Summer team building? Here’s how you can do it virtually

With COVID-19 vaccines still being rolled out in the United States, physical group gatherings will still likely not be advisable by summertime. But that doesn’t mean you’ll have to skip this year’s team building — you can do it virtually.

In this blog, we’ve compiled some virtual team building ideas you can explore:

Go on a virtual vacation

Images of seawater, sand, and the sun often come to mind when it’s summer. Just imagine the entire team relaxing and sipping piña coladas on a tropical beach. The good news is that you can virtually transport your team to an imaginary island using Zoom. Ask everyone to change their Zoom backgrounds to a beach and wear Hawaiian shirts. To amp up the vacation vibe, you can even hire a virtual tour guide who can get everyone laughing and participating in some fun team challenges.

Host an online karaoke session

There’s nothing like a group singing their hearts out to some crowd favorite karaoke songs like Backstreet Boys’s I Want it that Way, Bonnie Tyler’s Total Eclipse of the Heart, or Whitney Houston’s I Wanna Dance with Somebody. The experience can be very cathartic, making it a great way to get your team connecting.

To set up a virtual karaoke party, follow these steps:

1. Ask everyone to join a video conference – Using Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Google Meet, set up a meeting and share the meeting link to the team. The video conference allows everyone to see and hear one another.
2. Invite them to join a Watch2Gether room – Create a Watch2Gether room and send the room link to the team. This room allows everyone to watch videos in sync.
3. Allow team members to select karaoke videos on Watch2Gether – On the search bar of your Watch2Gether room, let team members type in their song titles, then add these to the queue by clicking the + symbol.
4. Let them sing – When a team member’s song comes up, ask them to unmute their microphone in the video conference meeting and sing!

Watch a virtual stand-up comedy show

Using a video conferencing app and Watch2Gether, everyone on the team can watch an existing stand-up comedy show that’s available online.

Alternatively, you can hire a stand-up comic for your team building and host the show on any video conference app. It’s best to give the comic some background information about the team so they can customize their jokes to get everyone laughing. You may even open the floor for team members to share their own jokes.

Solve a virtual escape room

Similar to a physical escape room, a virtual escape room provides an interactive and challenging adventure for teams. In 60 minutes, players must cooperate to solve puzzles and accomplish tasks so they can work toward a shared goal: to escape the room.

The Escape Game (TEG), specifically, uses Zoom to host the virtual escape room. Every group of players is matched with a TEG guide who is in a physical escape room with a live camera feed. Using digital dashboards, players direct the TEG guide through the adventure.

Play online mobile games

To have a no-fuss virtual team building, you can simply play games on the Houseparty mobile app, which hosts activities such as:

• Trivia games – There are 18 free trivia games on the app including the “Finish the Song Lyric” trivia that requires players sing out loud.
• Quick Draw – Similar to Pictionary, players must sketch the word that shows up on their screen and let other players guess it.
• Heads Up – One player can’t see the card they’re assigned and others must help that player guess it.
• Chips and Guac – Similar to Cards Against Humanity, a player puts down a card with a descriptor and other players place down a card that they think best matches that descriptor. For example, for the descriptor “Sneaky,” a corresponding card can be “Sliding into DMs.”

Just ask everyone to download Houseparty from the AppStore or Google Play. Afterwards, let them log in, locate their teammates, and then choose the game you want to play. That’s it!

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