What is Contact?
Contact is a rotating-pairs game: everyone writes one thing about themselves on an index card or sticky note, then works the room in pairs, comparing cards until each pair lands on something they share — a "Contact Point." Partners swap, and the room repeats the search with someone new.
It works because the shared task removes the guesswork from small talk. Instead of "so, what do you do," each pair has one job: find the thing you already have in common. A few rotations in, most of the room has traded cards with several strangers and actually found something real with more than one of them.
It's built for a room that's ready to move and doesn't know itself yet — new teams, first days, groups meeting for the first time. For a group that's already close, or a space with no room to wander and pair off, skip it: the mingling is half the game, and there's nowhere for it to happen.
The rules
- Write your name and one shareable fact about yourself on an index card or sticky note.
- Pair up with someone else and reveal what's on your cards.
- Find at least one thing you have in common — that's a "Contact Point."
- Rotate to a new partner every few minutes and repeat the search.
- Keep rotating for a set number of rounds, or until the room's energy says it's time to stop.
- Close with a few pairs sharing their best Contact Point with the whole group.
Before you start
- Group size: 6–20 participants. For the bigger end of that range, split into subgroups so everyone still has room to wander and pair off.
- A spacious room with room to move. Clear furniture or push it to the edges — the whole game is people wandering and forming new pairs, so an open floor matters more than a fancy venue.
- Materials: cards or sticky notes, plus pens. One of each per person, set out where people can grab them as they arrive. A visible timer is optional — useful mainly for keeping rounds moving.
- Decide your round count before you start. Nothing fixes the number of rounds — read the room's energy as you go, or set a number in advance so the rotation has a clear end.
How to run it
- Explain the goal 1–2 min
Tell the room what's coming — everyone writes a fact about themselves, then goes looking for people who share something with them. Stress listening over performing.
- Hand out cards and write 2–3 min
Give each person an index card or sticky note and a pen. Ask them to write their name and one thing about themselves they're comfortable sharing.
- Mingle and pair up 1–2 min
Send everyone wandering to form a pair with someone new. Each partner reveals what's on their card.
- Find the Contact Point 2–3 min
The pair looks for at least one thing they have in common, from the cards or from the conversation itself. That's a Contact Point.
- Rotate and repeat 5–15 min
Break the pair, find someone new, and go again. Keep rotating for your planned number of rounds, or until the room's energy says it's time to stop.
- Group share 3–5 min
Bring everyone back together and invite a few pairs to share the Contact Point that surprised them most.
← the contact point is the whole point.
Facilitator tips
Variations
Swap physical cards for breakout rooms and virtual sticky notes or a shared collaborative board — partners drop their fact in the same doc before rotating.
After the session, nudge people to reach out to whoever they found a Contact Point with — the follow-up conversation is where some of these connections actually go somewhere.
Why it works
Reflection questions
5 questions that turn the mingling into an actual debrief.
- How did participating in this activity make you feel about your group members?Checks whether first impressions shifted over the course of the rotations.
- What was the most surprising commonality you discovered with another person?Surfaces the Contact Point that landed hardest, and why looking for shared ground on purpose pays off.
- Did any of your assumptions about others change during the Contact icebreaker? If so, how?Names a bias out loud, which is the first step toward not carrying it into the next round.
- How can you apply what you've learned from this activity in future interactions with your group members or others outside of this setting?Moves the exercise from the room into whatever comes next.
- What did you learn about yourself during the Contact icebreaker?Turns the exercise back on the participant, not just on who they met.