What is a virtual team social?
A virtual team social is a fun and loosely structured session focused on building connections within your team or community, with a focus on getting to know each other at a deeper level.
Objectives of a virtual team social
A team social allows you to:
- Build deeper connections within a team by getting to know each other better
- Build a safe space to be genuine and bring your whole self to the room
- Hear everyone’s voice and enable open, genuine, and vulnerable conversation
- Create a fun atmosphere where everyone loosens up
When should you run a community or team social
Socials are great for:
- Gathering as a global or remote team
- Running low- or zero-cost team events
- Community networking
- Fostering inclusive spaces
How to use this template
Here are the agenda blocks included in this template:
1. Welcome 🥳
Time: 5 minutes
Invite everyone to find a GIF that represents their mood today, and ask them to share it in the chat.
Invite a few people to share out loud with the Queue to get them familiar with the tool.
2. Bust a move! 💃
Time: 5 minutes
Tools: Music Playlist
Explain that you would like to use movement to lift up the energy in the room so that you can create a fun and relaxed atmosphere as a group.
Start the Music Playlist and start putting random participants on stage. The person in the spotlight needs to do a dance move. Everyone else in the room must follow their lead.
After a couple of seconds, add another participant and remove the first one. The moves need to be original and cannot be repeated.
Continue putting different people on stage for 2-3 minutes before thanking everyone with big applause from the soundboard (⌨️ shortcut R+3).
3. Short and sweet networking
Time: 25 minutes
Tools: Flashcard Decks
In small groups, you will take turns to answer different questions - have fun!
Run three breakouts for 5 minutes each. Each breakout has a 5-card flashcard deck with questions, or "this" and "that" affirmations. Example icebreaker questions include:
- If you were to create a slogan for your life, what would the slogan be?
- Mountains or beach?
- Fill in the blanks: I'm lost in the middle of nowhere, and I'm feeling _____, so I think I will __
- City or forest?
- Top 3 things on my bucket list/resolution list for this year
For each round, people will be put with another group of 3-4. As discussions are progressing, so will the depth of the questions they will need to answer.
End with a sharing round of how the experience was.
4. Check-out
Time: 5 minutes
Tool: Poll
Using an open-ended poll, invite the participants to share something they liked, appreciated, or found inspiring in another person. If they want to, they can share their names, but it's not a must.
The poll is anonymous.
About the creator
Anamaria Dorgo is the Head of Community at Butter. Her mission is to create a space where facilitators, workshoppers, trainers, design thinkers, and innovation and strategy consultants can team up, share best practices, tackle challenges collectively, and accelerate their careers together with like-minded people. 🙌
