Our Top Picks
- Best Overall: A Virtual Variety Show
- Best For Small Gatherings: Virtual Coffee Breaks
- Best For A Customized Team Meeting: Virtual Trivia
- Best For Company Culture: Clean Comedians®’ Corporate Performers
#1. Virtual Variety! How Online Variety Shows Are the Ultimate Virtual Team-Building Activity
Who doesn’t love to laugh? Think for a moment about your favorite funny movie, joke, (clean!) comedian. What do they all have in common? They make you feel amazing.
When we laugh, we feel uplifted emotionally and physically. We actually experience euphoria with lasting effects. Imagine the result of you feeling that way in conjunction with those you work with every day at the same time.
Laughter, and new means with which to achieve it in this virtual world, have become the ultimate binding agent for teams and organizations.
How laughter can boost company culture
For companies in search of ways to bring the greatest amount of laughter to their events, a virtual variety show is a no-brainer.
“Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine.” – Lord Byron
As a universal human experience, laughter holds multiple benefits for us on personal and interconnected levels.
It releases endorphins, the chemicals which make us feel uplifted and inspired. It brings us closer together through sharing the good feelings associated with that endorphin release.
See Related: How To Ensure People Are Communicating Effectively In Virtual Meetings
#2. Don’t Leave Out Laughter When Planning Your Next Series of Team Building Activities
Laughter literally strengthens brain connections between people through their shared experiences as they mentally figure out the reasons behind their collective laughter in each moment.
If we break it down, in terms of team building and helping companies and organizations grow stronger together, laughter really is the answer to everything.
We tend to think of laughter as something we simply enjoy on our own, but as we’ve just touched on, it offers so much more than that.
In taking a closer look, we realize that laughter is a tool to strengthen the community and solve many different workplace challenges, especially with a remote team.
The Best Virtual Team Building Activities Are Fun, Interactive, And More Fun!
In this virtual world, there are new interactive performance and meeting opportunities available to help us do this which have never previously existed. These interactive team-building activities are the key to solving problems related to leadership, problem-solving skills, communication skills, and more.
Using an emcee for your virtual meeting is a no-brainer
Let’s take for example the fact that we can meet and connect like never before on Zoom, WebEx, and Google Teams…and have a single emcee carry us through that remote team-building activity.
You’d be shocked at how many organizations don’t use an emcee for their virtual meetings and day-long or multiple-day online sessions. Virtual Emcees keep the laughter and energy up throughout the video meeting.
Treat your team members to a virtual speaker
Another example is inviting a comedic virtual keynote speaker to inspire us all regardless of geographic location. Someone with a presentation themed to our mission can uplift us all as well as educate and entertain.
It’s a perfect combination for remote team-building activities.
#3. Hire Our Talent to Strengthen Virtual Team Bonding and Facilitate Remote Team Building Games
But there is a third option as well. We can have multiple performers offer their talents and skills in a customized way to enhance and strengthen our awareness of our mission and company goal, all while entertaining us and bringing that valuable laughter to virtual teams.
While all of these are possibilities, it is this third type of interactive presentation that has been catching the most momentum recently and has been key to success for countless corporate groups and remote teams.
What is a virtual variety show?
The virtual variety show really has been recognized as the ultimate solution for remote team-building activities, and with good reason.
The virtual variety show is a solution that more and more companies and organizations are using to bring remote teams together and dramatically increase productivity.
Simply put, the virtual variety show is when two or more entertainers, comedians, or comedic speakers come together for your organization and put on a collective presentation themed and customized to you and your initiatives and goals.
“Laughter connects you with people.” – John Cleese, Monty Python
When we laugh together, we feel connected. When we feel connected, we grow stronger.
Bring remote team members together like never before
As any leader knows, when individuals feel strong together as a group and feel that they belong to that group, a powerful work environment develops because everyone focuses on a solitary goal with greater passion.
Who wants a boring or disconnected workplace? Certainly not you!
Who wants to feel disconnected from their colleagues? Certainly not you! (Well, maybe you need some time to yourself every once in a while because of that one annoying person from down the hall….but other than THAT person, everyone else is pretty great.)
#4. Team Members Thrive During Online Team Building
The more you spend quality time with your peers and associates, the more you will be part of an effective and profitable team as you all work together more efficiently.
While a clear sense of purpose can go a long way (along with good coffee in the break area), there is one main way to build group cohesion and accelerate team engagement. Laughter gets us there.
A team-building session in the form of entertainment
Variety shows have existed for over a hundred years and in the last year, they have absolutely transformed.
While seeing a variety show might not be something immediately familiar as your peers a hundred years ago might have found during the golden age of vaudeville, modern variety performers are some of our greatest heroes.
Bonus: How Many Calories Does Laughing Burn?
#5. Don’t Underestimate the Power of Virtual Team Building Games, and of course Magic!
If you think of your favorite entertainers, from actor Will Farrell to comedian Steve Martin, to magician David Copperfield, as well as others like them, you’ve already entered the world of a variety of performers. And yet we don’t need to go to Las Vegas to experience these performers.
These performers and ones even more exciting and applicable to our goals, can come to us both live or hopefully soon in person as well. The virtual variety show makes it easy.
The virtual variety show is an experience. It is one that appeals to everyone in the audience regardless of their sense of humor or background. A professional array of performers and their booking agents can help us craft an incredible event.
Think Outside the Box When Looking For A Virtual Team Building Activity
For example, perhaps one virtual variety show focused on welcoming new team members has a magician on the bill as well as a juggler and a master of ceremonies too.
Perhaps each one of those virtual variety performers could focus their presentation on teamwork, strengthening your team, and offering tools to start overcoming the actual problems your specific company faces in terms of team building. And this, while your people are laughing all the while.
Nothing is lost in the virtual realm when it comes to variety and in fact, quite a bit is gained by having variety shows be virtual. For one, the cost associated with bringing people together in person has been erased by the virtual world. Virtual variety shows are inexpensive by comparison.
Virtual Team Games and Activities Unlock The Power of Virtual Team Building
These days, bringing performers together is as easy as scheduling an online meeting with a booking coordinator and then making the invitation to them to have performers at your virtual event.
The effect of having multiple performers is to expand exponentially the impact on an audience, both in terms of laughter and lasting effect.
Boost team morale in a fun way
There is a reason one of the most searched internet keywords in the last six months has been, “virtual variety show.” It is because companies are getting on board right and left with the positive impact that these shows have on a team meeting.
The results gained from having an entire team – and essentially a whole organization – laughing together, are astounding.
I remember the first time I participated in a virtual variety show as a comedy juggler, mind reader, and entertainer. The client had come to us asking for help with communication and team-building issues between upper-level management and the rest of the remote workers.
Virtual Team Building Activities Inspire Team Members In Thoughtful Creative Ways
People had been feeling siloed, fractured, and unheard. How relatable is that? I am sure it connects to issues you’ve experienced as well at some point in your career.
The client expressed a singular goal: they wanted the three virtual entertainers on the virtual variety show to help bring people and the remote teams together.
As a group, we – the entertainers – came up with a plan. We would speak to the virtual audience about connectedness and why it is important.
We would make remote teams laugh. And finally, we would inspire other team members to think of one another in new ways: as allies rather than as adversaries.
Virtual Team Building Games Encourage Team Members To Support and Trust Each Other
We wove the client’s main theme and messaging into each of our performances so that the entire experience came across to the audience as one concise, consolidated, connected show rather than as a talk. It was an incredible success.
Every bit of entertainment was customized and the remote teams felt that they were watching a show specifically crafted for them. Who wouldn’t respond to a virtual clean comedy show that they felt was written just for them? It was an incredibly fun online team-building activity.
People were laughing together and reviews afterward included things like, “I never realized that things I thought were funny were funny to my coworkers too!” and, “Thank you for bringing our remote team together as one organization that felt like family.”
It was exactly what the client had hoped for.
Fun Virtual Team Building Events Create Excited and Inspired Team Members
We all know that virtual meetings or virtual team-building activities at times have become tiresome. They are led in the same ways each time, often by people who wish someone else was leading them!
They feel the same. They sound and look the same.
And while they have brought remote teams together during a difficult and challenging time, they can tend to make us feel isolated as we sit at home participating in what feels like connection but doesn’t quite hit the mark.
How a virtual team-building game can actually combat burnout
A large percentage of companies are reporting virtual burnout and its effects, meaning the inability of people to feel connected to one another while they are sitting at home alone.
One way to counteract that is through virtual variety shows and virtual interactive comedy.
Both are a means by which people and specifically a remote team can share experiences and through chat, screenshots, and shared memories, not only come together in the moment but reflect overtime on an experience that everyone enjoyed.
“There is little success where there is little laughter.” – Andrew Carnegie
The virtual variety show is guaranteed to deliver an experience, not just an event. It is designed to have an impact, not just interest.
Already, these two guarantees take a remote team far beyond the typical Zoom meeting.
#6. The Power of Fun Games Between New Team Members
People feel bound to one another instead of people feeling alone. The remote team and team members feel connected together and that their problem-solving skills have been enhanced and strengthened, and all of that happens easily when placed in the hands of professionals focused on inspiring laughter.
Team members laugh together, team members enjoy together, and then ultimately those team members work better together.
The logistics behind team-building games
In terms of logistics, there are a few different easy ways to approach a variety show. One way is during a full-day virtual team-building meeting.
You can have an entertainer with a customized focus on your goals lead a virtual session and then have a different entertainer with another customized approach – also focused on your goals – lead a different virtual session at some point during the day.
Talk about information retention! Your team members most certainly will retain information more thoroughly if it is delivered by somebody who is dynamic, exciting, and interactive in their approach, as well as someone trained in the art of laughter.
Virtual Team Building Activities for Remote Teams Don’t Have To Stop Short of Amazing and Fun!
An alternative approach would be to have an entertainment hour at the end of your day, to give people something to look forward to.
During that hour, you could have two or three entertainers split the time, whether 30 minutes each or 20 minutes each if there were three acts, with the performers delivering their presentations to your virtual team. And remember that all can be personalized, customized, and focused on your goals.
Why go with Clean Comedians®?
The key is to hire full-time professionals, and in doing so, you will be guaranteed to be in good hands. Any time you have more than one entertainer, you have a virtual variety show and you have maximized your potential impact!
And remember that as so many companies have found, any time you have a virtual variety show, it’s a slam dunk in terms of its potential lasting effect on your virtual team, especially in terms of teamwork.
The Best Virtual Team Building Involves Everyone In Your Organization
A team or virtual team isn’t just individual members. It’s people collectively focused on a shared vision.
We tend to think of community as the place we live, but many groups drop the ball by forgetting that community can be the place where we work as well.
When we laugh together, we gain a stronger sense of togetherness through connecting with the people around us. There is a sense of belonging. Our self-esteem increases.
The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. – Babe Ruth
What greater way to bring that about than through laughter? And in these challenging times, what better way to bring about laughter than an online virtual variety experience that caters to everyone?
Many companies and organizations are utilizing speakers or entertainers in online situations to build cohesion in their communities.
Virtual Team Building Activities Are Essential To Create A Great Culture Within A Company
But an increasing number are using virtual team building activities – with multiple entertainers focused on a shared vision – to appeal across a diverse array of audience members and bring people together like never before.
If each performer in a virtual variety show is focused on the goals of the organization, then the customization and preparation from each of those performers yield an event that is essentially a powerhouse resource for team building.
The community grows stronger, the individuals grow stronger, everyone has an incredible time amidst it all…and you will look like a genius for bringing it all together.
Keep Reading: How To Make Virtual Meetings More Fun
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Greg Bennick is a keynote entertainer, combining comedy with magic, mind reading, juggling AND ideas about your company which everyone will relate to. Greg has performed in over TWENTY-FIVE countries over the last few decades.
