So many good suggestions form experienced Stickists.

As to the boredom factor, you might want to think of showing basic technique things as being free from genre and therefore opinions. Well mostly.

Bob C when he was here was really good at getting us to play together right from the get go.
We played the "alphabet" - A minor scale, bass only. Then some single position chordal and root bass things. Staying in one position it's pretty hard to go wrong as you would know.

Being aware of age groups and there biological/behavioural needs is key.

Breaking things up with a sense of humour then back into a "serious" topic then back to humour, then opening it out to conversation is good. Learn to paraphrase what someone is saying if they're starting to waffle. This helps to validate their point, let them feel included and keep things light and focussed when all someone else thinking is "will this guy just shut uuuuup". Even cutting them off in a validating way, which I've done at times. In fact more often if it's mid class and things are getting conversational , you might want to ask yourself is this the hang time part, or are we having genuine musical musical discussion, as part of a workshop. The former would necessitate you being a little more of a ring leader, teach/coach.

Stickists are very good at keeping things light, I'm sure you must know just what you're doing.