9 Interactive University Activities: A Facilitator’s Guide

Event-goers are still hungry for adventure in 2026. People are increasingly interested in joining events that offer fresh experiences, travel opportunities, and social interactions. These university events are typically great for delivering an experience that attendees can discuss long after the event ends.

Use the nine formats below to plan one university session. Decide what students will do together, what they will produce and how you will help everyone take part. Choose an activity that fits your group, space and available time.

For a broader campus programme, start with the fourteen university event ideas covering careers, research and campus life. This guide focuses on facilitating one activity, from the opening instructions to the discussion at the end.

Make a short plan for participation

1. Choose one student output. Examples include a solved clue, a question for a guest, feedback on a prototype or a group recommendation. Give participants a clear result to work towards.
2. Match the format to the group. Note the number of participants, room layout, materials and available time. Provide a way to contribute without speaking to the whole room or moving between stations when those options do not suit someone.
3. Assign the session roles. Name a facilitator, a timekeeper and someone who can help with materials or access needs. Explain the activity and how students can ask for help or choose a different way to participate.
4. Write the running order. Allow time to explain the task, carry it out, share the result and discuss what students noticed. Keep a simpler version ready if the group or available time changes.
5. Close with the result and a next step. Ask students to share what they made, discovered or would change. Collect only the feedback you need and explain how it will be used.

Copy this session brief: purpose, participant group, chosen format, student output, materials, participation options, facilitator, running order and closing question.

1. Escape Room

An escape room is an interactive team-building activity that can help individuals move beyond their traditional work roles while working as a team in a much more organic, natural way. The activity can be fun for everyone involved; however, they are not just random fun. The participants will have to think, solve the problem, and communicate effectively under time constraints, which is usually where teamwork becomes very real, very fast.

The setup is straightforward. Teams (5-10 people) enter a themed room and have a limited amount of time in order to find solutions for each clue or puzzle to reach the end goal. Also, you can customize the challenges so they relate to your event theme and not some generic team-building exercise that you picked off the shelf.

You could make it look like a music recording studio, a science laboratory, an art gallery or even an office setup with a twist of something. The clues will be hidden within a variety of formats, such as encoded messages, physical objects, or audio recordings that force the team to think creatively and move forward in steps until they reach the final solution. 

During the session, attendees will have to clearly convey their thoughts, get ideas out quickly, split tasks based on strengths, and help each other stay focused under pressure. The best part is that the activity highlights different skills naturally. People see how teammates think and contribute, and the group leaves with a lasting experience.

2. Indoor Snowball Fight

All that is needed for this activity is a stack of paper and a little creativity. Give every attendee a set of 5 slips with fun questions written on each slip, then give them a couple of minutes to write the answers in their own words. Once done, tell them to crumple the paper into a ball, then let the room turn into a quick snowball fight as the paper balls fly around.

Stop the game after a couple of minutes and ask everyone to get one random snowball off the floor. Each player will open the paper they got, read the answers and try to figure out who wrote the answer. This usually leads to many good laughs and surprise revelations. Also, the activity provides an easy way for people to learn about each other and break the ice during awkward introductions.

3. Ask Me Anything Sessions

An AMA (Ask Me Anything) is a simple, audience-led Q&A format where people ask whatever they want, and the guest answers in real time or from pre-collected questions. Because AMAs let the audience set the agenda and answer freely without the structure of an interview format, the content naturally follows what people are genuinely curious about. 

Some events use a moderator to filter or group questions, keeping the discussion on track and time well managed. The team collects questions in advance, which enables speakers to decide their topics and to organize the session structure with greater precision.

4. Product Demo

Use a student prototype try-out to let participants test a project and give its creators useful feedback. Invite a student team to bring a working demonstration, then give small groups one clear task to attempt. Ask them to note what they expected, what happened and one change they would suggest.

Rotate the groups so everyone has time to try the project and contribute observations. The presenting team can finish by choosing a change to investigate and explaining its next test. Keep the output as a short feedback record that the creators can use after the session.

5. Guest Speaker Sessions

Turn a guest appearance into a student problem clinic. Ask the guest to bring a short scenario from their field, such as a design choice, a community communication problem or a research-planning decision. Let small groups work on a response before the guest explains how they would approach it.

Give each group a specific output, such as a short recommendation, an annotated plan or a next question to investigate. Invite the guest to discuss the approaches and leave time for students to revise their answers. A closing discussion should connect the guest’s feedback to a practical next step for the students.

6. Interactive Puzzles

The activity requires some initial preparation, but it yields an enjoyable, interactive outcome when you complete it. It starts with teams receiving a jigsaw puzzle template to solve after the pieces are randomly arranged. The number of participants in your group determines whether you should create multiple small puzzles for different teams or a single large puzzle for all members to solve together.

7. Scavenger Hunt

A scavenger hunt is a great way to add energy to your event, as it gives attendees a reason to leave where they are and interact with others in a more natural way. Instead of people wandering, checking their phones, and waiting for the next session, they get a mission list to do while on site. 

The flow is easy to follow and very straightforward. Attendees pull up a digital list on their phone (or take out a printed card) and begin doing the tasks as they go along. The best tasks will end up in actual conversations. The activity can also nudge an attendee to click a picture with someone new, find a hidden code at a sponsor booth, or ask a speaker one thought-provoking follow-up question, and record the response.

To wrap it up, you can reward the fastest finishers or the most creative submissions with a small prize giveaway. The real benefit is that attendees will stop viewing networking as a forced activity and instead view it as a fun, competitive challenge. When they leave at the end of the day, they will have had a couple of worthy conversations and memorable experiences.

8. Community Impact Workshop

You can add a philanthropic effect to your workshop. Ask participants to create something useful for NGOs during the session. This turns the task into something meaningful. Having attendees know exactly what their contributions are going toward is a strong motivator. It leaves everyone feeling like they’ve contributed more than expected. 

Building a bicycle from scratch is an excellent example that can be easily adapted to groups. Divide the group into teams, and assign to each team the same set of bicycle parts along with a manual as basic as possible. Then ask them to assemble the bicycle part by part. The activity will naturally create opportunities for attendees to interact with each other and aid problem solving, which all contribute to increased engagement and authentic interactions.

9. Comedy and Improvisation Workshop

Everyone brings their own brand of humor to the table and also their own form of expressing themselves. Comedy or improv activities allow individuals to lean into that in an area where they feel comfortable. 

The rules in an improvisational format are easy to follow and allow participants to create any character they wish, test out multiple scenarios and react to the energies in the room. In turn, this can create a feeling of camaraderie among the entire group. For many attendees, it becomes a surprisingly satisfying outlet. The stage welcomes all who wish to experience something new and helps them find new aspects of their personality. 

Driving Engagement Through Interactive Activities 

Interactive activities make a great difference at events. These are not just popular ideas that look good on an agenda. They are practical approaches that can improve participation, help people retain what they learn, and increase overall satisfaction.

A good way to do this would be to offer a variety of ways to engage with your event. Doing so can make it feel less repetitive and more engaging for a wider audience. Live demonstrations, breakout discussions, and gamified elements all create different entry points for participation. 

Providing a variety of ways to participate will allow more people to find a way that feels valuable to them. The events will also cater to a range of personalities, since some people like group work and rapid-fire conversation, while others may prefer a more immersive task, a creative activity, or a more structured experience.

Want to use your workshop to promote future events? Book a free demo with Dryfta and get a guided walkthrough from our team.