16 Fun Staff Meeting Ideas To Eliminate the Mundane

Staff meetings are the bane of many employees, and you hear the same complaints.

They’re unproductive. They’re a waste of time. They’re poorly structured.

The problem is that these poor perceptions of team meetings have been ingrained into company culture. Without a fresh approach to meetings, team morale can plummet, and the work environment may remain tiresome and monotonous.

But meetings don’t have to be this way.

Employees can learn relevant work-related information, develop professionally, improve creative thinking and decision-making, and reinforce communication skills — entirely with fun staff meeting ideas.

If you’re aiming to cut the dullness from your meetings and invigorate your staff, these team meeting ideas will transform the mundane into something extra special.

8 Super Fun Staff Meeting Ideas

The transition from tedious meetings to fun activities can take some getting used to, but it’s a facilitation that will boost morale and have a drastic impact on team leaders and the rest of the team. Consider these team-building activities and events as an alternative to your usual staff meeting.

1. Themed Party

Themed parties aren’t just for your next in-person or virtual happy hour. They’re an effective template and great activity for monthly meetings.

Poll your team members to determine which themed virtual party they’d enjoy, then get creative and come up with something memorable, such as an 80s, Oscars, or casino theme. This works for both in-person and virtual events, and you can keep it low-key. Or, send your employees a box of decorations, snacks, and drinks to bring this team activity to life.

2. Innovation Session

For something closer to your regular team meeting, host a brainstorming session or hackathon. Gather everyone together to tackle a challenge or come up with new ideas to help you with a business goal.

An innovation session is a great mix between a productive meeting and a team-building exercise. It’s a chance for people to work on skills like leadership, active listening, building trust, creativity, and collaboration, while having fun. You can tackle this in the conference room, or schedule a Zoom call for your remote team.

3. In-Person or Virtual Happy Hour

Once the workday’s finished, it’s time to rest and relax. Invite your staff to join you for a virtual happy hour to celebrate their achievements and look ahead to an even brighter month or year ahead.

This is an in-person or virtual team-building exercise dressed up as a party. People can get to know each other in a more casual setting or break off into small groups to chat and socialize. Host your virtual happy hour easily with Hoppier, and send virtual credit cards to your team members so they can buy their favorite beverages and snacks.

4. Game Night

Game nights have long been a centerpiece for fun staff meeting ideas. With one of these group activities, you instill a sense of teamwork, collaboration, and excitement.

The best aspect of an in-person or virtual game night is that you can tailor it to your staff members. Ask them what they want to play and if there are any games they’d enjoy demoing to others. You could even turn it into a mini tournament with prizes — like Hoppier virtual cards.

You could always play classics like Scattergories, Pictionary, or Jeopardy!, but games with no need for game pieces or supplies also work great, including:

• Personal fun facts
• Slack game extensions
• Desert Island
• Two Truths and a Lie
• Charades (great for building non-verbal communication)

If you haven’t had a game night recently or you want to introduce new teams/hybrid teams, schedule a virtual game night so everyone can engage in some friendly rivalry.

5. Lunch and Learn

We’re all for events that are both practical and fun, and a lunch and learn is one of the best out there. Instead of eating lunch at their desks, your staff members can get together for an in-person or virtual class where they learn while they eat.

This can be a great way to introduce your staff members to new concepts or give them training on new software. You could also use it as an opportunity to cover key topics like wellness, diversity, or creativity. It’s one of the most fun staff meeting ideas to blend productivity and learning.

If you want something low-key, check out Hoppier’s Lunch Roulette. This program randomly connects two or more team members to chat on their lunch break to build camaraderie or play a fun game.

6. Virtual Escape Room

Problem-solving is an excellent skill to have, and escape rooms are an out-of-the-box way to build it. Let your team members loose in an escape room and see how long it takes them to break out.

There are lots of great in-person and virtual escape rooms you can book, including both local companies and national chains. If you’re a large group, break off into smaller ones, and introduce some competition to see which group can use their curiosity and skill to make it out first.

7. Movie and Popcorn Night

Give your staff members the ultimate cozy non-meeting with a movie night. Get everyone to vote on the genre of film they want to watch together, then come up with a movie choice that you think they’ll enjoy.

For in-person staff members, transform your office into the ultimate movie hangout space — or create something fun in an outdoor space. If you’re hosting a remote movie night, invite everyone to a video call and mail out a box of supplies to help them create a real experience at home.

8. Virtual Coffee

Sometimes you just need a casual place to chat, get to know each other, and come up with what could be your biggest idea yet. Gather your remote team together for a virtual coffee date where the goal is to relax, catch up, and take a well-earned break.

With such busy schedules, a planned break can encourage your staff members to stay motivated, refreshed, and productive. If you can, make your virtual coffee date a regular event in your company calendar so people develop a positive habit around this fun staff meeting idea.

8 Team Bonding Activities To Build on Fun Staff Meeting Ideas

Hosting an in-person or virtual event may elicit a groan from your team, but you can’t make every team meeting an adventure through an escape room or a virtual cocktail party. Here’s how to take some of that excitement and bring it to your usual meeting agenda, for a more fun, engaging experience for everyone.

1. Show and Tell

For a fun way to move into your next meeting, try a quick round of Show and Tell. Ask your team members to take turns and present something that’s important to them.

Encourage people to be as creative as they want and use this as an opportunity to share more of themselves. Pets, photos of family members, favorite Lego models, and more are all fair game. This is a great way to find out more about the people you work with, before you move on to the rest of your agenda.

2. Guess the Emoji Phrase

Emojis have invaded our world, and you can harness their popularity with this fun staff meeting idea. The concept is simple: you put together several emojis that create a popular saying or phrase. Split your staff into two teams and have each guess the answer. It’s fun, it’s addictive, and your staff will love it.

3. Play “Would You Rather?”

Icebreaker questions remain popular as a way to get to know each other for a reason. These quick-fire inquiries provide interesting tidbits about each person without taking up too much space on your agenda.

Add a quick round of the popular party game “Would You Rather?” to your next team meeting to see what you find out. Keep the questions relaxed and avoid anything too controversial, and use it as a chance to explore someone’s food, travel, or hobby preferences.

4. Best Backdrop Contest

Perfect for remote and hybrid teams, a best backdrop contest is one of the most fun staff meeting ideas. Most remote work backgrounds are often just blank walls or our favorite books on a shelf, but this is an opportunity for people to switch things up.

Give your team members a day’s notice and encourage them to jazz up their workstations before your next meeting. They can either decorate their actual backdrop or use a virtual background for a really fun effect. To help them create something great, send them a Hoppier virtual credit card to spend on supplies.

5. Guess the Location

Take your in-person or virtual meeting somewhere new entirely with a round or two of a location guessing game. Load up Geoguessr and see if you can work together as a team to figure out where in the world you are.

This works well as an introductory icebreaker or team-building game, or as a way to sign off your end-of-week meeting. If your team members love it, you could even set up challenges with time limits to see who’s the most accurate guesser out of all of you.

6. Joke of the Day

Like our caption contest idea, this one’s likely to be a hit with anyone on your team who loves to joke around. It’s also a fun staff meeting idea to kick off your gathering — especially if it’s likely to be a long one.

Ask people to submit their best joke ideas and rotate through your suggestions to bring everyone a “Joke of the Day.” If you run out of ideas, use an online joke generator to help you come up with a few great ones. Because, well, we can’t all be Shane Gillis.

7. Scavenger Hunt

For a great way to get your staff members away from their desks, set up a fun scavenger hunt for your next meeting. Put together a list of items for them to locate around their office space and see who can come back with the most.

If you’re not in the office environment, it can be hard to check off everything on your list — so have people work in teams to gather all the things on the list. Set a prize for the team that collects items the fastest — like a Hoppier virtual card and a place at the top of your leaderboard.

8. Guess the Picture

Almost everyone’s played a picture guessing game before — whether it’s on a whiteboard or an online game like Draw My Thing or Gartic Phone. Introduce one of these to your next staff meeting as a quick icebreaker or something to do between heavier meeting topics.

This is a super interactive way for people to get involved with your video call meeting. Take turns to draw a picture while others guess what it is. Keep track of scores and crown a winner at the end of the year to add some friendly competition to the mix.

Engage Your Team Members With Hoppier

Not every staff meeting can be wild and memorable, but you can make each one more engaging with the help of these fun staff meeting ideas and great tools like Hoppier.

With Hoppier, you can give your team members an easy way to engage with your activities and events without having to use their own card to buy supplies, food, or entertainment. You can send them a Hoppier virtual credit card instead to help bring your fun staff meeting ideas to life.

Use Hoppier to help boost your employee engagement, team building, and corporate gifting efforts. Give your employees a simpler way to buy ingredients for your virtual happy hour, or join you for a movie watchalong on Netflix. It works well for gifting and prizes too — so you can really make winning that trivia quiz feel worth it.

Getting started with Hoppier is a breeze. Create an account, then jump into setting up your first program. Customize your card design with your brand colors and company logo, then set a spending limit and redemption period for your card. You can customize which vendors your team members can shop with, too, if you want, to create a really curated experience.

Hoppier is a great tool to have in your kit, whether you run remote, hybrid, or in-person events and meetings. Our platform lets you create fun new ways to engage with the people you work with, wherever they are.