Events create concentrated experiences. Attendees engage deeply over a short period. This intensity builds relationships faster than any other format.

The event ladder moves attendees from free exposure to paid participation to premium experiences. Each event type serves a different rung.

EVENTS

Free Webinars as Top of Funnel

Free webinars attract new prospects. Deliver genuine value while demonstrating your expertise. End with a soft offer for next-step engagement.

Structure webinars to leak your methodology without giving everything away. Leave attendees wanting more.

Event Type Purpose
Free webinar Attract, educate
Paid workshop Deeper transformation

Paid Workshops

Paid workshops offer deeper transformation in 2-4 hours. Participants get focused learning and interaction. Price accessibly to encourage attendance.

Multi-Day Courses

Extended events (weekend workshops, week-long intensives) provide immersive experiences. These command higher prices and produce deeper results.

Conferences and Summits

Large events with multiple speakers and tracks. These can be produced solo or with partners. Conferences build community at scale.

Retreats and Masterminds

Top of the event ladder: multi-day retreats with limited attendance. Intimate, transformative, premium-priced. These create lifelong memories and relationships.

If you run events, map your offerings against this ladder. What rungs are missing? What could you add to serve attendees at different levels?

Puzzle Brain Breaks - Critical Thinking, Collaboration, and Communication

Oleh -


I’ve struggled a bit this year with getting my students to collaborate and communicate, so I am always experimenting with different ways to encourage these skills. While I’ve built quite a few collaboration and communication activities in our content, I also occasionally like to provide students opportunities to think critically and collaborate outside of my Environmental Earth Science Curriculum.

Today I wanted to share two “Brain Break” activities that I’ve used to get my students talking, collaborating, and thinking critically.

Rebus Puzzles
I have long been a fan of Rebus puzzles as a warm up or bell ringer. The trick is making sure students don’t shout out answer the minute they figure it out. I use Pear Deck to have student first make their guesses. I then have them share their answers with their tables. Finally we have a class discussion focused on the clues that led us to the answer.  This works really well when students come up with more than one reasonable answer. 

Student Pear Rebus Pear Deck (Try it yourself. I love the ability to give feedback to students live in Pear Deck.)
Slide Deck with the Rebus Answers (Later in the year we will shift from word based puzzles to more of the picture based Rebus puzzles and stories that the students will create. Eric Curts has some great posts connected to using Google Docs to create Rebus puzzles and stories.)

TED-ED Riddles 

These riddles are a great way to collaborate in small groups or as a whole class. I typically play the video in class without letting students access their devices. We typically watch the video a few times as the students start in small groups or work with partners. We then expand to a whole class discussion. I love that teachers can use, tweak, or completely redo any lesson featured on TED-Ed, or create these riddle lessons from scratch. We’ve had some great discussions on solving problems as an offshoot of these riddles. 

Do you have a favorite puzzle resource or activity that you use with students? If you have questions or ideas, please share in the comments below. #BetterTogether #HappyLearning