Some events are enjoyable because the food is good. Others become memorable because of what happens between people.
That was what stood out most from our collaboration with Wajeun for their Eat and Play event. It was a day built around food, play, and connection, and the energy kept growing as the day went on.
The event started around 12:00, with people arriving gradually and settling into the space. At first, there were about 10 people, which made it feel intimate in a good way: small enough to be relaxed, but with enough curiosity in the room to know something fun was about to happen. As host, I introduced myself, welcomed everyone in, and handed out name tags and sheets of paper for our first activity.
Starting with Stating the Obvious
We began with a light creative icebreaker called Stating the Obvious. The idea was simple: everyone had to write something poetic about an obvious feature of their appearance or something noticeable about them. It immediately changed the mood of the room, because people had to look at themselves and each other a little differently, not just literally, but playfully.
After that, we moved into the first digital game on Neegma: Find the Mole. Everyone joined on their phones by scanning the QR code, and the room quickly shifted from calm curiosity to full attention. In each round, everyone saw the category, but one person did not know the actual word, so the group had to talk, listen carefully, and figure out who the mole was.
That was when the day really started to open up. People were debating, defending themselves, trying to sound convincing, and watching each other closely. In the first round, the mole managed to stay hidden, which made everyone even more suspicious in the second round. But when the category changed to crawling animals, the group became sharper, and this time they successfully figured out who the mole was.
Food and play, feeding each other
All this was happening while food was being served, which gave the whole event a really natural rhythm. People were eating turkey pepper soup, talking between rounds, and getting more comfortable with one another. It never felt like there was a hard separation between activity time and social time. The games and the food were feeding into each other, and that made the atmosphere feel easy.
From there, we switched into a singing game and divided people into teams. Each group picked its own name, which immediately added personality and humor before the game had even begun. Then the challenge started: based on a letter or word from the host, each team had to sing songs that matched, and very quickly the room filled with laughter, shouting, confidence, hesitation, and those hilarious moments where someone knew a song but could not quite start it in time.
By then, people were fully warmed up. The second meal, bole and fish, was served, and the room had that really nice kind of buzz that happens when people have already shared a few laughs together. You could feel that it was no longer a room full of separate attendees. It was becoming a shared experience.
The Stating the Obvious twist
Then we returned to Stating the Obvious, this time with a twist. Earlier, I had collected everyone's poetic descriptions, shuffled them into a bag, and now people picked them out one by one, read them aloud, and tried to guess who had written each one. That part became one of the most unexpectedly fun moments of the day, because the clues were clever, personal, and funny in ways that made everyone lean in.
Some of the descriptions were especially memorable:
- One person wrote "I'm in the clouds," referring to a light blue cap.
- Another wrote "hot and spicy," inspired by the pepper soup that had spilled on someone's trousers earlier.
- Someone else referenced a cross necklace in a way that tied it to the Easter season.
Those little details made the game feel personal, observant, and full of character.
Wajeun's custom game rounds
By this point, the room was ready for the custom game rounds. One of the most exciting parts of the collaboration was that Wajeun had created their own custom questions ahead of the event using Neegma's playground, so the games felt even more tied to the day itself. We had a full run of dataset-style games: Unscramble, Missing Letter, and Odd One Out.
For each game, people scanned the QR code again, joined the session, and played directly from their phones. We started with Wajeun's custom question sets, then moved into Neegma's own question pool. The pacing helped a lot: quick rounds, 15-second countdowns, fast scoring, and live leaderboards kept the momentum high and made every question feel like it mattered.
You could see how competitive people became almost immediately. Players were typing quickly, trying to answer before the score dropped, watching the leaderboard, and reacting every time positions changed. Some people became very invested in staying at the top, and once that competitive spirit kicked in, the whole room became louder and more animated.
Each round had its own flavor:
- Unscramble brought speed and urgency.
- Missing Letter kept people alert.
- Odd One Out seemed to hit people differently, because it made them pause, think, and really work through why one option did not belong with the others.
That last game ended up being a favorite for some of the attendees. The feedback we got was that it felt more mind-bending and mentally stimulating than they expected. People enjoyed not just getting answers right, but discussing the logic behind them, and that added another layer to the experience because it extended the game beyond the screen.
Building toward something together
Throughout the session, we gave prizes to winners after each round, which kept excitement high. There was also an overall leaderboard running across the event, so people were not just playing to win one moment. They were building toward something over the course of the day. In total, about 29 unique participants joined the session at different points, with some rejoining as we moved between games.
What made the collaboration meaningful was not only that the games worked, but that they created the kind of interaction we hoped for. The event itself was positioned around eating and playing together, and that feeling of shared participation came through in the public recap as well. Play gave people a reason to laugh, debate, sing, and think together.
As the structured games wound down, people stayed to talk, discuss, and get to know each other better. That felt important too, because it showed that the play had done its job. It had given people shared moments, shared jokes, and shared reference points that made conversation easier afterward.
The day ended on a warm note. Guests received giveaway bags, snacks, and food to take home, thoughtfully prepared by the Wajeun team. People left having eaten well, played hard, and genuinely enjoyed themselves.
Watch it back
If you want a feel for the atmosphere, the event highlight reel captures the games, the energy, and the room at its loudest. And if you want to hear it from the people who were actually there, some guests shared their experience directly in this feedback reel.
Want to power your own Eat and Play style event? Start hosting on Neegma or browse the game library.