June 2020 is just ending... It's incomparable to last year. May and June are typically a time for many outdoor team-building events – urban and field games , picnics, and field trips. However, team-building in 2020 generally looks different... And it's all thanks to the internet. Discover virtual team-building events.
The situation seems hopeless. We don't sit at computers every day to socialize with them, many people will think. To some extent, they'll be right... but let's look at how we relax these days – largely also in front of a computer screen. We're escaping from working in front of a monitor towards Netflix (or another VOD service) or gaming – in other words, in front of a monitor again – only a private one . This is especially popular in the age of social isolation. Once we accept this, new possibilities open up before us . What are they?
Virtual escape rooms
Team-building in traditional escape rooms has long been popular among small teams (usually up to five people enter an escape room, and one company has space for three or four rooms in a single location). And what happens inside? The team is subjected to a variety of logical and skill-based challenges that test their communication, manual dexterity, thinking "out of the box," and observation skills.
Our experience shows that three of these four things can be easily transferred to the online world . We're still working on manual dexterity (although that's where the challenge boxes we create come into play 😊). Furthermore, virtual escape rooms offer companies the ability to easily modify them – for example, you can use company integration to familiarize employees with a new online connection system or even incorporate skills from, say, a recent Excel training course (true story – we've done such wonders before). Requesting a scenario change or creating a physical room for a given company would be very expensive. In the world of online puzzles, it's much simpler!
Virtual bonfire
This is one of those ideas that initially seems so far-fetched it's hard to believe... But it works. If you have a team that's up for crazy ideas, read on 🙂 . We start preparing for our virtual bonfire about two weeks in advance. Participants receive packages with the necessary items for the fun. They'll find not only candles to symbolize our bonfire, but also campfire snacks and... a bit of a strange story with a few gadgets.
On the day of our bonfire, we'll join together and, under the guidance of the (Virtual) Fire Keeper, play games that require the gadgets we've been given. Sharing a story together is always a great idea – everyone has a piece that doesn't quite make sense… but when we combine everything, add a pinch of role-playing and fantasy, we create a fantastic bonfire story.
Online workshops
Those who appreciate hands-on crafts will appreciate the online workshops. Similar to the virtual bonfire, participants receive a package containing the necessary materials in advance. At a designated time, under the guidance of our instructors, everyone creates – a forest in a jar, a moss painting, or fantastic wicker ornaments. And we have a great environmentally friendly aspect!
Shooting a joint video
Online teambuilding isn't just about connecting via Teams , Zoom, Eyesyon, or Google Meets. You can also engage in activities at any time with a shared goal. For example, recording a music video together ! That's how we integrated part of our team. Below, you can see how it turned out! We can also help you organize something similar—both conceptually and in terms of execution.
Online integration, which is currently experiencing a renaissance, offers a wealth of opportunities. Until now, companies with dispersed structures , with employees in multiple cities or countries, have struggled to bring their teams together in one place, and for obvious reasons, this has been rare – once or twice a year (and sometimes even less often!). Thanks to online integration, geographically dispersed employees from the same team can more often maintain casual contact with each other.
If you like our suggestions for virtual team-building events and would like to see them implemented at your place, let us know! If you have your own ideas for online team-building events, let us know too! We'd love to add to our catalog of attractions!
