarded for the closest answer and the most accurate bets.
This game can be a lot more engaging than regular quizzes because even if your team has no idea of the answers, you might be able to guess which of the other teams might know the answers and still win the game. There are also strategic decisions to make about betting.
The Excel spreadsheet contains all the instructions to set up and run the game. It also completes all the calculations for the quizmaster.
The quizmaster will need to make up their own questions, and the quizmaster needs to find out the correct answers and enter the answers onto the spreadsheet before the game.
- Excel spreadsheet template (no questions)
- Excel spreadsheet with sample EA questions (used by EA New Zealand)
Required: A computer with Excel installed and a data projector.
You can read more on how this game has been run at EA New Zealand retreats in this EA Forum post.
d. EA Against Humanity
EA Against Humanity is a hilarious PG-13 and EA-themed adaptation of the party game “Cards Against Humanity,” in which any number of players tries to respond to a prompt with the funniest answer they can. The game is suitable for involved group members as newcomers won’t get many of the references, although you could choose to remove the more obscure references. This original tutorial by Rachel Sadoff explains how to set up and then play the game virtually.
- To create your own deck, consider using Many Decks for preparation and Massive Decks for gameplay.
- EA Harvard, Stanford, and NYU Abu Dhabi have collaborated on a usable deck that is available here. In Massive Decks, select "Many Decks" as the deck source and use the code M0DYO to import the cards.
e. EA Codenames
Codenames is a popular board game where a "Spymaster" gives one-word hints to try to get people to guess the codenames of their team’s spies, without guessing the other teams', bystanders', or the assassin's names. If you've never played Codenames before, watch this three-minute tutorial.
You can play codenames virtually on horsepaste.com, and find a spreadsheet of EA cards here. We recommend starting each round by making sure everyone knows what each word on the board means.
f. Telestrations (also known as Telepictionary or Drawphone)
Telestrations is a game similar to "Telephone" or "Chinese Whispers", but with drawings. Everyone starts by either drawing a picture (or writing a prompt - generally everyone should do the same), then passes it to the person next to them. The person next to them has to guess what they drew (or draw the prompt) and passes it to the next. The game goes until the person receives their original prompt, and has a collection of all the drawings and guesses along the way. There's no winner in this game, but people tend to find the drawings and guesses entertaining.
You can play this game virtually using Gartic Phone or RocketCrab (turn on "players write the first word"). You can recommend players use EA-related prompts to give this game an EA twist.
g. EA Pictionary
Pictionary is a game where one player draws a prompt and others (usually on their team, but it can be the whole group) try to guess the prompt.
Virtual groups can use the Whiteboard function on Zoom to play this game. See this article by Beaulah Sahana for instructions.
We don't currently have prompts for this, but you can pull some from the EA Codenames list above. Note that a lot of these prompts are very abstract and difficult to draw. Contact us if you have prompts to share with the group!