Start With An Icebreaker

The best way to begin a townhall meeting is with an icebreaker. Not only do they make the meeting more fun, they also help break the ice. Also, they allow participants to feel more comfortable and less intimidated, resulting in participants being looser and giving feedback more often.

A good ice breaker is one that will fit with your topic of discussion, so be sure to think about what you want to cover during your meeting. For example, if you're talking about improving customer service, a game of 'what would you do?' can be a lot of fun for everyone involved. Participants are asked what they would do in various scenarios and then given three answers from which to choose their favorite. You could use the template below for this or get inspiration for your own template. This helps identify what people's priorities are when it comes to this issue and provides some great discussion topics for later in the meeting.

asking questions

Use Sendsteps software

Sendsteps is a great way to get feedback on any topic with real time response capability. Here are three ways Sendsteps can be used at your next townhall meeting:

A) Create an ice breaker quiz that gets people talking and sharing their thoughts by asking simple questions like 'What's your favorite type of candy?' or 'What's the best TV show you've watched this year?'

B) Give attendees a live multiple choice question, and display the results in real-time as people answer it. You could ask them about anything, from what they think about your new book proposal to whether they're happy with the customer service they received last month.

C) Have attendees vote on an open ended question in real-time with Sendsteps’ polling software. You could invite them to weigh in on which candidate has been doing the best job so far in the election campaign, for example. There are plenty of other ice breakers and live polls that would work well for you – just let your imagination run wild!