Staff meetings are necessary, but they don’t always have to be a daily standup or all hands meeting to be worthwhile. You can build valuable business and life skills through even the most memorable and fun meetings.
Let’s dive into some really fun staff meeting ideas that’ll help you transform your everyday meetings into something extra special.
8 super fun staff meeting and event ideas
Want to host something totally different to break things up or introduce a new way of working? Take a look at these events filled with fun team building activities to try as an alternative to your usual staff meeting.
1. Themed party
Host a themed event to really take your next team meeting to another level. Whether the holidays are coming up or your team just really loves the idea of an 80’s themed party, this can be a great way to bring people together and relax.
Poll your team members to find out what kind of themed virtual party they’d enjoy, then get creative and come up with something amazing. This works for both in person and virtual events, and you can keep it low key or send your employees a box of decorations, snacks, and drinks to bring the event to life.
2. Innovation session
For something that’s closer to your regular team meeting, try hosting a brainstorming session or hackathon. Gather everyone together to tackle a challenge or come up with ideas to help you with a business goal.
An innovation or ideas session is a great mix between a productive meeting and a team building exercise. It’s a chance for people to work on skills like leadership, creativity, and collaboration, while having fun. You can tackle this in the conference room, or schedule a Zoom call for your remote team.
3. Virtual happy hour
Once the workday’s finished, it’s time to rest and relax. Invite your staff to join you for a virtual happy hour to celebrate their achievements and look ahead to an even brighter month or year ahead.
This is a virtual team building exercise dressed up as a party. People can get to know each other in a more casual setting, without the pressures of their to-do list looming. Host your virtual happy hour easily with Hoppier, and send virtual credit cards to your team members so they can buy ingredients or order in their favorite beverages.
4. Virtual game night
There’s something about a games night that really encourages a sense of teamwork, collaboration, and just having fun together. If it’s been a while since your last one, schedule a virtual game night so everyone can engage in some friendly rivalry and see who comes out on top.
What’s great about a virtual game night is you can tailor it to your staff members. Ask them what they’d love to play and if there are any online games they’d enjoy demoing to others. You could even turn it into a mini tournament with prizes — like Hoppier virtual cards.
5. Lunch and learn
We’re all for events that are both practical and fun, and a lunch and learn is one of the best out there. Instead of eating lunch solo at their desks, bring your staff members together for an in person or virtual class where they learn while they eat.
This can be a great way to introduce your staff members to a new concept, or give them some training on new software. You could also use it as an opportunity to cover key topics like wellness, diversity, or creativity. It’s a perfect blend of productivity and fun.
6. Virtual escape room
Problem solving is an excellent skill to have, and luckily there are some fun ways to improve it. Let your team members loose in a virtual escape room and see how long it takes them to break out.
There are lots of great virtual escape rooms out there that you can book your staff members into. If you’re a large group, break off into smaller ones, and introduce some competition to see which group can use their curiosity and skill to make it out first.
7. Movie and popcorn night
Give your staff members the ultimate cozy non-meeting with a movie night. Get everyone to vote on the genre of film they want to watch together, then come up with a movie choice that you think they’ll enjoy.
For in person staff members, transform your office into the ultimate movie hangout space — or create something fun in an outdoor space. If you’re hosting a remote movie night, invite everyone to a video call and mail out a box of supplies to help them create a real experience at home.
8. Virtual coffee date
Sometimes you just need a casual place to chat, get to know each other, and come up with what could be your biggest idea yet. Gather your remote team together for a virtual coffee date where the goal is to relax, catch up, and take a well earned break.
With such busy schedules, having a planned break like this can be a great way to help your staff members stay motivated, refreshed, and productive. If you can, make your virtual coffee date a regular event in your company calendar so people develop a positive habit around it.
8 team bonding activities to make your regular staff meetings fun
Hosting a virtual event is super fun, but you can’t make every team meeting an adventure through an escape room or a virtual co*cktail party. Here’s how to take some of that excitement and bring it to your usual meeting agenda, for a more fun, engaging experience for everyone.
1. Show and tell
For a fun way to move into your next meeting, try a quick round of show and tell. Ask your team members to take turns to stand up and present something that’s important to them.
Encourage people to be as creative as they want and use this as an opportunity to share more of themselves. Pets, photos of family members, favorite Lego models, and more are all fair game. This is a great way to find out more about the people you work with, before you move onto the rest of your agenda.
2. Caption contest
There’s got to be a handful of people in your company that just love coming up with something witty to say. Give them a space to make that happen with this great icebreaker game.
Find an image that offers your team members plenty of room to get expressive and share it with the group beforehand for them to come up with ideas, or on the day for their quick captions. Introduce this as a fun addition to your weekly staff meeting, or as an icebreaker for a virtual retreat.
3. Play “would you rather?”
There’s a reason icebreaker questions remain popular as a way to get to know each other. These quick fire inquiries give you a way to find out something interesting, without taking up too much space on your agenda.
Add a quick round of popular party game “would you rather?” to your next team meeting to see what you find out. Keep the questions relaxed and avoid anything too confrontational, and use it as a chance to explore someone’s food, travel, or hobby preferences.
4. Best backdrop contest
Kick off your next staff meeting with something a little fun — a best backdrop contest. Our remote work backgrounds are often just blank walls or our favorite books on a shelf, but this is an opportunity for people to switch things up.
Give your team members a heads up and encourage them to jazz up their workstations before your next meeting. They can either decorate their actual backdrop or use a virtual background for a really fun effect. To help them create something great, send them a Hoppier virtual credit card to spend on supplies.
5. Guess the location
Take your virtual meeting somewhere new entirely with a round or two of a location guessing game. Load up Geoguessr and see if you can work together as a team to figure out where in the world you are.
This works well as an introductory icebreaker or team building game, or as a way to sign off your end of week stand up meeting. If your team members love it you could even set up challenges to see who’s the most accurate guesser out of all of you.
6. Joke of the day
Like our caption contest idea, this one’s likely to be a hit with anyone one your team that loves to joke around. It’s also a fun way to kick off your day — especially if it’s likely to be a long one.
Ask people to submit their best joke ideas and rotate through your suggestions to bring everyone a “joke of the day.” If you run out of ideas, use an online joke generator to help you come up with a few great ones.
7. Scavenger hunt
For a great way to get your staff members away from their desk, set up a fun scavenger hunt for your next meeting. Put together a list of items for them to locate around their office space and see who can come back with the most.
If you’re not in the office environment, it can be hard to check off everything on your list — so have people work in teams to gather all the things on the list. Set a prize for the team that collects items the fastest — like a Hoppier virtual card and a place on the top of your leaderboard.
8. Guess the picture
Almost everyone’s played a picture guessing game before — whether it’s on a whiteboard or an online game like Draw My Thing or Gartic Phone. Introduce one of these to your next staff meeting as a quick icebreaker or something to do between heavier meeting topics.
This is a super interactive way for people to get involved with your video call meeting. Take it in turns to draw a picture while others guess what it is. Keep track of scores and crown a winner at the end of the year to add some friendly competition to the mix.
Engage your team members with Hoppier
While not every staff meeting can be wild and memorable, you can make each one more engaging with the help of these ideas and great tools — like Hoppier.
With Hoppier, you can give your team members an easy way to engage with your activities and events without having to use their own card to buy supplies, food, or entertainment. You can send them a Hoppier virtual credit card instead to help bring your fun staff meeting ideas to life.
Use Hoppier to help boost your employee engagement, team building, and corporate gifting efforts. Give your employees a simpler way to buy ingredients for your virtual happy hour, or join you for a movie watchalong on Netflix. It works well for gifting and prizes too — so you can really make winning that trivia quiz feel worth it.
Getting started with Hoppier is a breeze. Create an account, then jump into setting up your first program. Customize your card design with your brand colors and company logo, then set a spending limit and redemption period for your card. You can customize which vendors your team members can shop with too if you want, to create a really curated experience.
Hoppier is a great tool to have in your kit, whether you run remote, hybrid, or in person events and meetings. Our platform lets you create fun new ways to engage with the people you work with, wherever they are.
Surprise your team members with these fun staff meeting ideas
Making your team meetings stand out doesn’t have to be difficult. Take inspiration from these fun staff meeting ideas to help you put together a calendar of events, experiences, and meetings that create real moments for the people you work with.
If you want to take things even further, take a look at our webinar on the tools you need to create memorable virtual events. It’s packed with recommendations from event experts on the best tech to help you design events and experiences that make an impact.
