What is one tip for leading a remote meeting and having some fun while doing it?
To help you have more fun leading remote meetings, we asked CEOs and managers this question for their best tips. From spicing up your presentations with music to factoring in some Bingo, there are several recommendations that may help you incorporate some fun when leading remote meetings with your teams.
Here are 10 tips to make remote meetings fun:
- Spice Up Your Presentations With Music DJs
- Play a Quick Online Trivia Game!
- Use Ice Breakers During The Start
- Let Attendees Display and Talk About Virtual Backgrounds
- Keep Remote Meetings as Casual as You Can
- Use Fun Tools Like PizzaTime and CofeeTime
- Set Time Aside for Storytelling
- Add Visuals To Keep The Meeting Interesting
- Stay Light-hearted and Keep a Positive Mood
- Factor in Some Bingo
Spice Up Your Presentations With Music DJs
To keep our employees engaged in remote meetings, we like to include music, pop-culture-related humor, and even some happy hour meetings where employees drink their favorite alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverage. For example, a presenter can choose a designated DJ who picks the music associated with each slide and lowers and raises the music. We love inspiring creativity across our team and encourage expression. Music is just another way to keep everyone having fun, in a creative headspace, and engaged while working remotely.
Breanne Millette, BISOULOVELY
Play a Quick Online Trivia Game
One tip for leading a remote meeting, while having some fun, is to play a quick online trivia game at the start or at the end of the meeting. For most meetings, there’s a good chance that there will be topics and discussions at hand that are very important and should be taken seriously by all employees involved. That being said, the atmosphere during remote meetings can definitely become dry and not have a lot of excitement. An easy and effective way to bring some fun to a remote meeting is to play a free, online trivia game where you can invite your co-workers into a private lobby where you can all play! Great examples of these free trivia websites you can use are Kahoot, Jackbox, and TriviaNerd.
Chris Hunter, ServiceTitan
Use Ice Breakers During The Start
During the pandemic, I had to lead a 6-hour Zoom meeting. The sheer length of this meeting required me to get creative in order to keep everyone engaged. Every 45-minutes to an hour, I would briefly facilitate some socializing by asking fun questions and encouraging everyone to respond.
I’ll admit it was awkward at first, but the group loosened up more after we did pet Show-And-Tell! We eagerly debated topics like, “strawberry vs grape jelly,” or “as a superpower, would you rather be able to read any book in 30 seconds or always have five dollars in your pocket.” This was the most humanizing and enjoyable meeting we’ve ever had, so I continue to use activities like these as ice breakers at the beginning of remote meetings.
Jaymee Messler, The Gaming Society
Let Attendees Display and Talk About Virtual Backgrounds
One simple way to inject fun into a virtual meeting is to ask attendees to display themed virtual backgrounds for the call. For example, choosing a dream travel destination for a summer meeting for showing off your favorite badass famous female for Women’s History Month. You can use these backgrounds as an icebreaker by letting participants explain why they choose the image, and can even award a prize for the best background. As a leader, you can participate too. This exercise comes together quickly, is low-maintenance, and is free. Simply give meeting attendees a heads-up to come to the call with backgrounds ready. For posterity’s sake, you can take a screenshot of everyone’s fun backgrounds and include the photo in a post-meeting Slack messaging or recap email.
Carly Hill, VirtualHolidayParty.com
Keep Remote Meetings as Casual as You Can
My key to having fun and successful remote meetings is keeping things casual. Nowadays, folks are working from home and juggling more than just work from their home offices. Keeping expectations reasonable, and the decorum casual on the calls has allowed for a lot of positive meetings.
Instead of holding people to unreasonable dress codes or ignoring the fact that they might have pets running around or kids to keep an eye on, I try to embrace those things and make them part of the call. It creates an environment where people feel they can be themselves and contribute openly to the group. Sure, we may get off on tangents sometimes, and the distractions on the calls have certainly increased. But, it’s all worth it because the team is in a positive mindset which leads to positive outcomes. Bonding over the pile of laundry in the background of your CEO’s home office is great for team building!
Devin Schumacher, SERP
Use Fun Tools Like PizzaTime and CofeeTime
PizzaTime and CofeeTime are great ways to lead remote meetings with food, drinks, and a unique team building experience. These tools deliver pizza or coffee to your team around the same time and are perfect for brainstorming, sales demos, virtual conferences, and meetings of any kind. Boost team morale by coordinating the delivery of refreshments to show up at your team’s doorstep.
Datha Santomieri, Steadily
Set Time Aside for Storytelling
Create a theme ahead of time and have everyone share a story related to the theme. I would do this at the start of the meeting to break the ice and get everyone in a good mood. Make sure you set a time limit, so the storytelling doesn’t take up the whole meeting. Once everyone shares their funniest vacation story for instance, you can get down to business.
Ben Hyman, revivalrugs.com
Add Visuals To Keep The Meeting Interesting
Adding visual elements is a great way to add some fun to a meeting and keep it interesting. Whether it is an image or two to support what’s being discussed or even a video that is related to the topic at hand, visuals help in keeping a meeting lively. Also, while it may seem like memes and viral videos have no place in a serious meeting, you’d be surprised at how far they go in relieving any pressure and helping participants relax a little. Remember, even if the discussions are serious, the approach can be playful to a certain extent, so that the meeting is conducted in a relatively calm atmosphere where cool heads prevail.
Mary Jurgensen, Gary and Mary West PACE
Stay Light-hearted and Keep a Positive Mood
It’s important to keep meetings fun and engaging for all attendees, but especially for remote workers who may not be in the office every day. Try to mix up your meeting agenda – have a few quick-fire questions, have a creative challenge, or have a guest speaker for a few minutes. Be sure to let your remote workers know that you appreciate their work, and you are happy to have them in the meeting.
Farhan Advani, BHPH
Factor in Some Bingo
Turning a virtual meeting into a bingo-style game where participants listen for certain words, phrases, or other elements of a conversation can be a delightful way to engage the workforce. Assign the leader of the meeting a deputy assistant that will help to develop the game elements of the gathering. Friendly competition is a useful tool to draw more attention and hook more bystanders into roles as participants.
Thomas Yuan, Sanebox
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