One out of every seven participants at our annual conference submitted at least one of their favorite creative training tips. That's a boon for you! Here are three of the quick tips (and feel free to send us one of yours at CTTEditor@BobPikeGroup.com):

• For a webinar, on the whiteboard, use pictures of local animals like birds and fish, and have participants whiteboard the names next to each on the screen. If the group gets half of them, but not the other half, ask them to raise their hands if many of the animals looked familiar even if they weren’t able to name them correctly. You can say, “Sometimes, even as things look familiar in the content we’re covering, it’s important to know, identify and talk knowledgeably to others.” If everyone gets them all right, pull up a blank whiteboard and say, “Just as you were able to identify some local birds and fish, what are some things you already know about the topic we’ll be covering? What are some things you don’t know about the topic that you want to make sure get answered? Submitted by Brian Winter, human resource specialist-information systems with the Minnesota National Guard. Application by Becky Pluth.

•  As an opener for a small group or at each table, have each participant roll a die (regular or big and fuzzy). The participant shares one thing about himself for each dot showing on the die, including one thing they want to learn in the training. "It gets them comfortable, and they learn they usually have something in common with others there," said Darice Koepke, software support and training for Family Health Services, Maplewood, Minn.

•  As an energizing close to a session, Jackie Gray has participants do a celebration for the learning. Participants "form two lines facing one another and, like sports teams, [they] high five or bump and congratulate each other for the learning." Gray works at Area Education Agency 267 in Iowa.