Carrot Kiwi Banana is a great way to get to know your co-workers a bit more. It's definitely not my idea, it came from a post on LinkedIn.

The idea is this: 3 subjects with 2 slides and 1 minute each. Three people choose a subject each. It can be anything they like, they learned, they want to do, anything in the world. They have to made two slides for that subject, and they have one minute to present it to everyone.

We wanted to try this while I was working with NiceDay, and we edited the format slightly. We used to have lunch talks, that used to be one presentation about something, sometimes having a guest, a client or an external professional doing it. We replaced that with our own Carrot Kiwi Banana. We had three people choose a subject, they had to do two slides each (sometimes it was one, sometimes it was three, but two was the suggestion), and we gave two-three minutes for the presentation.

The idea for these changes to the format was mostly to be able to have all three presentations happen in the first 5-10 minutes of lunch, and no more. After the presentations were done, the three presenters would nominate the next three presenters, for two weeks later. After that, they would join everyone else on the table. CKB was not taking too long, it was fun, and it allowing for time after the presentations for possible questions or just discussions while enjoying lunch.

These three subjects served as a great conversation starter, or sparked interesting questions and follow-ups. We had presentations about keyboard layouts, tips for saving money, design imitating life, origin of certain words, factor.io, and many other fun ones!

Try it! All you need is a schedule and the three initial presenters. To make it easier, the hosts could also use a Google Slides template that is cloned for every CKB day, and presenters can add their slides in there directly, so that all presentations happen in one machine, for easier transitions (no unplugging or switching machines etc).

If you did try or want to try, I want to know all about it! Hit me up on Twitter!