To ask for your advice on running a family gathering of 30-40 on Zoom that's fun for all generations

[loveyouradvice]

Just that really - first meet up since lockdown - we're used to meeting up, all of us in real life once a year or so for a gathering ... all ages from 9 months to 90, though most are 18-25 and 50-60. There are around 30-40 of us, so I'm guessing around 15-20 Zoom windows

So would love any ideas for structuring it - making it fun - making sure everyone feels heard and has a good time.

Have you done something similar? What did you do?

We did a ‘pub quiz’ evening over zoom with family both here in England and over in America. It worked pretty well. You can’t actually catch up or anything but it was fun and nice to do something ‘with’ them.
Admittedly we only had 10 or so screens!

It was a cluster.

You have to train everyone about muting when its not their turn to talk otherwise Grandpa sneezes and the microphone switches, a teenager farts, a 7 yr old gets silly and shouty etc

I would suggest circulating a list of questions before and designating a compere who will throw the speaking conch to each screen. Then the people from that screen can update with the questions as a guideline.

Im sure there are lots of imaginative things you can do as well, but crowd control is the basis of it working

I'd recommend doing something with breakout rooms, so that people can talk in small groups.

We did a Taskmaster evening with family aged 7 to 70 and it was great. They are running a charity session, which you can find online.

Love those graphic images Sea - that's absolutely what would happen. How do I throw the speaking conch at each screen???

Yes, think a handful of questions circulated ahead is a great idea and probably also asking people to come with a joke... or a handful of quiz questions with visuals could be fun Ugly.

Has anyone tried charades online??

I'll take a look at Taskmaster something, sounds intriguing

And yes Cornish I'm playing with the idea of breakout rooms, and think that could work well....

I'm feeling both nervous and rather excited about what I've taken on

I’ve done: desert island discs - each household picks a favourite song and briefly tells the story behind it, then the host plays a bit of it. Can do similar with a favourite photo or video from the past. Talent show: each household does a talent like recites a poem, sings, tells a joke, plays something badly on the piano. Good for getting the kids involved. Reasons to be cheerful - each household shares something that has been a recent highlight or made them happy. Can combine them all so everyone can chip in something and no-one is forced to do any of the bits they don’t like. Get them to let you know beforehand what they’ll do/say/contribute.

Great ideas Brown - liking those.... desert island discs is especially a goodie!

ANd I think I'll find some early family photos to share - or even a video!

We've done:

Taskmaster
First person to show me on camera X scavenger race
Catchphrase (loads of these available already made up on the internet, some with animations others using words and graphics on PowerPoint)
Music quiz/ name that tune
Silly decorating competition (prep in advance telling everyone what to have out ready but not what they're going to have to make/do)
Various other quizzes
Online virtual escape room (via a Harry potter fan website for free)
Lockdown performances (each household or bubble contribute something)

All age ranges 5 to 90!

We've taken it in turns to host and plan an activity all through lockdowns since the first one.

The first two (bearing in mind it was March 2020 and no one had ever used zoom before) were funny in their own way!

First one, the entire session (as in the whole free 40 mins) was literally spent with some of us on the phone to others trying to help them understand how to log in, join audio etc and the second one it took two households right up until the last 10 mins to be able to join.....So I'd schedule a first one in as a practice if they are new to it!

In terms of the speaking conch concept, I think that if you use zoom, you can invite everyone and have their microphones auto muted and then you as the moderator can un mute people as you choose. If they want to be unmuted then there is a button they can click to ‘raise a hand’ which you would need to watch for, also a chat box for people to type into. Def do some research to check though as Im not very well versed in this

The Pp suggestion of a training session is a great idea, maybe do it one on one with,one elderly rellies and then a email with suggestion of the ‘rules’ to others.

A structure of a 5 min check in from each screen, so everyone can share their news and feel heard etc followed by a game sounds like a good plan

Great .. yes elderly rellies practise planned.... and think people knowing ahead is really important

Wow Jobs that sounds amazing... what a great way of moving through Covid together....

And Sea yes, I think that sounds like a great structure

We did a really good activity at Christmas with our church.
We made a party bag for everyone in advance but if you can't do that you could just ask people to have things really in advance..
We did a scavenger hunt, a bingo game, made brownies, you could assign different families to do games or perform a talent.
Good luck

No problem. Have a great time with your family.