What is a word cloud? It’s a visualization of your audience’s thoughts. Your participants submit words and their answers collect in a “cloud” made up of those words. Like a word collage.
Word clouds are super effective as presentation openers, for re-engaging people during meetings or events, and crowdsourcing what’s on their minds.
As a bonus, they look awesome when displayed on the screen!
Get inspired by these 33 word cloud examples and pick your favorite ones for your next meeting or event.
Openers & Get to know your audience word clouds
These word clouds are great for breaking the ice at the start and setting the tone for your meeting or event. Learn more about your participants or simply collect their thoughts in a nice word collage.
Where are you joining us from?
In one word, how would you describe your past week/month?
Which topic would you like to learn more about today?
Using one word, what do you expect from this event?
Pro tip #1: Word clouds are perfect for breaking the ice at the beginning of an event, meeting, or webinar. Have your word cloud open as your participants are joining in and involve them in the interactive activity straight away.
Pro tip #2: Word clouds look best with one-word or two-word answers. To make your participants submit such short answers, consider starting the word cloud question with “In one word, what do you …” or “Using just one word, which is your…”
More word cloud ideas:
- In one word, how are you feeling right now?
- In one word, how would you describe yourself?
- What one word would best describe the year 2020 so far?
- What’s your favorite country to visit?
- What is your next dream holiday destination?
- What’s your biggest strength?
Read also: 15 Virtual Icebreakers for Your Remote Meetings
Thought-provoking word clouds
These ones make your participants think, feel, and give your meeting or event a bit of a personal touch. And we mean that literally – some of these word clouds are really quite touching.
What’s the first thing you will do once the quarantine is over?
In one word, what’s the biggest challenge you’re facing when working from home?
Who was your silent hero last week/month?
Who is your ultimate female role model?
Pro tip #3: Running a word cloud is a great interactive activity for virtual or hybrid meetings and events because it allows everyone – remote or on-site – to join and chip in with their idea.
Pro tip #4: As a speaker, use the collected words in the word cloud to kick-off your presentation on a positive note. Once the word cloud starts to fill in with words, comment on how your audience voted and make funny remarks.
More word cloud ideas:
- If you’d like to say thanks to someone, you can do it here.
- Which industry figure is your personal hero?
- What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word ‘leader’?
- Which global brand do you admire?
- If you could go for a coffee with one historical figure, who would it be?
- In one word, what’s the best tech invention of the 21st Century?
- Which skills or qualities make one a good manager?
- What makes a great webinar/event/meeting?
Read also: 40+ Best Poll Questions to Engage Your Online Audience
Playful word clouds
The purpose of these word clouds is to help your event attendees or colleagues loosen up, exchange some funny ideas, and have a little laugh. We all need that sometimes, don’t we?
As a child, what did you want to be when you grow up?
What’s your favorite way of travel?
Which color would best describe your current state of mind?
Pro tip #5: In Slido, the word cloud poll has a profanity filter on by default which means that swear words won’t go through at all.
More word cloud ideas:
- Which era would you go to if you had a time machine?
- Which sport would you like to be an Olympic champion in?
- What’s the first thing that you do after you wake up?
- Who was your childhood celebrity crush?
- If you had to eat only one food for the rest of your life, which one would it be?
- If you were a vegetable/fruit/color/animal, which one would you be?
- Which superpower would you like to have?
- What’s your favorite animal/food/flower/ice cream flavor?
Over to you
So, which one is your favorite?
In Slido, creating a word cloud and running it during an online meeting or event is as easy as 1-2-3.
If you don’t have a Slido account yet, create one below and you can try it for yourself. It’s free. Just like all good things in life.