With the winter holidays getting closer I know a lot of us are turning to virtual holiday gatherings. And let’s be honest, the Zoom Fatigue is real!
I work for a remote-first company, who was remote even before the pandemic. Remote gatherings are the norm for us. But in planning the 2020 party we wanted to be sure it wasn’t just another Zoom meeting.
When it came time to plan the run of show (aka agenda) we wanted to be inclusive and ensure everyone who joined would have a good time. We started with planning signature drink demonstrations (mocktail and cocktails) and we picked a signature appetizer that was Vegan.
When it came to activities we wanted something that would appeal to the introverts and extroverts. I volunteered to host one of our two activities which was a virtual escape room.
Why a virtual escape room?
Escape rooms are known for pushing participants sense of logic and challenging everyone to think outside the box. Be prepared to laugh, problem solve, and be in awe of your teammates thought processes!
I choose a virtual escape room because it gave the opportunity to put people in groups of 2 or 3 so they could engage with people across teams that they might not normally work with; but didn’t make them have to figure out small talk – they had an activity at hand guiding their time together.
This also works great for friend or family gatherings too – you can let Zoom randomize the teams or you can mix and match based on your knowledge of personalities.
Virtual Escape Room: How-To-Guide
While there are a lot of paid virtual escape room options online, I was able to track down a great list of online escape room experiences through my local public library’s website (links included in How to Guide below). They had a variety of options to pick from including some holiday themed rooms.
I first tested the virtual escape room by myself (we did “Deck the Halls”) to check for level of challenge, time to completion, and also be able to have a knowledge of how to solve the problems should during the live activity any groups get stuck and need some hints.
After having spent the last 10 years working in education, it was second nature to build a facilitation guide (aka how-to-guide), complete with script, and time/material recommendations. This allowed for me to be able to seamlessly be able to facilitate the activity day of; and also have a way to share it with anyone else who wanted to host a virtual escape room experience, like you!
My holiday gift to you is this FREE Best Hire Ever Virtual Escape Room How To Guide.
Please leave me a comment below or send me a message to let me know if you try a Virtual Escape Room this holiday season! Bonus points if you share photos of the fun tagging @besthireever and using #VirtualEscapeRoomBHE on Instagram.
