Part 2

How to Choose and Prepare for Your Virtual Team Building Activity

Organising a virtual team building event is much the same as for an in-person one, with the added complexity of sorting online meeting logistics. However, by this point in the pandemic, you’ll have surely sussed out the best ways to organise online meetings that work for everyone!

Here are some quick steps for choosing your virtual team building activity:

Set your objective

What are you looking to achieve with your event? Do you want to break the ice and get people to know each other (especially for a new team)? Alternatively, is your event just designed to get people moving and exercise, like a wellbeing break?

Or are you looking for an activity that will get them to do something fun, let their hair down and just interact freely, like a dance party or a drawing class?

Finally, if you’re looking for an activity meant to build trust and relationships, go for a team game.

Decide the platform

Depending on what sort of online meeting software your company supports, decide what works for you and speak to us about how we can make the event happen on your platform.

Pick your activity

Browse through our catalogue of best picks and talk to us about timings, availability etc.

Sort out logistics

Does everyone need to be online at the same time? Most of our activities involve everyone getting into the spirit of things and working together, so you will need to figure out the best way to schedule the event.

Is it best to have an event immediately after “work hours” perhaps and how does your team currently work, i.e. are they still on a 9 to 5 schedule or are they working flexibly?

Finally, do your team members need to bear anything in mind for the activity to work, i.e. does everyone need an amount of space in their living room for exercising, do they need props (check out the props and supplies we can provide) etc.?

Once you’ve sorted the basics, you’re ready to have some team building fun! Here are some of our best options for your enjoyable and interactive virtual team building activities.

Top Virtual Team Building Events to Try Now

Online TV Game Show Experience

Spend an hour delving into a nostalgic TV show you all love, thanks to our professional actors that make you relive some amazing challenges from the best series your team will love.

Quiz Night

One of the best pub activities out there – the quiz night returns in a virtual format. Get your team to compete in a trivia game with various themes and challenges.

Creative Activities

From cocktail making to life drawing or discovering watercolour painting, our creative team building activities feature expert instructors and special props and supplies that we can deliver to your teams directly. Everyone will learn a new skill and have fun in the process, also getting the opportunity to chat and get to know each other better.

Inspiration from the Best

How about “lunch and learn” formats? We may not all be able to get together, but that doesn’t mean each team mate can’t have lunch while listening to an inspirational speaker we will source for you.

Plain Old Fun

If you’re just looking for a way to relax and have fun, there are some great options out there. We can organise a virtual magic show, a dance party or a wine tasting… or mix and match these! Depending on your team’s interests, we can also add more liveliness to a party by dropping in a caricature artist who will create personalised sketches for each team member.

Competitive Cooking

We know everyone loves a cooking show… so get your team to star in one by having them compete individually or in teams, completing cooking challenges. We provide ingredients and even an extra bottle of wine to add to the fun.

Healthy Habits

How about organising a company wellness hour with a break for yoga or Pilates? We can provide mats with your company logo and arrange for an instructor to deliver your courses whenever suits your schedule.

Conclusion – Don’t Let Distance Get in the Way of Great Team Building

Despite the difficulty of getting together to organise fun and memorable activities, the option of virtual team building has created the perfect solution to teams feeling isolated and cut off from each other. Whether you’re bringing back the sparkle into an existing team or trying to get new colleagues to bond, our top picks for team building events which can be held online are sure to help you forge a stronger, more cohesive team.

Part 1

The current health crisis has caused a large number of companies to move their operations almost entirely remotely. Whilst this is cutting some costs and shedding light on how effective we can be from afar, it is also affecting team dynamics and employee enthusiasm. This is why virtual team building activities are a key way to motivate your team and invest in a continued long-term relationship with and between your home-based employees.

A study by Remote.co found that video conferencing has led to as much as 87% of remote workers feeling more connected. This highlights the importance of continued communication between remote-working teams and shows that human interaction is still highly valued by workers as they log in from home every day. Moreover, the lack of get-together opportunities is making video-based remote team building more important than ever. As how else are you going to be able to get people to talk informally and enjoy each other’s company when they cannot go out for an after-work drinks event, for example?

Here are the key reasons to use virtual team building activities in 2020, followed by some top suggestions for your teams.

Key Reasons to Use Virtual Team Building Activities

Virtual team building is an alternative to the “real thing” i.e. in-person networking, but it retains most of the same advantages. It also combats the key additional negative effects of remote working and isolation that have sprung out of the current climate.

Building rapport

Between existing team members or amongst newer and older ones, rapport is built more easily through enjoyable informal activities that bring people out of their shells. Consequently, a more cohesive team is more likely to work well together, look after each other, and support common goals.

Improving communication

Another key benefit of virtual team building is an improvement in communication. Having the opportunity to interact outside of emails and phone calls, and getting to know each other better, will lead to people being more at ease with each other and communicating more openly and freely.

Not meeting in real life can make it difficult to share small aspects of life which lead to better understanding other colleagues’ circumstances and improving the way we communicate with them. Through the means of virtual team building events, especially less structured ones like wine tastings, your team will get the opportunity to engage in the “small talk” that makes these developments possible.

Increasing awareness of strengths and weaknesses

Especially through problem-solving games like role playing, team building activities – even online – teach us a lot more about each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Trivia games are great for discovering hidden talents and troves of knowledge a team mate might have. All these are opportunities to strengthen the bond between team members, but also to make each other more aware of where someone is lacking.

The mental health benefit

The added benefit of virtual team building at this point in time is the massive positive impact it will have on your team’s mental health and wellbeing. Isolation has impacted most of us negatively, leading to unwanted emotional impacts that can be made worse by lack of communication in all aspects of our lives, including work.

Consequently, virtual team building gives your team a chance to spread some cheer and join in a bit of fun, while feeling less lonely.

Studies have shown that team building activities are great for improving effectiveness, building trust with your co-workers, and overall forging a stronger team. But how do you best prepare for a virtual team building event?

As the merry began to sing, and carols filled warm the chilly air, we at My Event Planner had long since started celebrating this busy festive season, featuring banquets, parties, masquerade balls, dinners, and private functions. We’ve assured our clients of their festive cheer.

December 1^st marked the first of a timeline of great events, as we hosted the first staff event in a beautiful, cozy, and elegant hall for their staff banquet. Decorated with green strobe lights, banners, backdrops, and a perfectly laid out dining hall, it was a wonderful dinner that would leave spectators green with envy.

Shortly after, a corporate client celebrated with a golden winter wonderland, and too many goodies to eat! We’ve filled a hall full of golden bows, flowers, and what else? Snow! The guests tiptoed right across the frosty white halls, to sit down for a buffet dinner of Christmas delights, accompanied by the joyous live music and carols.

Another corporate client partied at the Club Lounge in Sliema with an Oscar-themed late-lunch drinks. Guests walked in via a VIP red-carpet isle to trendy tunes being mixed by the DJ, as a Polaroid photographer snapped away! These VIPs were treated to an afternoon of luxury, champagne, and great style – and décor too!

Many more events came to pass, and along came another cozy, cheerful Christmas event. Under a hundred antique lights, and a gorgeous vintage setting, our clients celebrated their festive season with a fully-stocked and specialised open bar, scrumptious finger food, and some great music. Simple, yet timeless and ever so elegant.

An unforgettable night was planned out for another one of our clients, as they entered a gorgeous and golden hall, to the sweet sound of a saxophonist as they paced round the room decorated with stream lights, and gorgeous red poinsettias. The event enveloped the traditional, with the classic, as well as modern, through the vibrance of the gorgeous red flowers, the wines, tasty finger food, and the soothing sensations played by the saxophonist.

And what more could one wish for Christmas? Hosting the event of dreams, at the Xara Lodge, guests entered the Masquerade Ball to gorgeous red projections and stream lights on the VIP red carpet, as they were offered gorgeous metallic and embellished Venetian masks. Photographers captured the night, as guests entered the golden venue, decorated with chandeliers, lined with more Venetian masks, gold candelabras, candles, and classical mirrors. Not only was the hall at their disposal, but we’ve also set up some comfortable lounge furniture for worn-out party feet outside for guests to sit back under the white marquis by the warmth of the mushroom heaters. Unforgettable, and perfect in every way.

1. Motivation:

There must be a reason for why you are doing your event, so find the reason and understand what your crowd will be looking for, especially what kind of event you want to deliver and why you are currently developing your event.

2. Idea

Now that you know what you are trying to do, you need to shine above the rest. How do you do this? Bouncy castle at a wedding? Upside down cakes hanging? Mermaids? Party in the middle of St Elmo’s? Maybe a masseur in the middle of your venue, to the sound of a live saxophonist. We’ve done this all (and more!) before, and we’ve got you covered for everything.

3. Knowing your Crowd:

Understand the kind of people you are trying to attract or that you are trying to impress. What is the age of those attending? What do they like? Right now it’s key that reflect upon these questions so as to know who you are catering for.

4. The Venue:

This is the first real step in making your event legendary, classic, and original; the event that everyone is going to want to organise. It starts from the location, it’s all about the location. We can get you almost any place if you think ahead of time, most places have permits which can be obtained if you know the right people. (That’s us for those who are wondering) Sorting the event location, will then lead you to setting the…

5. Ambience:

Once a venue is settled, the ambience and venue’s atmosphere should be taken highly into consideration. Whether this is in fairy lights, tiki torches, spotlights or flood lights, lighting in combination with décor are fillers of negative space as well as focal points around a venue, and work towards setting the mood for what you want to achieve at your event. Rest assured, that this is what makes an event Instagram-worthy for your guests!

6. Catering:

Whether you are getting a Michelin star chef, or organising a good old “Majjalata”, you must make sure that you have enough food and drink to keep everyone happy from the start to finish. From the smallest dishes to the most complicated cocktails, think ahead of time, find the right caterer and the best deal.

7. Entertainment:

There is nothing else quite like it. From music, to live dancers, to maybe even mermaids; we’ve got it all. Innovation is of recently kicking in with live event entertainment such as Nitrogen Ice-Cream, masseurs at events, fire dancers, or roller hostesses.

8. Great music:

Music is a drug transferred by physical, or emotional waves, or so they say. What it really does, is sets the scene; the first notes as your guests are coming through the door, till the final beats at the end of the night. Having a good rhythm will set the stage for everything to come together.

9. Photographer / Videographer

What is the good in planning an event so memorable, if you have nothing tangible to remember it with? Carry your good vibes with you, and make them last longer in physical and digital memories that you can forever cherish.

10. Event Planner

Talk to us, we we’ll make it happen for you, in no time at all. It’s as simple as that; you tell us what you want, and we will get it done.

The summer air is all about having fun.

The office is all about production, as well as rate of productivity.

That leaves us in a bit of a tight spot. Although combining both might prove to be beneficial for employees and the company’s alike.

Whilst most companies opt for customer or sales oriented marketing strategies, they in turn fail to realise the that employee oriented marketing strategies are, in actual fact, more successful.

Within a nutshell, this all means that should companies invest in keeping their employees happy, valued, and given the responsibility each employee deserves, the company will strive singlehandedly. This is due to the fact that employees will in turn feel more passionate about their role within the workplace, within the company in general, and will perform statistically 59% better than the average employee. Employees will find themselves going out of their way to put their roles, responsibilities, as well as the entity they work for first – simply speaking, this is work ethic.  Moreover, due to the ingrained happiness found by keeping employees content, the employees themselves would begin to idealize, and further believe in the products and services the firms they work for have to offer. Rest assured, a prospective client would be willing to buy (or at the least try) a new product or service if the employees themselves are noticably happy or convinced with it.

But how does a company invest in its employees, and ensure their work-oriented satisfaction, fulfillment, as well as happiness?

Simple: maintaining the human resource. By organizing events which give employees the simple chance to bond, blow off some steam, or simply let loose, each employee would return to work with a newly acquired positive memory that is associated with colleagues, as well as their work. Therefore, the more opportunity employees are given to cut loose, dissociate themselves as well as their colleagues with a stressful environment, the more thoughts of stress are replaced with positive ones, therefore incubating a happier environment in a place of work, inducing passion within employees, who in turn push the company’s assets.

What better way to invest in employees, than in organizing a corporate social event filled with thrilling live entertainment, a fantastic venue, scrumptious catering, and a handful of memories? Or better still, a day packed with all of that, and some hilarious team-building events for memories that rest assured shall not be forgotten easily?

If you’re the company’s Director, or possibly a Human Resources Manager, fear not, and don’t stress. We’ve got you covered.

Contact us today for more info.