10 Fun Corporate Company Event Ideas

colleagues having fun with name game
people drinking and eatingCompany picnics and office parties are good ways to get employees to engage with each other, bond and find creative ways to do their jobs and take the company to bigger heights. Most corporate organize events to get employees to engage with each other outside their usual business setting. These can turn out to be bland and tedious for some people. They typically involve activities that are designed to get employees to focus on how they can best serve the company rather than placing the focus on the employees themselves. Company events should be fun, but the definition of fun tends to involve going for a lunch, dinner or a few pints of beer on a Friday. If not that then it’s a Christmas party. And then there’s the annual team building event which often involve weird trust games or games designed to help coworkers build confidence and overcome their fears. People get tired of trust exercises involving blindfolds and falling backwards in the hope that someone would be there to catch them. Walking over a bed of hot coals is supposed to teach you that nothing is impossible if you focus on the success than the fear. Boring. If you’ve done this every year, it loses the allure that it had the first time around. Don’t you wish you could do something different, something that will blow your employees’ minds and stay with them for years? Well, you can. Here are some fun company event ideas you may want to consider for your next corporate event.

#1. Play the name game

colleagues having fun with name gameThis is a simple game. A player is assigned a name of any person. This could be someone in the company or some famous person. The name can be written on a post-it note or an index card and attached to their back so they won’t be able to see what the rest of the people can see. Players then get to treat the other player with the name as they would treat the actual person on the post-it or index card. The principal player with the note on their back has to guess that name by judging the way people react or treat him or her. The activity is meant to build empathy by allowing you to walk in someone’s shoes for a day.

#2. Sneak-a-peak Pictionary

Ever played Pictionary? It might be a game from your childhood but it can be adapted for older people. So, try Pictionary as one of the fun company activities but add a twist. Divide employees into four groups. Have each group chose a leader who will construct something with Lego blogs or draw something on a piece of paper in a secluded or closed-off spot. He will know what the structure or picture looks like but the rest of the team will not. The group has to reconstruct the object or drawing. They each will be given 10 seconds to take a peak at the object and describe what they saw. The first group that recreates the structure or object wins the challenge. This is a fun way to see how good co-workers are at retaining information and it teaches some project management skills.

#3. Catch a Phrase

business people working togetherIn this game players are teamed up and given phrases or words. They then have to find a different way express the phrase or words. For example, the phrase “The straw that broke the camels back” can be rephrased as “That farm product that broke the back of that animal that lives in the desert”. This is a great way to teach employees to find creative ways to communicate.

#4. Start a board game tournament

Set up a board game in your office and have individuals take a break from their desks to play the game. Chess is a long game, people can take time to make their moves and counter moves. You can try some fun games like Jenga or Boggle. Your employees get to take meaningful breaks during the day and they can be incentivized with a prize.

#5. Go-Kart Racing

Go-kart racing can get your adrenaline pumping. It is one of the best fun company event ideas that is also a safe way to get your team to interact.

#6. Kayaking

Go canoeing. You can break employees into teams and hire multi-person kayaks that they would have to steer down a river. Kayaking requires good communication skills and the ability to work together. Employees will soon realise that they can only reach their destination safely if they work together.

#7. Escape the Apocalypse

business people planning and strategizingEscape room games are popular these days. What happens is that teams are locked in a room with something terrifying that they need to escape from. Imagine finding yourself locked in the worst version of the “walking dead” with zombies everywhere. You will have to find clues and solve puzzles to find your way out of this zombie nightmare. Escape rooms challenge your creativity, logic and ability to work with a team to get yourself out of any bad situation.

#8. Go to a Trampoline Park

There is something about bouncing on a trampoline that will make your insides bubble in a good way. Many cities have trampoline parks where you can do more than just jump up and down but play Dodgeball or basketball.

#9. Organize a scavenger hunt

Hide an object and create a treasure map for your employees to follow. Teams will have to work together to decipher the maps and the clues to get the hidden “treasure.”

#10. Carnival

Remember the time you were a child and you would get excited when the carnival rolled into town? The smell of popcorn and cotton candy would hang in the air, inviting you to come and have some fun, try out the different rides and catch a circus act. Well, if this isn’t something that happened in your neck of the woods, you can still create your own version of a carnival for a day or a weekend. You can get your teams to relax and have fun. The great thing about carnivals is that you can bring your family along and make it one giant bonding exercise. All these activities are fun, but they have one thing in common – they all encourage team work and team spirit. There is a lot you can do to create a healthy and happier work environment for your employees. It doesn’t have to be a once off event, but some of these ideas can be incorporated into the general day-to-day activities.

Looking for team bonding ideas?