Paul You are risking a flop by trying to import 'fun' from anyone who isn't quite familar with both the contexts in which you conduct your traning and the mix of people involved. For 'fun' and 'humour' are unavoidably part of the culture of any group or organisation. Extrovert people can sometimes get away with such a tactic, often by assuming that it 'works' in so far as they personally feel ok about it. Safety training that is genuine and competent can make space for genuine humour through gentle exercises that respect differences. If you want to choose a safe topic for 'fun' about any of the three specific topics you mention, get the co-operation of a senior manager willing to have a joke at his or her expense; it's likely to raise a smile and to be remembered which is enough.

Personally I find it quite patronising when a trainer is trying too hard for it to be fun and getting us to play games (you have to be really good to pull that off well and I've only seen to achieved well on a couple of times). Remember what you think is 'fun' they may think is childish or boring or completely misses the mark. I remember doing a training session for a particuarly challenging group and I had been asked to do a quiz for them too. I tried to keep it a bit fun as well by including off the cuff questions to keep them awake (who as number one in the charts etc), I even got them a prize. I definately got the tumbleweed effect. Since then I kept to the rule of not trying to hard to be funny or be cool or their pal and \I've had much better results. I assume that you want to make it interesting and keep your audiences attention? In my opinion trying to make it fun won't necessarily achieve that ("who's the H&S geek trying to be funny?"). You need to be engaging and that can be done in a number of ways - for example, using personal anecdotes and stories to keep it real, keeping the pace up (but not tooo fast), using engaging body language and eye contact and tone of voice, pictures and videos used wisely and in moderation. And of course the best way to keep their attention is to ask them for their personal expereinces. Everyone loves to talk about themselves at the end of the day. The best trainers come across naturally with personality, they don't get the audience to play games (IMO)

Thanks for your comments and the people who have provided links etc. Claire, it is not a case of trying to hard to be fun, it is merely a case of engaging challenging individuals. Any good trainer is always looking at ways to achieve this and improve the training that they already have in place.

Claire, I asked for games/exercises, just because you do not like such things it does not mean other trainees are the same. My personal opinion is as long as the games/exercises are practical and thought provocing and get the point across then this can only be a good thing. With regards to your comments about 'making them like children' games/exercises do not have to do this, they are there to assist the learning and help increase communication between muti language groups. However, thank you for your comments they are much appreciated and I will take them on board for my next training session.