Games People Play

People are naturally competitive, so one of the easiest ways to engage them in your event is through games. Whether it’s the latest virtual reality simulator or an old favorite, games have long been adding interactivity, memories and fun to our events. Event Solutions searched out some of the most interesting offerings on the market today, and discovered that there’s more than one way to use a game. Below, we highlight three ways each one can make your next event a success.

Get Your Golf On

Attendees who want to be like Tiger can now have their heart’s desire with Amusitronix’s golf simulator. The company’s golf offerings include radar golf, virtual reality golf, custom chipping and putting areas, electronic putting greens, simulators featuring swing analysis, and professional golf instruction with one of GOLF MAGAZINE’s top 100 instructors.

1. Interactive golf simulators draw attention to your trade show both, and can also be incorporated with giveaways.

2. “Imagine having one of GOLF MAGAZINE’s top 100 instructors provide free lessons to attendees on-site at your next event,” says Stephen Hillanbrand, CEO of Amusitronix. “That is exactly what Amusitronix has been providing for Ford Motor Company for the last two years at the Ford Championship.” The simulator adds great value to the company’s presence at the event, according to Ford.

3. The fun doesn’t end with the event—for your attendees, or your marketing department. Amusitronix can also provide clients with a custom website where participants are continually exposed to its branding as they visit the site in order to view their lesson.

For more information, call (800) 643-0589 or visit www.amusitronix.com.

Liar, Liar

We’re all familiar with the efficacy of polygraph machines when it comes to solving a murder mystery, but what if you could have one at your event? Thanks to Metropolis, a Coral Springs, Fla.-based interactive games company, now you can find out.

At over 6 feet high, the stainless steel machine has all the buttons, lights, knobs and furiously scratching pens to get the truth out of any participant—much to the amusement of your audience. And, to kick things up a notch, the machine even has a hidden control that can manipulate the etchers—to hilarious effect!

1. If you’re looking for a way to heat things up at your next corporate event, the lie detector can do just that. At a recent event for Play Along Inc., manufacturer of Care Bears, attendees engaged in a raucous game of truth or dare courtesy of the machine. Participants could choose to answer questions collected from the audience—and brave the polygraph—or take a spin on the Wheel of Dare. Tell why you really left work early (truth) or do the YMCA in front of all your co-workers (dare)? It was a tough call for participants—but either way, the machine kept everyone engaged, energized and laughing all night long.

2. Crowds tend to draw more crowds—and what better way to draw a big one to your booth than by hooking participants up to a huge polygraph machine? The machine itself draws attention because of its unique look, and
   it keeps people in your booth as they watch their friends squirm and wait to try it for themselves!

3. Another way to engage attendees is by challenging them to “beat the expert”—that is, the lie detector. Participants are given a series of questions and are challenged to lie without the polygraph picking it up. Successfully told untruths garner points, and the person who is most successful at fooling the polygraph machine wins.

For more information, please call (954) 344-6030 or visit
www.metropolispro.com.

Surf’s Up!

One base, many themes. That’s the idea behind Eccentric Entertainment’s mechanical base, which can be modified to fit a number of different themes.

1. With the increasing interest in rodeos—you may have seen the National Finals Rodeo on ESPN this past December—all the urban cowboys and gals in the audience will jump at the chance to test their rodeo skills on a mechanical bull. And of course, this crowd pleaser fits perfectly into your Western-themed event.

2. Going tropical this spring? Complement your theme with Robo-Surf, a mechanical surfboard that adds that crucial, interactive element to your tropical décor—waves. Robo-Surf also comes with an ocean-themed inflatable surround. Additionally, the machine can be transformed into Robo-SnoBoard, complete with a mountain-themed inflatable surround, which could be part of an “around the world” event, or fit into a Winter Olympics theme.

3. How hard could it be to make that pass? Now your attendees can find out when they become armchair quarterbacks. With a comfortable easy chair mounted on the same mechanical base, attendees are given a football that they aim at players on a TV screen. Great for sports-themed events, this game lets attendees put their money where their mouth is—without leaving their chair!

For more information, call (616) 785-5200 or visit www.eccentricent.com.

Zoom, Zoom, Zoom

With the popularity of NASCAR, one game clients are clamoring for is micro-reality stock car racing, says Ray Houle, president of Vancouver, British Columbia-based Houle Games & Entertainment. Controlling radio control cars with a wheel and a shifter, attendees race their 2-foot-long vehicles around a 20- to 30-foot-long oval mini-racetrack. Racers are in total control of the action, Houle notes, although they don’t seem to avoid collisions very well. And of course, that’s the fun part.

The game can accommodate groups of 30 people to 400 people.

1. Depending on your group, the racing can be set up in either a casual or a structured format. Casual tournaments, which work better for larger groups, have races every two to three minutes, with the winners being recorded on a flip chart. Several hours into the event, qualified racers are called over for a round-robin elimination, leading up to the four finalists competing in a 15-lap race. Structured tournaments take a little longer and are ideal for smaller groups. Houle also offers an optional décor package including Penzoil oil drums, racing car tires and checkered flags.
   But the game doesn’t only fit into an auto racing theme—attendees can be given play money to wager amongst themselves as part of a casino night.

2. Team building is no stranger to this mini-NASCAR game. One version has teams designing their own official team racing suit with a variety of materials and then competing in a relay race in which the driver must be wearing the suit. In another, drivers cannot see the track and must guide the car based on verbal communication with their teammates.

3. If NASCAR’s not your cup of tea, how about World Cup motorized soccer? Instead of small cars, the motorized element moves large feet. The group divides into teams of red and blue shoes and moves the soccer ball along a 25-foot-long field into the goal. At one event that visually took attendees to six different countries around the world, the feel of Brazil was evoked with motorized soccer (for the U.S., it was NASCAR).

For more information, call (604) 469-0359 or visit www.houlegames.com.

Get in the Sports Challenge Zone

Give new meaning to “all in one” with Fun Services’ Sports Challenge Zone, which features one to 10 different sports games that challenge all ages. Games include the Golf Challenge, which uses golf clubs, Velcro golf balls and a putting green; Electronic Basketball, in which one or two players compete against the clock to score baskets; Radar Pitch, which measures the speed of a baseball throw; Soccer Kick, which measures the speed of a kick; and Slap Shot Hockey, a skill game for hockey fans; among others. Prizes such as items from local university and professional sports teams can add to the fun.

1. For a company picnic, the entire Sports Challenge Zone offers a fun outdoor activity for attendees. It could also promote health and fitness as part of a wellness day.

2. Used as a team building activity, the Sports Challenge Zone accommodates teams of attendees in a friendly competition for the most points and highest scores.

3. One good way to give your feet a rest is to work on your pitching arm, as trade show attendees who have experienced Radar Pitch know. Any of the fun, interactive Sports Challenge Zone games can be adapted as traffic-builders for a trade show setting.

For more information, call (800) 233-3867 or visit www.funservicesgr.com.

Bring Your Sunscreen

Carnival games don’t just have to go with a carnival theme—they can be customized to fit your vision. At a recent event, Splash Rentals offered carnival games with a tropical twist.

1. Splash helped the client carry through with the theme by incorporating pink flamingos, rubber lobsters, sea shells, sand buckets, shovels and oversized sunglasses together to create several carnival games. Next, the company sourced thatched grass-like materials to create skirting for the tables and used stockade fencing as booth backdrops. To top off the look, Splash had its game attendants wear tropical shirts and shorts.

2. The client was introduced to several new tropical-themed games—Ringo Flamingo, Lobster Launch, Bingo Beach and Catch
   A Wave.

3. Splash’s tropical take on carnival games left a lasting impression on the guests. “The games were the ‘talk of the event,’” says Steve Brooks, vice president of Splash Rentals. “Because of the huge participation, the prizes, supplied by the client, were all given out prior to the end of the event. This didn’t stop, or even slow down the play. The guests enjoyed the novelty of the games and came back several times to further enjoy them.”

For more information, call (407) 438-5880 or visit www.splashrentals.com.

Hello Photo

Moving on to the high-tech realm, the new instant video and photo kiosk from Absolute Amusements is sure to make a splash this year. The machine can take photos and record videos, which can then be sent via BlueTooth technology to a phone number or e-mail address or can be burned onto a CD in the kiosk and delivered almost instantaneously. The machine also prints photos in under a minute. What can’t this machine do?

1. What better way to drive traffic to your booth than by letting attendees make their own video or take their own photos and send them to friends, family and co-workers? The kiosk can be programmed so that visitors’ videos are superimposed onto the background of your choosing, and e-mails can be similarly personalized to fit your marketing and branding needs.

2. This sassy, curvy machine will fit right in at your event, where guests can take photos that will help ensure it is a memorable one. Additionally, the kiosk can transfer photos from numerous different types of digital cameras onto a CD (which it provides with a sticker photo and a case), to make sure no important moments are lost because attendees’ cameras are full. The kiosk’s customizable video and e-mail features also make it an ideal addition to a product launch.

3. Trade show and convention planners take note—the kiosk can also be used to promote the location of your next event. For example, e-mails sent from the kiosk could contain a promotional message from you, or from the sponsors of your choosing.

For more information, call (800) 239-3866 or visit www.absoluteamusements.com.

Fun and Game Shows

A digital game show can have many applications, from medical meetings, to general sessions, to sports-themed events, to giveaways. Absolute Amusements arrives with pre-written questions and answers and provides wireless keypads for attendees to respond.

1. Want to find out how much information your attendees are retaining at your seminar? A digital game show is a fun way to determine how much they know going in, how much they are learning as the session progresses, and how much they ultimately retained. Incorporating videos, photos and fun questions and answers, the game show offers an entertaining, yet productive way to break up the meeting without distracting attendees from the business at hand. At the end of the event, management has access to an ROI report that shows how effective the session was.

2. The digital game show can also accommodate many event themes. A racing theme? Absolute Amusements will test your attendees’ knowledge of NASCAR. A space theme? The company will find out if they really know who Buzz Aldrin is. Whatever the subject matter, the game show is sure to engage attendees, and whether they know the answers or not, they’ll still be having fun.

3. “It’s not really about the game—it’s about what you do with it,” says David Peters,
   president of Absolute Amusments. Using it as part of a giveaway or to win door prizes are two additional uses he suggests. The emcee at your event can also pick a name at random and have that person answer a question (about pertinent company information) on the spot. Not only does it add an interactive element to your event, but it reminds people why they’re there in the first place.

For more information, call (800) 239-3866 or visit www.absoluteamusements.com.

Attendee, You Can Drive my NASCAR

Another way to cater to the NASCAR craze is with a real NASCAR simulator from Burgess Amusements & Special Events. The newest addition to Burgess’ inventory, it lets attendees experience the excitement of a NASCAR race through computer simulation while sitting inside a real retired NASCAR, which moves, bumps and roars as the racer zips around the track.

1. The simulator’s most common use in the event industry is at hospitality events both on and off the track, according to Ron Dudik, owner and president of Burgess. As the car can be custom-painted with logos to match any marketing strategy, many companies are capitalizing on the interest in NASCAR to market their products.

2. “A great attention-getter,” according to Dudik, the simulator is in high demand. One of Burgess’ clients recently used the car as a traffic builder in its booth at a food industry trade show. “The simulator was the biggest hit at the show, drawing in tons of prospective clients,” says Dudik. “It was such a hit, we had six calls from other companies expressing interest in duplicating what we did for our client.” Another useful feature of the simulator is that it actually rolls into your event like a real car.

3. If you’re looking for décor for an authentic racing theme, you can use the simulator as a “show car,” or prop, for your event.

For more information, call (770) 788-9109 or visit www.burgessamusements.com.