This is a tuff one. If it is a small group I usually introduce myself and then go around the room and have everyone say a little about themselves and what they would like to come away with from the training. I have also had them fill out little questionares about themselves and ask them to put down one personality trait they see themselves as being very strong. The next day I will usually bring this back up and ask everyone to guess whose personality trait I am describing. Hopefully we have interacted enough that these traits are obvious to everyone. I have also told stories about my wifes cooking, travels and when I have to mention the no cell phone policy I go into my "how much does everyone think they spend on communication bit" This ususually gets good interaction when we average out on the board what everyone spends on cell phone, cable, DSL and home phone a month just for communicating. If I am facilitating from 50 to 175 people then I always have a slideshow of pictures of people from my workplace on a 3 second transition for about 12- 15 minutes. I do this at the begining and at breaks. This keeps everyone focused on the screen and keeps them searching for themselves or friends and keeps them amused instead of bumming on training. Good luck, sometimes it's a tuff battle. One more thing Power Point is a training killer, INSERT PICTURES whenever possible. I try to use PP as cuecards.
