After a long and stressful week or month at work, the best way to relax and unwind, or to celebrate an outstanding project victory, is to have a fun virtual happy hour with your coworkers. It is the perfect occasion to bring everyone together, to rejoice, to get to know new people, and to simply take pleasure in one another’s company. And more so, at the end of the year.
To assist you in organizing the most successful virtual happy hours, we have compiled our favorite pieces of recommendations about planning, themes, and activities. If you follow this tutorial, you will have the ability to host the best virtual happy hour event that your coworkers will enjoy participating in.
Ensure To Cover All The Basics
You must ensure you have all of your event planning bases covered before you get into the fun stuff, like theme and party games.
Consider how many individuals you want to join your online happy hour. You still want a small enough group so that everyone can receive some screen time, even if you don’t need to take social distance into account as you would with an in-person meet-up.
Think about the day, hour, and purpose of your online gathering. These events are a wonderful opportunity to recognize a goal or milestone, honor a team member’s birthday, throw a holiday party, or commemorate a fun occasion like National Cake Day or Christmas.
Additionally, you should consider how to invite everyone to your virtual event. Your invitation can only be a quick email, but make it memorable with eye-catching visuals, vibrant colors, and a call to action. Sending digital invitations is a convenient and engaging method to distribute invites and get RSVPs.
Select A Platform
Nowadays, video calls are commonplace, making it simple to choose the best video conferencing tool for your happy hour. It’s simple to arrange your happy hour using your preferred virtual meeting software, which you presumably already own.
You should consider Skype, Google Hangouts, Zoom, or other virtual event platforms for your virtual team meeting. They provide both you and invitees the chance to get together, see each other’s faces, and incorporate interactive aspects like screen sharing or video. All your visitors need to join is a webcam-equipped computer or smartphone.
Select Your Activities
Games and activities at parties can be hit or miss. Not everyone likes to participate in drinking games or charades. Make sure to tailor your celebration to the individuals you’ll be spending it with.
Send out a brief poll with some of your ideas in advance to make sure you are organizing an event that your attendees will adore. This way, you may change your plans before committing to them. Additionally, you may inspire others to go and come up with incredible ideas that you had never considered.
However, you shouldn’t feel obligated to plan every second of your virtual happy hour. It’s fine if your guests just want to come together to talk over drinks or play some light online games.
Keep the discussion informal. Even though you could be commemorating a professional milestone, try to make the conversation during your online happy hour as light and unrelated to business as possible.
Start the gathering with a brief introduction regarding the project or how successful the previous week was, but avoid bringing up work issues thereafter. Start by focusing on specific topics like current affairs, movies, hobbies, and television, then let the discussion develop naturally.
Inform your employees that businesses may be left at the door for social occasions because it’s easy for them to turn into another video call. You might need to reassure your visitors that this doesn’t imply being unprofessional; it’s all about striking the correct balance.
Include A Theme
While there is no requirement that your virtual happy hour has a theme, it may be a great way to give everyone a chance to discuss the given topic. It also provides another distinction between social team-building activities and work meetings.
Consider the rationale behind your happy hour as a quick technique to develop a fantastic theme. Celebrate someone’s birthday by hosting a gathering that is centered around their favorite color, pastime, or video game. For instance, you might have a virtual happy hour with a hit soundtrack and retro decor inspired by the 1970s.
Final Thoughts
Virtual happy hours are one of the best ways to bring people together, forge connections, and have some light-hearted fun with your workforce. They are an excellent way to help people relax and feel that they are a part of something larger than themselves.
Learn the fundamentals of event planning, decide on a concept, come up with a schedule, and above all else, have the most fun possible.