With Easter behind you and the holiday season a long way away, it can be hard to find an excuse to host a remote celebration. Eager to bring remote teams together to nurture fledgling relationships and encourage cooperation? Turn to those personnel files and use employee birthdays instead.
If your team is on the small side, hosting an unforgettable birthday party for every employee is an option. Even if your workforce is far larger, you can still make a point of celebrating tram birthdays. Need some help with party planning? Read on for a list of virtual birthday party ideas that will always go down well.
Icebreakers and Games to Get the Party Started
If virtual birthdays are a new initiative, employee engagement might not need a helping hand. To make your online gathering more immersive, make sure your event schedule is loaded with fun activities and interactive games. If the usual This or That questions for work events aren’t enough, why not try a few of the following icebreaker ideas?
1. Virtual Scavenger Hunt with Personalized Clues
Hosting an online scavenger hunt is simple. Scatter digital clues across shared folders and servers, and then create unique riddles tailored toward the birthday boy or girl.
2. Trivia or Bingo with a Birthday Twist
A few rounds of trivia work well with online groups of any size. Stick to general knowledge if you like, throwing in a few questions about the life and times of the person you’ve gathered to celebrate.
3. Two Truths and a Lie: Birthday Edition
Each participant comes up with two factual statements about their life, along with a single red herring. Everyone else then has to guess which one is the lie. Try a new take on this classic game by asking everyone to come up with birthday-inspired statements.
4. Online Charades
Another party favorite that’s sure to bring everyone out of their shells, charades work very well virtually. Play this game in smaller groups in breakout rooms if you’re hosting a bigger birthday bash.
5. Birthday Icebreaker Questions
If attendees haven’t actually met before, they may need a slight nudge to start talking. Use icebreaker questions to get the ball rolling. If you want to keep things simple, use icebreakers to find out which employees share the same birthday month.
Creative Activities and Experiences
Creative exercises are not only more engaging, but they can also promote team-building and forge strong relationships between remote colleagues. Need some creative ideas to get you started? We’ve got you covered.
6. Online Cooking Class
Find out who the real foodies are in your organization with a virtual cooking class. Pick a recipe and draw up an ingredients list, sharing both with attendees before the event itself. Then it’s time for the cooking to commence!
7. Virtual Paint-and-Sip
Sometimes, a more refined celebration is called for. Instead of a hectic happy hour, try a paint-and-sip evening instead. Attendees can savor robust reds of sparkling whites as they try their hand at art challenges like life drawing, watercolors, and more.
8. Food and Drink Tasting Experience
Tasting experiences are a great idea if you’re hosting a birthday for a true gourmand. What’s more, they work well online if everyone has access to the same sample platter. You can send out a shopping list before an event or mail out hampers packed with tasting samples instead.
9. Collaborative Playlist Session
Music is a powerful tool for bringing employees together. A shared love of a recording artist or iconic album can spark connections, so encourage your teams to bond over music by creating a shared playlist together. More music-infused activities here.
10. Online Escape Room
Escape rooms are a terrific team-building activity in real life, but they also translate well virtually. Whether you’re creating an escape room experience from scratch or using a game from a third-party provider, escape rooms test problem-solving abilities and encourage collaboration.
11. Open Mic Nights
Open mic nights work well alongside virtual happy hours. Once the drinks start flowing, you’ll quickly uncover the secret singers in your ranks.
12. Online Karaoke Session
Not everyone’s going to have a great voice. With online karaoke, everyone’s free to have a go at belting out their favorite tunes, but the bar’s set low to avoid any disappointment.
13. Remote Birthday Club
Don’t have time to celebrate every employee’s birthday? Why not host a single, shared event every month? Every birthday still gets recognized, but you’re not hauling your teams away from work too frequently.
Personalized Touches for the Guest of Honor
Whether it’s using embarrassing snaps from childhood birthday parties or giving employees the chance to connect with loved ones, it’s easy to tailor a virtual party to a particular person. You can even borrow your favorite virtual work anniversary celebration ideas.
14. Virtual Birthday Message Board
An online message board is a good idea if it’s not possible for everyone to attend a virtual birthday bash. Employees can add messages, images, and videos to offer their birthday wishes.
15. Collaborative Digital Scrapbook
Office Christmas parties and team-building sessions usually produce more than a few memorable snaps. These can then be brought together to create a one-of-a-kind birthday memento.
16. Birthday-Themed Online Quiz
If birthday trivia doesn’t go far enough, try a birthday-themed online quiz instead. See who’s got a good memory for colleague birthdays or turn to past celebrations for question inspiration. You can even base questions on birthday traditions from around the world. Here’s how to add and edit questions with our templates.
17. Send Out a Birthday Care Package
Picking out a single birthday gift is no easy task. Rather than make the wrong call, put together a care package of smaller items instead. Luxury toiletries, designer desk accessories, and premium confectionery are all good choices.
Engaging Activities for Larger Groups
Bringing together multiple departments and bigger groups for a birthday bash? Keeping everyone engaged takes work, but you can ensure everyone remains entertained with the right activities.
18. Virtual Murder Mystery Party
Combining role-play with problem-solving conundrums, a virtual murder mystery is a brilliant choice for online birthday parties. Assign character roles to employees for a more immersive experience.
19. Online Game Show
Bring those crowd-pleasing classics together for a unique game show experience, with prizes reserved for the highest-scoring players.
20. Disco Party
Nothing stirs up a crowd like a disco playlist. Go with the greatest hits of the seventies, or ask your team to share beloved hidden gems.
21. Hidden Talents Contest
Most people have at least one hidden skill they’ve kept quiet from colleagues. Give them the perfect platform to unveil their abilities. You can even use polls so everyone can vote for their favorite performance.
22. Collaborative Storytelling
Collaborative activities are a good way of winding down, without sacrificing the social element. Each person offers up a single sentence in turn, with the final result being read out in full.
23. Birthday Bingo
Bingo is a go-to game for virtual get-togethers. You can bring some birthday cheer to this popular game by ditching the numbers and replacing them with birthday-related statements.
Sweet Endings and Memorable Moments
Even the best birthday party has to come to an end. If you’re looking for a spectacular swansong, try using one of these activities to wrap your next event up in style.
24. Virtual Cake Cutting
Guests might not be able to sample the goods, but a virtual cake can stand in for the real thing. A rip-roaring rendition of “Happy Birthday” is a must here!
25. Toast the Guest of Honor
As a birthday event winds down, take the opportunity to make a toast. If you can think on the spot, feel free to improvise. However, a pre-planned speech means your toast won’t be missing anything important.
26. Birthday Wishes and Reflections
Rather than have one person take the reins, encourage everyone to offer up their two cents. Allow each participant a few moments to let the guest of honor know how much they mean to them.
27. Create a Digital Photo Album of the Event
Make sure you’ve compiled all those party snaps into a single folder. You can then create a digital photo album that can be emailed out to attendees later.
28. Personalized Thank-You Notes to Guests
To ensure maximum attendance at your next employee birthday event, take the time to send out a personalized thank you to everyone who showed up.
Start Planning Those Birthday Celebrations with Gloww
There are many benefits to doing business remotely, but a lack of social interaction and low employee engagement can be a problem. Combined with other issues, it’s easy to see why so many virtual employees feel undervalued and quickly depart for other opportunities. By letting remote workers know you care, you can secure long-term loyalty and improve retention rates. If you want to deliver the personal touch, nothing comes close to virtual employee birthday parties.
Remote birthday party planning requires the right tools. With Gloww, you have all the features you need to host memorable experiences for the guest of honor. Create custom sessions peppered with personal photos, nurture connections with collaborative tools, and engage attendees with dynamic games.
Want to celebrate more? Here’s how to have a fun St. Patrick’s Day, but also an unforgettable Easter.
Is there a big birthday coming up? Get started with Gloww today, or take a look at our pricing tiers to learn about our advanced features. Looking to find out more? Drop us a message via the online contact form.
FAQs
What do I need to host a virtual birthday party?
You’ll need a video conferencing platform to get started. Birthday party games and activities can be recreated in virtual form, although it’s a good idea to mail out birthday decorations and party essentials to make your event more authentic.
How can I keep a large group of guests engaged during a virtual birthday party?
Collaborative activities will keep larger groups engaged. If your invite list is pretty large, maintain engagement by breaking up bigger groups into smaller breakout rooms.
What are some creative ways to personalize a virtual birthday party for the guest of honor?
If you’re sending out party supplies to your team members, ditch standard decorations and opt for ones personalized with the name of the guest of honor instead. Most party games can also be tailored toward an individual.
