Happy hours have been a great way to get together with friends and co-workers for many years. In recent years, people have started using virtual happy hours as a way to connect with friends and co-workers remotely since many companies are choosing to go remote-first. These events are also known as online happy hours or virtual social hours.
In this guide, you will learn about 10 Fun Virtual Happy Hour Ideas & Games to get the most out of these events and to build stronger relationships with your remote team.
A virtual happy hour is a social event that is held over video conferencing platforms. The objective behind these events is to have fun while also building relationships between the attendees. There is a wide range of virtual happy hour games, ideas, and activities that you can use to enhance engagement and get everyone involved deeper in these events.
A virtual happy hour can either be an internal or external event. For internal virtual happy hours, companies are able to treat their teams after a long week or when they hit a milestone. This is beneficial to increase employee collaboration and boost company morale.
An external virtual happy hour is normally to promote networking. It is a great way to meet liked minded individuals who are in the same field or related business fields as you.
If you want your virtual happy hour event to be effective and achieve your goals, it is important to take the right steps. Making sure you use these best practices for hosting online events. The answer to the question, how to host a virtual happy hour, lies in following these tips:
It takes some planning and effort to organize the perfect virtual happy hour for your remote team.
Since making video calls has become quite common nowadays, it is highly likely that you already use a video conferencing platform. Our suggestion is to look for virtual offices or virtual event spaces that replicate interactions in the real world. One great choice would be Kumospace.
This virtual office and event platform provides users with features like spacial audio, multiple screen sharing, broadcasting and so much more. Teams are able to recreate what a real virtual happy hour bar or restaurant would look like in the virtual world. Employees are able to walk throughout the room and talk to each other while hearing the people that are close by them.
Not all virtual happy hours have a theme, but a theme can enhance the fun factor of the event. It also distinguishes your happy hour from business meetings and transforms it into a social team-building time.
Virtual happy hour games and activities can mean different things to different participants. It is best to choose the activities after considering all the participants.
If you are seeking the perfect virtual happy hour games, ideas, and activities, here is a list to help you. Most of these activities are brief, allowing you to run them quickly.
This is an icebreaker game and its basics are as follows:
You can use a quick round of trivia to encourage interaction. You will need the following elements:
You can provide paid time to the team member who wants to prepare to be the engaging host.
Here are four simple steps in The Statement Game:
This is one of the best virtual happy hour ideas to get everyone laughing. The participants will be acting out words or phrases, hoping that others will be able to guess their actions.
Follow these tips:
You can modify the traditional Two Truths and Lie game and create the ‘true and fictional stories’ virtual happy hour ideas.
Every 5 minutes, mute a participant’s audio without letting them know. Use a code word to signal everyone else what a game is in play and ask the muted person to continue talking. Ask others to guess what the muted person is saying.
This is one of the popular virtual happy hour games. It is fun and challenging, yet simple.
Scavenger hunt has long been the favorite activity at summer camps. They can also be a fun team-building exercise. You can create the perfect happy hour without the need to use apps or programs. All you will require is a time and a few item lists.
If you are looking for a highly effective virtual happy hour team-building activity, you should consider Virtual Happy Hour Bingo. Boost engagement by giving participants something active to do during the sessions. The game addresses this by offering clues and prompts for your team members to listen and check during the call.
These virtual happy hour games help build healthy competition between your remote team members. You can make office Olympics more enjoyable by choosing the perfect events. Some examples include:
Create qualifying rounds and offer digital medals to winners.
There are many benefits of hosting a virtual happy hour for your remote team. Some of the key benefits of organizing such events on regular basis are as follows:
Other benefits of organizing virtual happy hours include better employee retention, affordability, location-independent setting, and enhanced creativity. Holding your happy hour virtually also allows you to have greater and easier control over the event and the participants.
The following FAQs should help address some of your key questions about using virtual happy hour:
Usually, a virtual happy hour can last from 45 minutes to 75 minutes. The duration varies based on the level of interaction you want the participants to have.
Make sure you have the relevant technology before announcing to all your team members about the happy hour’s theme, date, time, and other details. You can create a schedule yourself or work with your team members to create one. We suggest using Kumospace to host your next virtual event.
It is recommended to include the above-mentioned virtual happy hour games, virtual happy hour ideas, and activities to make the event as fun as possible. Make sure you choose the right event platform that allows users to split up into small groups easily.
Some popular virtual happy hour themes include Virtual Wine Tasting, Cocktail Night, Virtual Holiday Party, Classic Board Game Night, and Murder Mystery Night.
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