Everything You Need to Know About Remote-Hosted Team Building Activities [Plus 15 You Can Try] 

While you might think in-person and remote team building activities are your only options, remote-hosted team building activities offer a perfect hybrid of the two. Here’s what you need to know.  

If you’re like most people, you think of team building activities as either: 

1. Large and elaborate events for in-person workgroups or 

2. Activities that are hosted entirely online for remote teams 

But in reality, there’s a lesser-known option C: remote-hosted team building activities. 

Fusing the best of their in-person team building and virtual team building counterparts, remote-hosted events are the optimal hybrid. 

In this article, we’ll explain what exactly remote-hosted team building activities are, six big benefits of hosting them for your colleagues, and 15 remote-hosted events you’ll love. 

Let’s dive in.  

What Are Remote-Hosted Team Building Activities? 

Essentially, remote-hosted team building activities are exactly what they sound like: activities where you and your team are together in-person, but your event is hosted remotely by an expert facilitator who helps: 

• Guide the activity 
• Engage with your group 
• Answer questions and troubleshoot 
• Make sure everything goes smoothly 

But rather than having your host attend in person, they can tune in and guide your event from nearly anywhere. 

6 Big Benefits of Remote-Hosted Team Building Activities 

Now that you understand the general premise of remote-hosted team building activities, we know what your next question will be: 

“Why would I host a remote-hosted team building activity rather than an in-person or virtual one?” 

And that’s a great question. 

Ultimately, they’re all great options, and the right team building activity is the one that works best for you. But there are a few options that might make a remote-hosted team building activity the right fit for your team and your needs. 

1. Remote-Hosted Team Building Activities Are Time-Effective 

Big, elaborate team building activities are a ton of fun, but they do require a commitment of time since there can often be a number of logistics involved, especially for activities that involve getting outside and exploring or building things with your colleagues. 

On the other hand, remote-hosted team building activities are incredibly time-effective.  

For instance, you can squeeze them into a one-hour timeslot between program components at a conference, as a special lunchtime event, as a warm-up for meetings, or as a refresher that helps everyone find their second wind during a retreat.  

2. Remote-Hosted Team Building Activities Offer an Added Dimension of Engagement 

Having your team together face-to-face for your activity is incredibly conducive to socialization and positive energy. 

And this is especially true when there are interactive components in your activity. 

When you’re doing a remote-hosted team building activity, your team will often feel like they’re taking part in their very own game show. 

With buzzers to tap, a professional host guiding, interacting with, and breaking the ice for players, and off-the-cuff spontaneous fun, these activities are renowned for creating unparalleled social energy.   

This is when your team really feels comfortable settling into the activity: rather than feeling like they’re taking part in a formal corporate event, they instead feel like they’re hanging out with their friends, playing in a fun and interactive game, and enjoying each other’s company.  

While your remote host is in 2D on your screen, their personalities are in 3D, and that helps make the whole activity more engaging.   

3. Remote-Hosted Team Building Activities Are Budget-Friendly 

When it comes to getting the most bang for your buck, remote-hosted team building activities are the ultimate option.  

Your team gets the experience of an in-person team building activity, but you save a ton of money on things like transportation, parking, booking a venue, and bringing in an in-person host. 

These kinds of events can happen right in your office.  

But how much do remote-hosted team building activities cost? 

They’re available for as low as $13 to $53 per person.  

4. Remote-Hosted Team Building Activities Require Minimal Planning and Set-Up 

Planning any event is a big undertaking—especially if it’s not something you have much experience with. 

But with remote-hosted team building activities, there’s very little planning or set-up required. 

You won’t have to worry about dealing with traffic, booking flights for people, meeting a host early, or setting up complicated tech and AV equipment. 

In order to do a remote-hosted team building activity, all you need to know how to do is: 

• Contact an expert to choose the perfect event 
• Decide where you want to host your event 
• Pencil the activity into your colleagues’ schedules 
• Turn on your computers  
• Click a link 
• Have a blast 

Your remote host will take care of the rest.  

This means you don’t have to worry about glitches, technology issues, or delays. You can feel confident that you’ll have a smooth and successful experience.  

5. Remote-Hosted Team Building Activities Offer Amazing Professional Outcomes 

Just like in-person and virtual team building activities, remote-hosted team building activities offer a wide array of professional outcomes, including:  

• Enhanced Communication: Team building promotes clear communication, vital for collaboration and task efficiency. 
• Increased Productivity: Better understanding and cohesion lead to smoother workflows and higher output 
• Strengthened Morale: Shared experiences uplift team spirit and motivation. 
• Improved Problem-Solving: Team-building exercises refine collaborative problem-solving capabilities 
• Conflict Resolution: Helps in identifying and addressing interpersonal conflicts proactively 
• Increased Trust: Building trust is pivotal for a collaborative and efficient work environment 
• Greater Cohesion: Activities foster a deep sense of belonging and commitment among team members 
• Enhanced Creativity: Encourages innovative thinking and creative solutions 
• Knowledge Sharing: Collaboration during activities leads to a transfer of skills and knowledge 
• Boosted Engagement: Engaged employees have higher job satisfaction and are more productive 
• Collaborative Spirit: Team-building activities foster a culture of collaboration, essential for tackling complex projects 
• Social Interaction: Promotes socialization, vital for building relationships beyond work tasks 
• In-Person Connection/Bonding: Physical team-building activities offer a chance for genuine face-to-face bonding, creating stronger interpersonal connections 

6. Remote-Hosted Team Building Activities Can Be Customized to Your Needs 

Depending on your company, industry, and goals, your remote-hosted team building activity can be customized to your specifications.  

For one, your activity can be tailored to focus on specific skills or goals you’d like to practice with your team. 

But, beyond that, your remote-hosted team building event can event be customized to align with your company and brand. 

This could be anything from small customizations, like incorporating company- or event-specific turns of phrase, to creating an entire trivia board about your company history. 

15 Remote-Hosted Team Building Activities You’ll Love 

Are you interested in trying a remote-hosted team building activity? If so, here are 15 options you and your colleagues will love.  

1. Virtual European Adventure 

If you’ve got a team full of colleagues who love traveling and learning about new places, this is the perfect budget-friendly team building activity for your group.  

Virtual European Adventure is all about connecting with your colleagues, testing your wits together, socializing, and collaborating through high-energy rounds of European-themed trivia.   

In this activity, your group will break out into teams. Then, you’ll take part in a warm-up social mixer followed by three rounds of trivia, a Jeopardy-style lightning round using cellphone buzzers, and a European travel conversation to finish it all off. For each trivia challenge answered correctly, your team will earn points. The team with the most points at the end of the activity will be crowned the Virtual European Adventure Champions!  

2. Jeoparty Social

With Jeoparty Social, your team will get to step into their very own Jeopardy-style game show experience equipped with a buzzer, a professional actor as your host, and an immersive game show platform. Between each round of Jeopardy, your team will participate in social mixer challenges.

Get ready to test your trivia knowledge, hit that buzzer as fast as you can, stack up points for your team before time runs out, and wager a little bit (or a lot) in a round of Final Jeoparty to wrap it all up.

3. Hollywood Murder Mystery

The case is fresh, but here’s what we know so far: we’ve got an up-and-coming actress who’s been found dead in her hotel room following last night’s awards show.

We have several suspects, but we haven’t been able to put the crime on any of them for sure yet. Now, it’s up to you and your team of detectives to crack the case. Together, you’ll review case files and evidence including police reports, coroners’ reports, photo evidence, tabloids, interrogations, and phone calls as you determine the motive, method, and murderer and bring justice for the victim.

You’ll need to put your problem-solving skills to the test as you share theories, collaborate, and think outside the box with your fellow investigators.

4. Trivia Time Machine

Step into the Outback Time Machine and take a trip through time, from pre-pandemic 21st century through the decades, and all the way to the 60’s.

This exciting, fast-paced trivia game, packed with nostalgia and good vibes is guaranteed to produce big laughs, friendly competition, and maybe even some chair-dancing.

Your remote game show host will warm up your in-person participants with a couple of “tablehopper rounds” and split you out into teams.

Within minutes, your meeting space will be transformed into a game show stage with your very own game show buzzers!

5. Friendly Feud

If you’ve ever wanted to take part in your own Family Feud-style competition, this is your chance! With Virtual Friendly Feud Social, you and your colleagues will break out into teams to compete through survey questions focused on culture and human nature.

And, as an added social element within the game, each round of questions will be followed by a guided social mixer where you’ll have the chance to take part in a group discussion and more deeply explore the survey questions from the previous round.

6. Game Show Extravaganza

With Game Show Extravaganza, you and your team will take part in your very own game show-style competition. 

In groups, you’ll tackle photo and trivia challenges that cover a range of topics, including pop culture and politics.

7. Happy Hour Trivia

Hamish’s legendary happy hour trivia features two rounds of trivia questions, featuring four themed categories of your choice. With 20 category options to choose from, you’ll be sure to find the perfect themes for your team’s happy hour trivia.

With pub soundscapes, visual surprises, and warm-hearted humor, Hamish McDuff makes your guests feel like they just had a memorable happy hour with friends in a real pub, while at work! Sorry, HR!

This pub trivia game experience is guaranteed to produce plenty of laughs and lift team “spirits.” It might even include a few special surprises.

8. Team Pursuit

In Team Pursuit, your team will need to get their energy levels up in order to tackle a series of mental, physical, skill, and mystery challenges, earning points for each successfully completed challenge.

What kinds of challenges will you be up against? We’re glad you asked. A few highlights include:

• Air Band Geeks: Who used to or still does play an instrument? Find at least three band geeks and have them hold “air” versions of their instruments. Record a 5-second video of them playing part of a song.
• Juggling Responsibilities: Who can juggle? Take a 5-second video with that person juggling three or more objects.
• Tasty Trivia: You throw away the outside and cook the inside. Then you eat the outside and throw away the inside. What is it?
• Commonalities: Determine your team’s most unique commonality. Once you figure out the most unique thing your group has in common, write a rap or rhyme about it of at least 4 lines. Then record a 5-second video of a teammate performing it.
• Sing Along: Choose a popular song and rewrite the lyrics to be about your team. Record a 5-second video of your team performing it and enter the original song’s title in caption space.

Your team won’t be able to help but have a blast with this activity.

9. Beach Staycation

In this tropical-themed team building activity, Captain Furling welcomes online guests aboard his luxury vessel and quickly takes them out of their homes to a gorgeous beach in Cancun.

With ocean soundscapes and delightful vacation destination footage, your travel companions will compete with their knowledge of travel destinations, vacation-themed movies, summer pop hits, and even a cabana-wear contest. Your yacht captain gives guests a playfully immersive experience for a virtual team vacation from your workday that your colleagues truly deserve.

10. Do-Good Games

This philanthropic team building activity is all about building awareness around local and global challenges, raising funds for charity, and doing some good in the world with your colleagues.

With the Do-Good Games, teams will compete to complete challenges revolving around themes like Clean Water and Food Insecurity, Health and Wellness, Community Support, and Environmental Awareness.

For each challenge completed, teams will earn points that can be redeemed as donation dollars that they will donate to charity.

11. Code Break

Trivia wizzes will love the opportunity to flex their cognitive muscles in Virtual Code Break.

Your team will split out into groups and will then have to put their heads together to see who can solve the most puzzles, riddles, and trivia before time runs out.

The team with the most points at the end will be crowned the winner! 

12. Trivia Time Machine

Step into the Outback Time Machine and take a trip through time, from the pre-pandemic 21st century through the decades all the way to the 60s.

This exciting, fast-paced trivia game, packed with nostalgia and good vibes, is guaranteed to produce big laughs, friendly competition, and maybe even some chair-dancing.

Your virtual game show host will warm up guests with a couple of “tablehopper rounds” (breakout room mixers) and split you out into teams. Within minutes, your home office will be transformed into a game show stage with your very own game show buzzers!

13. Virtual Social Shuffle

Get to know your colleagues and build better connections with this ultra-social virtually-hosted team building activity for remote groups. Your group will learn fun facts about one another as you tackle a series of themed discussion topics together and engage in exploratory conversations.

14. Virtual Trivia Championship

Compete with your colleagues, collaborate with your teammates, test your trivia knowledge, and conquer the leaderboard with this virtual trivia activity for remote work groups.  When you want the convenience of a virtual team building activity with the collaborative and social energy of an in-person one, virtually-hosted team building activities might just be an ideal option for your needs.

When you want the in-person engagement and interaction that comes with a hosted team building activity while also getting the planning, cost, and time benefits of virtual team building, remote-hosted team building activities might be the perfect solution for your needs.

Learn about remote-hosted team building activities.   

If you’ve got questions about remote-hosted team building activities, reach out to an Employee Engagement Consultant.