I LOVE THIS ICE-BREAKER - ASK WHOM EVER YOU ARE SPEAKING TO IF THEY COULD HAVE A DINNER PARTY AND INVITE 5 FAMOUS/INFAMOUS PEOPLE PAST/PRESENT WHO WOULD THEY INVITE? AND WHY? I FIND THIS QUESTION TO BE A GOOD LAUGH WITH VARIOUS ANSWERS YOU RECEIVE ETC IT ALSO GIVES YOU A GOOD INSIGHT TO THE PERSONALITY OF THE PERSON YOU WANT TO GET TO KNOW!!!
Once, when working at a convention and seated at a table with folks from all over the U.S., I started a conversation with the woman next to me about natural disasters. This was because the movie "Twister" had just started playing in the theatres and I knew that she was from tornado country. Before we knew it, everyone else at the table joined the conversation and folks from other tables started coming over to talk as well. We discussed the various disasters for each area, shared our own personal experiences and how we coped with them and swapped tips. It was a real eye-opener and very fascinating. And it brought a large group of strangers together, at least for a few hours.
Since then, I've had the opportunity to open other conversations with this same topic and it has always had the same result.