3 Fun Company Event Ideas that Will Get Your Attendees Talking
Company events are opportunities to bring everybody together, provide training, promote team building, and deliver information. They can also be expensive, so it’s a good idea to get the most from your event with some smart planning.
The ultimate goal should be to support your organizational objectives, but company events should also be fun and engaging so everybody in the room wants to be there. As an event planner, it’s your job to create a memorable company event that makes a lasting impression and keeps people talking—and here’s how.
3 Fun Company Event Ideas to Get Attendees Talking
Next time you plan a company event, consider these three unique ideas to get attendees excited both during the event and beyond.
1. Create a theme (and run with it)
Themed events allow attendees to become so completely immersed that they temporarily forget about being in a professional setting with their peers. This is exactly what you want! Themed events also give people the chance to connect on a different level and to learn more about each other.
When planning a themed event, go all in! To create an all-encompassing theme that engages attendees throughout the entire event, focus on these key components:
- Themed language
- Catchy signage
- Fun costumes
- Festive room decor
- Hotel rooms
- Humorous or otherwise engaging name badges
- Themed food items
If your budget doesn’t support a comprehensively themed event, do what you can with language and signage. The goal is to be consistent throughout the event with your creative theme ideas. Want to be pirates for a day? Serve up “grub,” make sure the captain wears the right hat, and have a few people walk the plank!
With a captivated audience, you can more easily share new knowledge about company goals and objectives. Think also about incorporating experiential learning, which involves presenting a scenario that mimics real-life challenges, learning moments to test new skills, and an expert debriefing to connect the lessons to the workplace, all in the context of your immersive theme. Not only will participants have a great time learning something new, they will be excited to try their new skills on the job.
2. Start a challenge (but don’t finish it)
Keep attendees engaged beyond the event by having some activities continue back in the workplace. Start a bingo game or a “race” at the event but add activities that employees can complete only once they’re back on the job. Craft the challenge so that each activity builds on the previous ones; in that way, the training tasks that are completed at the event become necessary for achieving the workplace goals.
For example, a Meeting-Management Race that starts at the event and ends in the workplace might include:
- Making 10 actionable decisions
- Assigning 20 timelined tasks
- Following up on 10 tasks
- Asking for input at 10 different meetings
Create fun rewards for the teams that finish the race, and hold an awards ceremony after the game ends. You can combine this fun follow-up event with a debriefing to talk about lessons learned.
3. Learn a new language (and use it)
One way to keep people talking is to teach them a new language. For a work event, this is not an existing foreign language, but one that is unique to the company’s culture. Identify areas where a common language—such as special terms or even body language!—would help teams reach consensus, process discussion points during meetings, or encourage innovation.
The language can be pre established or developed as a team at the event during a brainstorming and decision-making session. Try some exercises to test the language and see how effective it is. Keep the momentum going by challenging attendees to use the language when they return to work and encouraging employees to discuss how it is helping them be more effective.
Maximize Company Event Time
Your time spent at company events is extremely valuable, so use it wisely! When carrying out these corporate event ideas, leaders should participate fully to show that they are committed to the concepts being promoted. Remember that change comes from the top down, and any initiative that does not have visible support from leadership will likely crash and burn. A fun (and effective) new language won’t work if your boss looks at you funny when you use it.
Demonstrating leadership engagement might require the use of an outside facilitator so that leadership can sit side-by-side with employees at the event. When choosing a facilitator, make sure that person has the expertise and experience to connect the event activities to real-life workplace situations in order to help achieve organizational objectives. After all, this is why you are holding the event in the first place. Creating fun activities that go beyond the event itself will keep your attendees talking for weeks and months after the event.
