9 Virtual Event Ideas to Use This Summer

Virtual and hybrid events are pretty revolutionary. They allow people to gather tens to thousands of people for a single event, and offer them ways to interact with each other… all from the comforts of their homes (or offices, or coffee shops). 

But what exactly can be accomplished by virtual events?

The answer is; just about anything a live event can accomplish, and more!

You could be a manager looking into making the weekly meetings fun for your teams. You could be an HR leader who’s responsible for hiring new candidates, and want to test them thoroughly with something more than just a video call. Or you could be an association holding an orientation for a fresh batch of members.  

But, if you’re considering holding a virtual event, read on to get some fresh ideas you can try out.

1. Virtual Community Meetings

This should be a great idea for people worried about their side of the town and its maintenance. If you’re restrained from holding in-person community meetings, now would be a good idea to consider switching towards complete virtual ones.

Send an invite to all the people in your community so they can join at the same time and have the meeting just as you would normally. 

This can also work for hobby groups and other community workgroups that can no longer interact physically. Virtual events offer a ton of interactive live webinar options so your attendees can participate in polls and ask questions to community leadership. Keeping it up virtually should help retain some of the benefits of such group activities without causing any legal or health-related issues.

2. Virtual Improv Class

A lot of people want to learn to speak publicly, but they just cannot face that fear. If you’re looking at making the event more fun you can always go for an improv class, only it will be held online. This should attract even the shyest of the participants and help them get over their anxieties.

If it’s for a team they will end up bonding well with each other, it’ll also cheer up people suffering from the “quarantine blues”. People feeling down would definitely be helped by this as it encourages spontaneous interaction.

You also have lots of options to help new joiners feel comfortable. For example, ask your participants to fill out a user profile, which includes fun prompts you can use in your exercises, including “What is your favourite food?” or “Do you have any pets?”. You can also create breakout rooms so participants can interact in smaller groups, then join the larger group to present their routines. 

Improv comedy doesn’t have a lot of rules, and if you have any reservations you can go over them before starting the session. A lot of people will have a chance to learn something new with this.

3. Show Your Pets

The mid-day dread can get to anyone. Why not give people a chance to cheer each other up by having a virtual pet show-and-tell? You can let all your meeting attendees know in advance about it so they can prepare, or you can just bring it up during the session.

Pet lovers are always glad to show their pets, and even people allergic to them sure do like seeing them if just for the cuteness. It’ll also serve as a good chance for a lot of people to interact with each other, especially if they share these interests. 

4. Virtual Scavenger Hunts

This can be a very engaging activity for your participants if they’d like to participate in a fun game that involves different teams. Some virtual event platforms will help you create a custom scavenger hunt right within your event venue. This is an excellent way to keep attendees interested during a long online conference. 

A scavenger hunt will uplift all the attendees should they choose to participate. Do note that you’ll need a quality tool that lets you and the attendees collaborate effortlessly in real-time with each other, as that’s what a scavenger hunt really needs. 

5. Virtual Book Club

If you’ve got a few bookworms within your team, why not try a virtual book reading session?

Granted, not everyone is into these, but sending an invite to people won’t hurt, and those that do join will actually be grateful for it. It could be a great networking activity. 

6. Guest Speakers with Follow-Up Q&A

How about collaborating with industry experts and bringing them to your events? Or keynote speakers? You can also add Q&A sessions at the end so all the participants get a chance to interact with the speaker and learn something new.

7. Skill-Building Sessions

A lot of people want to learn something new, but often feel alone and isolated, without any real feedback, so they never try. But you can make it a lot more approachable for a lot of people by holding virtual skill-building sessions. 

You, or the participants, can choose which skill to focus on, and hold such an event on a regular basis where everyone comes together to learn something new. Sessions like this can have tons of benefits, not only do people feel included, they also feel accountable and motivated. 

The participants can share their findings and results with each other, get feedback, and grow better than they would on their own.

8. Virtual Movie Night

Movie nights are a great way to keep your employees, teams, and colleagues happy. With everyone watching the same movie together it can give them a sense of inclusion and give them something to talk about afterward.

9. Online Birthday Parties

Whatever parts of the office life you miss, they can still be recreated virtually to a similar extent. If someone in your team has a birthday coming up, you can organize that as a virtual event and let people attend.

And plenty more ideas…

You can also have virtual cooking lessons, virtual jam sessions if you know people who play music, virtual karaoke, trivia games, virtual workout sessions, and even musical concerts. 

The ideas mentioned here barely scratch the surface of what’s possible when it comes to virtual events.