Networking: The Beehive Game

Networking: This activity is great fun and is called the Beehive Game:

1. unlimited total number of people
   
2. everyone brings tons of business cards
   
3. break into small groups of four or five people
   
4. 3 rounds of activity
   
5. for each round, every participant is given an envelope and a blank recipe card
   
6. participants write on the card a need that they have. Could be a business need i.e. I want to get in touch with potential audiences of x type - or a personal need i.e. I need a good real estate lawyer, or I want to get in touch with people who can give me ideas about where to go on my next trip
   
7. for each group and each round: Queen Bees, and Worker Bees.
   
8. each person in turn gets to be the Queen Bee, and someone else represents him or her as the Worker Bee.
   
9. the Worker Bee "buzzes" around the room with the Queen Bee's request and collects business cards that match that request
   
10. time the rounds to keep a sense of energy and urgency.
    
11. this activity can be processed to whatever degree you wish. The game can take three hours or a couple days. For the shorter version, people go away with tons of leads to explore on their own time.F or the longer version, you can ask people questions about which role they felt most comfortable in, what new things did they notice about themselves, how did the teams work etc.