Robert Fulghum wrote a poem, "All I Really Need To Know I learned In Kindergarten." When It comes to event marketing, all I really needed to know I learned playing bar games.

Contests of skill are great ways to draw a crowd. If you have a great budget, anyone can really run wild with things like 3-D holographic games and stage shows. It takes real imagination to draw crowd with little money. My former creative director used to call me "the carny," because I would present simple, but engaging games that weren't a huge expense to pull off (clients loved that). Many of my games were variations of bar games taken to an extreme.

The best example of cheap games is my favorite new game show Minute To Win It. People play skillful games, using household products, for a chance to win a million dollars. Funny, I put people through similar things for a chance to win a t-shirt.

If you have the opportunity to create an event activity, keep this in mind:

• Keep it relatable to the brand. You want people to have a good time, but you want them to learn something in the process.
  
• Make it a quick thrill. If people are standing in line to play, you don't want them waiting forever or they'll start walking away.
• The audience should be just as entertained as the player. If you're waiting to play or just cheering people on, the sight of someone playing should draw you in. Make it a spectacle people can enjoy from a distance.

Sometimes my warped little mind would come up with game concepts that would send the clients' and agency's legal teams into a panic. ("That looks dangerous... I smell lawsuit.... Blah, blah, blah.") Unfortunately, those ideas never saw the light of day. (Message to producers of Minute To Win It: call me). The next time you play quarters, know that you might be building a job skill.