Posted on April 27, 2023
All work and no play can make your employees and clients satisfied and engaged, especially during corporate events. But who says you can’t make them fun?
Whether in-person or virtual, your choice of entertainment can make a huge (positive) difference in how employees feel about working at your company. As the famous networking quote goes, “People never forget how you make them feel,” so you know the effort is well worth it.
If you don’t know how to get started, don’t worry. Check out our 14 proven online and in-person corporate event ideas to add zing to your next company get-together.
7 Creative Corporate Event Ideas [Online/Virtual]
Do you need to host a virtual corporate event?
The good thing about virtual corporate events is you can get your whole team and stakeholders together, regardless of geography. But being behind the screen may compromise that unique, personalized face-to-face networking experience.
Here are seven virtual corporate event ideas you can use to keep your crew entertained over the internet:
1. Virtual Trivia
Virtual trivia is a perfect team-building activity for your remote team with all the fun of an in-person event. It’s a game of engagement and excitement as team members test their knowledge in exchange for fun prizes.
Quiz the attendees on diverse topics, from pop culture to education to even something niche-related. Find a list of virtual trivia ideas here.
2. Online Scavenger Hunt
Is it possible to have a virtual scavenger hunt? You bet it is!
A virtual scavenger hunt ensures maximum participation and creative collaboration from your attendees. It builds team spirit with plenty of laughs, so it’s the perfect corporate event entertainment idea.
Here’s how it works: appoint a host who will tell everyone to fetch an item from their house. It could be anything from a jar of pickles to a dusting broom. The first one to return gets the point. Easy peasy but super fun.
3. Presentation Party
Host a presentation party where your team members or clients share their expert knowledge on something they love.
Attendees can choose any topic from special abilities, travel experience, work subjects, or even some fascinating family history. Please encourage them to create PowerPoint slideshows with music and video to make the experience more fun and engaging. But, at the same time, remember to manage your time so the meeting doesn’t drag.
4. Virtual Talent Show
How about a fun virtual event like an online talent show where each staff member can sing a song, play an instrument, recite a poem, or perform a dance online?
You can set up a panel of judges to decide on the top three finalists, each getting a prize. This event idea is bound to bring people out of their shells, even the shy ones.
5. Virtual Training Events
Informative and motivational virtual training events can save your organization thousands of dollars while ensuring a good time. Rather than sending your employees to other places for training (hello, more travel expenses for you), consider hosting your training events online.
Invite industry experts to deliver practical online learning sessions, conduct workshops and share their insights with your employees. This is great for employee professional development and will help them stay up-to-date with industry trends and best practices.
6. Remote Work Anniversaries
Remote work anniversaries are an ideal way to honor a coworker’s years of service online while boosting a sense of inclusion and gratitude in them.
Host a Zoom meeting and acknowledge the honored guests with a presentation of their achievements. Make it creative by including a work-friendly drinking game and inviting colleagues to share a tribute like an e-card or video.
7. Virtual Networking Events
Organize virtual networking events, such as virtual coffee breaks, happy hours, or speed networking sessions, to allow employees to connect with their peers, share their experiences, and build professional relationships.
7 Creative Corporate Event Ideas [Offline/In-person]
On the other hand, if you want to stick to traditional, face-to-face settings, that’s also great.
From team retreats to office decorating days, here are some of the best offline creative corporate events to unite your workforce and increase employee morale:
1. Team Retreats
Retreats help your corporate employees break out of the standard work routine, allowing coworkers to deepen their team dynamics, socialize, and strengthen their relationships. All that without work interfering.
Organize team retreats at resorts, hotels, campsites, or convention centers. Consider focusing on a specific theme, such as leadership, mindfulness, or team building, to make it more engaging and fun.
2. Escape Rooms
This popular corporate event idea takes individuals out of their comfort zone while testing their problem-solving and communication skills.
Employees in small groups are locked within a room to find clues and solve puzzles to escape within a time limit. To complete tasks, participants must brainstorm, communicate, and work together, which covers the basics to create a sense of belonging.
If you want to promote teamwork, conflict resolution, and calmness under pressure, escape rooms are the best event idea for you.
3. Employee Recognition and Appreciation Day
Celebrating individual and team wins is an excellent way to boost employee morale and motivation.
This can be a day to appreciate hard-working employees or a formal/relaxed award ceremony where you select winners of different categories and hand out their prizes. Either way, they’ll always look forward to recognizing your employees’ contributions and achievements. In fact, the better your prizes are, the more it excites the employees. So, always go for unique ideas. For example, to stand out from other companies, you can consider Canvas Prints for the employees that they can also stick on their office desks. Interestingly, you can use online platforms to edit photos and create an excellent canvas for them.
4. Office Decorating Days
Holidays are the best times to throw fun office decorating events in honor of the occasion or preparation for upcoming parties. But you can also have decorating days when you sense the team morale is low — or if you feel the office could use a fresh, new look.
Don’t be afraid to get creative! Turn the event into a get-to-know-you event by asking the employees to bring in a personal item or develop their themes.
5. Spirit Week
Spirit Week is a great way to infuse fun into the mundane office work routine and foster unity and cooperation among coworkers.
It’s an event designed to bring joy and creativity to your company. Each day usually has a particular theme, and the employees dress up accordingly and participate in the themed activities. Some fun spirit week theme ideas are office culture day, old school or retro theme, superhero theme, and tacky fashion day. The wackier, the better, if you ask us!
6. Cooking Class
Host a fun-filled cooking class where employees learn new recipes, prepare delicious cocktails, socialize, and have a hearty meal together.
Your employees can work in teams to prepare a dish of their choice — or you can spice things up by making it a cooking competition and giving out kitchen utensils as prizes. You could also hire a professional chef to lead the class on how to cook up yummy and creative dishes.
7. Volunteer Days
Volunteer days are popular corporate events for companies, and a good reason.
These events generate goodwill and a shared sense of purpose among coworkers, helping promote corporate social responsibility and positively impacting the community. If needed, you can offer time off for employees to participate in community service projects as a work perk. Taking team members on a group volunteer project is another option.
Here are some ideas to make your volunteer activities more fun:
- Planting trees
- Cleaning up parks
- Serving meals at a local shelter
- Complete a charity race
- Sort donations at a food drive
Engage Your Employees With Creative Corporate Event Ideas
There’s a whole range of ideas to choose from when transforming virtual or 1:1 meetings into memorable corporate events. But what’s more important is the benefits they bring to your employees and the organization.
Here’s what having creative corporate events to engage your employees can do for you:
- Foster innovation and encourage your employees to develop new ideas and solutions to problems.
- Increase employee engagement by allowing them to be creative and express themselves.
- Enhance teamwork and promote collaboration.
- Boost productivity by making employees proactive and cause them to take the initiative to improve processes and workflows.
Effective corporate event management and event marketing strategies are also great ways to create memorable employee experiences and enhance company culture.
But if you want to take your corporate events to the next level, use InEvent’s robust internal event management software to run live meetings, in-person experiences, and virtual events to engage and build stronger bonds with your employees.
The platform allows you to create hubs or clusters based on core competencies to connect with activities, sessions, and hotel groups. You can also integrate your HR CRM with your event survey data to enhance employee training efforts.
Is that the right fit? Book a meeting now to learn more.
The author Rana Bano is a one-part B2B content writer and one-part content strategist. She uses these parts to help SaaS brands tell their story, aiming to encourage user engagement and drive traffic.
About the Author / Ana Almeida
