Conference season seems to be here. I know my calendar is filling up quickly. One thing I love about conferences is seeing all kinds of businesses that I never knew existed. One of my guilty pleasures is then taking note of how many use the same stock imagery for their website, booth and other marketing materials.
To spice up your conference a little bit, feel free to print out this Stock Image Bingo card for you and your co-attendees and have a little stock image fun. As you see an image on the card either grab it (if it is a handout) or take a photo of the image you need. At the end of each day, tally up with your group and see who comes out the winner!
Block Descriptions
Starting from the top of each letter column, I will give a brief description of acceptable versions of each space:
B
- The Dude – This is my favorite stock image guy. He can be found in just about every industry in a variety of different settings. This square can only be marked off if he is looking directly at the camera. Glasses on or off do not matter.
- Magnifying Glass – A magnifying glass square can be marked off whether it is a photo, illustration or being held by a person.
- Macaroni People – These little asexual illustrations can be found in hundreds of different scenarios. The one highlighted here is a trust fall but any macaroni person action can count to mark off this square. They are called macaroni people because they look like they could be made from instant macaroni and cheese.
- The Guy – Not to be mistaken for ‘The Dude’ this is ‘The Guy’. I feel like he and the Dude could be cousins. He can be found in a variety of industries, usually with a group of people.
- Money graph with no values – Any type of chart or graph with no values but that magically promises lots more money for your company can count here. All that is important to mark this square off is the lack of values in the chart.
I
- Handshake – This is an easy one. Any handshake image of any kind can count for this space.
- Arms crossed/multicultural group/Random foreground person – This square can be marked off in a variety of different ways. The first is a group of people with their arms crossed, second is a multicultural group wearing complimenting outfits and lastly, a group with one person randomly in the foreground. With these three variations, this square should be pretty easily marked off.
- Fortune cookie – Fortune cookies are one of the most popular of the stock image food groups. This square can also be marked off if an exhibitor’s booth is handing out fortune cookies as the SWAG (Stuff We All Get).
- Puzzle pieces – Huge in the B2B space, puzzle pieces are the iconic way to show that your solutions fits your customers complex need. Puzzle pieces can be any size or color. The puzzle pieces can also be attached or unattached.
- Track stars in suits – A visual example of how your staff rises to the top, beats out the competition or can take your business to new heights is by showing people in business suits doing track activities. Shown here is sprinting but also acceptable is high jump, crossing the finish line, hurdles etc.
N
- Happy computer person – Nothing screams success like high fives and arms in the air while using a computer. This square can be marked off whether or not the celebrator is male or female but a computer must be present.
- Unrelenting stack of papers – Another key B2B stock image is to appeal to the customer’s day to day pain points and illustrate that their solution will get all the paper off of your desk. This stack of papers can come in many forms and may or may not involve a desk to count for a mark.
- FREE SPACE – Everyone gets this space.
- Frustrated computer person – The contradictory image to the top of this column, to get a mark for this square you need a man or a woman to be over exaggerating their computer frustrations. The same person can be used for this square and the top square but they must have different exaggerated expressions.
- Light bulb – Much like the magnifying glass, a light bulb can be found in a variety of ways – above one’s head, with a macaroni person, ON, OFF, attached to a string in the dark, light etc. Any variety can be counted, but it cannot be combined with another square (for example if a macaroni person is holding a light bulb, you can count it either for macaroni person or light bulb but not both.
G
- Attractive and happy headset wearer – Male or female counts for this space. All you need is a gleaming smile and a headset to mark this square.
- Stacked Rocks – Big in spas, salons or businesses that are in the healing industry. The stacked rocks can be marked off as long as the stacks are over 3 rocks high. Stone massage stock images do not count for this square.
- Air strategist – This square can be marked off whether the individual is male or female and the air strategy has words or not. Biggest hang-up here is that the individual must be magically writing in the air and not on a whiteboard or chalkboard.
- Dollar bills – Dollar bills can be squeezed, in a trash can, floating in the air, stacked or in any form. Dollar bill signs do not count for this square.
- Lack of time – Importance of features can often be shown visually by a Twilight Zone type clock or hour glass. What is important for this square is the eluding anxiousness of not having enough time.
O
- Growing seedling – Huge in the startup conferences is the just sprouting sapling. This square can be marked if the sapling is in the ground, on a nondescript white surface our coming out of a hand. If there is a tie, winner will go to the card with the sapling growing out of a human hand.
- Dice – Taking chances and luck are often visually represented by dice. The dice can be rolling or still but must be regular dotted dice. Letter blocks and custom dice do not count. This square can also be filled if a trade show booth is handing out dice to attendees.
- Older people can use computers too – This square can be marked if the computer users are single or a couple, male or female but they must appear to be over 65 years old and must be happy. If your Senior Discount member appears frustrated, consider using them for the Frustrated User in the N column.
- Globes – Globes can be used for any industry to represent how far reaching a business is. Globes can count in any form or shape.
- The Dude, profile – Since he is my favorite, I have to add The Dude twice. This time to mark the square, it must be a profile image.
Extra points – It may be hard to tally cards in real time while at a conference so in the case of a tie, I have a few suggestions on tie breakers:
- As noted before with the sapling image, the sapling in the hand is worth extra points.
- Tradeshow booth handouts are worth more than images like the fortune cookie, dice, clock etc.
- The larger the image, the better. Life size images or larger than life will beat out an image on a handout (see right).
There you go! That is all I think you need to know for Stock Image BINGO!
Conferences can be wearing on you so what better way to spice things up than to make a competitive game out of them! Good prizes for winner’s are dinners at hotel restaurants, cheesy hotel gift shop items, embarrassing losing participants by making them wear something silly the rest of the conference or just good old bragging rights work too!
Good luck and have fun!
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