Whenever you bring together a large group of people, whether it’s at a conference, a trade show or any other professional gathering, your goal is probably to create a meaningful and memorable experience, one that they will speak about with friends and colleagues. Something exciting and different, something that stands out and makes them see your brand as “cool, hip, and relevant”.

To tackle this challenge, I have come up with a brand new interactive experience to try at your next event called collaborative painting. During this group painting activity, participants get to paint together a large colouring wall with bright markers. The illustration is completely tailor-made to your event so you’ll have a chance to showcase the key messages is a fun and engaging way. Read on to learn how this group painting activity works in detail.

Collaborative murals - a mindful and creative activity to boost connection at your live event

When you opt in to have a collaborative painting activity at your conference, we first start by having a co-design session where we come up with ideas for the illustration. We usually discuss:

• your conference subject

• the key messages that are most important to you

• some visual elements that should definitely be included.

After this brainstorm, I create the visual that will eventually be the basis of the activity. On a large piece of paper, areas of the illustration will be numbered and people will colour them with the corresponding colours.

How collaborative painting works at conferences

At the conference, I will set up a large moveable wall (3 meters wide) and attach the visual ready to be coloured. During the conference breaks, participants will be invited to colour the illustration and will have a chance to randomly connect with other attendees while also enjoying an artistic break. The bright colours will be inviting to other participants and there will be movement and buzz around the activity. The result will be a large format illustration created by your attendees that you will be able to take back to your offices as a memento of the event.

Group painting like this works really well at conferences, but there are also other opportunities such as trade shows and salons where you can use it to stand out from a range of other exhibitors.

Trade shows and salons - a new opportunity to stand out

During trade shows, people are usually walking around looking for something interesting and you as an exhibitor want to catch their attention. Collaborative painting is an excellent tool for this because it’s a large format, has inviting bright colours and is interactive.

Group painting activity to engage attendees at a science conference

Recently I designed a booth for a science conference. The design included this collaborative colouring based on the five projects that the exhibitor wanted to showcase. Because of its bright colours and the unexpectedness, people approached the booth and were ready to participate in some low-key colouring. Once they did it for a few minutes, they were more open to talk with the exhibitors and were interested in the other materials, such as postcards and presentations. In summary, an interactive activity like this one is engaging to your participants, offers them a mindful break and creates openness and interest to you as a brand and to your other offerings.

Interested in having something like this at your event?