You're planning a team building event. How can you make it more engaging with virtual reality?

As a manager, balance company's reasons for having the team building event vs colleagues reasons for participating in the event. Companies hold such events to 'boost morale', get great PR, enhance teamwork, leadership skill (yours and others!), assess who is a good fit for promotion and tick off the box for 'ESG' / HR, DEnI. People take part because they have no real option not to. If you don't, you wont be seen as a team player and wont be promoted or praised (I have seen that happen!). So people take part for fun, to compete with colleagues, to get paid time-off, get to know their colleagues, have food-drink (read alcohol) at company expense, if its VR - experience something different. So - know your audience and plan accordingly!

VR Escape Rooms: Create or utilize existing VR escape room experiences that require team collaboration to solve puzzles and challenges within a virtual environment. This encourages communication, problem-solving, and teamwork.

I belong to a wonderful platform called O-Connect. It has everything one needs for a meeting. Set out what you're going to have as a topic, then send out an email and ask what the particpants would like to discuss. That keeps people engaged more.

Create a virtual escape room where teams solve puzzles together to "escape" within a time limit. It fosters collaboration, problem-solving, and communication while leveraging the immersive experience of virtual reality.

I would create an escape room using QR codes. Each team will get a portion of the escape instructions. Each team can choose to share information with other teams. Not knowing they need each other to finish the final puzzle

Engaging in VR escape rooms not only enhances team cohesion through intricate problem-solving and communication challenges but also aligns with fostering a culture of collaboration and intellectual agility. Similarly, VR team sports can invigorate a competitive spirit and encourage physical well-being, resonating with organizations that value health and teamwork. On the other hand, virtual tours offer an enriching experience that broadens perspectives and stimulates creativity, ideal for companies that prioritize learning and cultural exposure. The customization of VR environments presents an opportunity to tailor experiences to specific team-building objectives and company values.

Nowadays, there are so many options for teams to engage and interact through VR, whether they are paid or free and available options. What is critical is to be able to choose the right and most relevant activity in order to ensure that all team members are equally engaged and interested.

Incorporating avatars into your virtual team building event can enhance the sense of presence and engagement for participants. Personalisation, virtual meetings, rewards & recognition, compiled with the life like reality of gesture and emotions will make such events uch more engaging.

Nowadays, there are so many options for teams to engage and interact through VR, whether they are paid or free and available options. What is critical is to be able to choose the right and most relevant activity in order to ensure that all team members are equally engaged and interested.

Nowadays, there are so many options for teams to engage and interact through VR, whether they are paid or free and available options. What is critical is to be able to choose the right and most relevant activity in order to ensure that all team members are equally engaged and interested.

Un evento de team building con realidad virtual puede ser una forma divertida y novedosa motivar al equipo ,reforzar el compromiso y aumentar la productividad del equipo. Se puede planificar un evento de realidad virtual que se adapte a las necesidades y preferencias de tu equipo, y que cree una impresión duradera en ellos, además genera trabajo en equipo para la resolución de problemas y ,es un metodo muy bonito para aprender cosas nuevas

Experienced in planning engaging team-building events with virtual reality (VR), focusing on thorough preparation, clear communication, technical support, collaborative activities, immersive experiences, feedback mechanisms, celebration of achievements, and post-event debriefing. enhancing team cohesion and fostering collaboration through innovative and interactive VR experiences.

Select experienced VR users as champions. Bring headsets to the team in advance to build familiarity and enthusiasm. Ensure some degree of enjoyable gamification.

By preparing your team, you at the same time engaging them in the activity, seek their Feedbacks and views on how to organise the event to meet their needs and requirements at the best.

Preparing your team for a different team building experience will enhance the outcome for them. If they are prepared they will enjoy it more.

Forget VR If you really want to have a truly engaging team building experience, get the team together Face to Face. Let the team members meet with each other, experience one another’s company, let the compete and cooperate in real life. We see how difficult is to have a team cooperate after the pandemic but saw personally how part of my team cooperated after meeting F2F. Amazingly very well and much better than the part of the team that never met in person. People need personal interaction, decoding body language, sitting and discussing over a cup of coffee/tea in real life and not virtually.

Give the team 2 considerable points : 1) Enough of break time to process the experience. Using VR is great upto a certain point in time. Having enough time to unplug and process enhances the experience personally and for the group. 2) Create recall to the shared experience. People foster strong bonds when connected with relatable and similar experiences (ranges from school to traumas). Recollection to the Collective is a good way to keep the experience alive over the long term.

One thing to consider is finding a way to bring people's individual personalities to the larger group. For example, having people bring something to share about themselves as part of a larger context. If it's centered around a certain season, have people bring a anecdotal story around a summer recipe, outdoor activity that they enjoy. Then incorporate small groups for individuals to share these stories.

Be sure to make the rules clear and set a boundary to ensure no one strays too far. It’s most important to conduct in a safe setting.

I think we get limited by our own creativity in VR. Team building activities give you the chance to understand another persons perspective. I do not think the value of VR team building is to replicate activities in reality because they would never match up to the experience of doing it F2F. You could create a competitive atmosphere where the teams have to work together to solve a problem with restrictions that only VR can provide. Different height perspectives when observing and describing something, time limited speech or using images to communicate would be cumbersome in real life but easier to facilitate in VR. I would look to create a team building event that is unique because of VR and not a copy of a F2F activity.