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Virtual Happy Hour - 10 Games & Activities

Virtual-happy-hour

Virtual Happy Hour - 10 Games & Activities

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.

What is a Virtual Happy Hour?

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.

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How To Host A Virtual Hour For Remote Teams?

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:

Cover your Event Planning Bases

It takes some planning and effort to organize the perfect virtual happy hour for your remote team.

  • Consider the number of people that will be attending.
  • While there is virtually no limit to how many people can attend, it is best to keep the group small enough so that everyone gets screen time. Ideally, your virtual happy hour ideas, games, and activities should involve 3 to 15 users. And don’t worry, if you have more than 15 people, you can split them into smaller groups.
  • Plan the ideal occasion, date, and time for the virtual get-together. The ideal occasions include: an employee’s birthday, achievement of a milestone or target, a holiday party, a fun day on holiday such as Halloween
  • Also, consider how you will invite the participants. Whether you choose to email or any other contact mode, make sure to use bright and fun colors, graphics, and include a call to action (CTA).

Choose the Right Platform

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.

Choose a Virtual Happy Hour Theme

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.

  • Consider the reason why you are holding the virtual happy hour
  • A birthday party can be themed around the team members favorite hobby or color
  • A new client win can be celebrated by hosting a Hollywood-themed happy hour with everyone getting dressed up

Plan the Right Activities

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.

  • Send out a survey while sharing your own ideas
  • A quick survey can help you learn about virtual happy hour ideas you didn’t even think of
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10 Virtual Happy Ideas, Games, And Activities

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.

1. Something in Common

This is an icebreaker game and its basics are as follows:

  • Divide your remote team into breakout rooms with 3 to 4 members in each
  • Give each group 3 minutes to determine the 3 unique things they have in common

2. Virtual Happy Hour Trivia

You can use a quick round of trivia to encourage interaction. You will need the following elements:

  • Fun questions
  • Engaging host
  • Game format

You can provide paid time to the team member who wants to prepare to be the engaging host.

3. The Statement Game

Here are four simple steps in The Statement Game:

  • One participant will make a statement and pass it to the next participant
  • The second member responds with a statement and the conversation continues
  • The objective is to continue the chain of logic and make statements as long as possible
  • The game will conclude when someone fails to ask a question to make a statement in 5 seconds

4. Charades Virtual Happy Hour Idea

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:

  • Ask for a volunteer and get them to pick a word or phrase
  • The volunteer can give everyone a category and a word count
  • They will act out the word or phrase until a participant guesses it or fails

5. Two Truths & a Fiction Virtual Happy Hour Idea

You can modify the traditional Two Truths and Lie game and create the ‘true and fictional stories’ virtual happy hour ideas.

  • Ask everyone to create 3 embarrassing stories, with 2 true ones and 1 fictional one
  • Get everyone to share their stories and make others guess which ones are true and which ones are fake
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6. Lip Reading

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.

7. The Question Game

This is one of the popular virtual happy hour games. It is fun and challenging, yet simple.

  • A participant will ask a question to another participant
  • The second player responds with a question directed at another player
  • This continues until the question comes to a stop

8. Virtual Scavenger Hunt

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.

  • Create scavenger hunt lists
  • Send out participants on times missions to gather the specific items
  • Examples of such items include coffee makers, cleaning supplies, car keys, raincoats, and wallets

9. Virtual Happy Hour Bingo

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.

10. Office Olympics

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:

  • Company trivia
  • Typing speed tests
  • Gaming tournaments

Create qualifying rounds and offer digital medals to winners.

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Benefits Of Hosting A Virtual Happy Hour

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:

  • Building Strong Bonds: All employees need time to decompress. People usually consider going out with friends to be the perfect way to relax. A virtual happy hour allows you to build a similar kind of relationship with your team members. These events help employees connect with one another to have more fun in the remote workplace.
  • Improved Productivity: When you have happier employees, they will be more engaged and more productive. It is important to make them feel valued and provide an experience from time to time that lets them unwind after a long work day.
  • Moderation: Team members will mainly drink in moderation since it is still a work event at the end of the day.

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.

FAQs About Virtual Happy Hours

The following FAQs should help address some of your key questions about using virtual happy hour:

How Long Should the Event Be?

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.

How Do I Host A Virtual Happy Hour?

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.

How Do I Make A Virtual Happy Hour Fun?

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.

What Are Popular Virtual Happy Hour Themes?

Some popular virtual happy hour themes include Virtual Wine Tasting, Cocktail Night, Virtual Holiday Party, Classic Board Game Night, and Murder Mystery Night.

Drew Moffitt
Drew leads marketing at Kumospace. Prior to joining Kumospace, he spent his career founding and operating businesses. His work has been featured in over 50 publications. Outside of work, Drew is an avid skier and sailor. A wholehearted extrovert, he organizes VentureSails, a series of networking events for founders and tech investors.
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