An exciting high-tech team building challenge allowing companies to work together. Spice up your virtual meetings and conferences with some healthy competition. Working fast but methodically, teams using all their skills and knowledge, must think their way out of a locked room or scenario. Complete each task to eventually win your freedom!
• Find the clues
• Crack the codes
• Collect the points
• Escape before the clock stops
Suitable for groups of 4 persons up to 500. Participants use a specially designed website or App whilst conferring with teammates within their virtual breakouts. After the initial briefing with your host, teams will have only 60 minutes to escape each locked virtual room.
Watch our video here.
Virtual Escape Rooms are perfect for your…
• ice breaker
• networking
• energiser
• finale
• evening event
You reconvene with your host and all your colleagues to discover all the scores and of course, have the inevitable entertaining debrief.
The most popular virtual event?
Without a doubt, Virtual Escape Rooms have been one of the most popular team activities over this pandemic period. This online challenge has small breakout groups conferring over Zoom, Teams etc., whilst simultaneously exploring and interacting as a team. Only by communicating effectively together will they solve the puzzles, obtain the clues and combinations to get through to each stage of the game.
Over the past 5 years we saw many “real” Escape Rooms pop up all over the country. Some were incredibly realistic, involving multiple rooms, hidden chambers, elaborate technology, props and effects. Small groups would then explore these rooms to plan their means of escape.
This might entail for example, having to reassemble a Russian nuclear power plant or launch a missile from a war bunker. These tasks would engage your team in searching around for clues, maps, radio frequencies and all manner of challenging items. Only by everyone working together would you all succeed in the mission and eventually get out.
It seems incredible that an event so reliant on the physical space would transfer so well into on-line entertainment over a video call but…it does! The entire event takes about 90 minutes in total. This includes a briefing and final scores/debrief at the end. All the participants join the call to meet their host and to have the game explained. They are put into their breakout teams and from that first second, it’s all action as teams must quickly figure out what to do and how to do it.
Different people for different roles
One of the many benefits to using this group activity as a team build is that everyone has an input and more importantly, your team needs different types of thinking and strategies to use. You do require people to jump straight in and poke, prod and tinker with all the interactive elements they find on screen, but likewise, you also need “process driven” and “big picture” thinking individuals to analyse the brief and realise the content. It’s the compromise and discovery of all these approaches that navigates the team towards their hopeful escape.
Your now off screen host and support tech. staff, are constantly monitoring the progress of the game and even individual breakouts. They are on hand to help if there are any technical issues or, if a team might just need a little hint to progress through the game.
A useful training tool
One interesting development that occurred this year was the use of our Virtual Escape Rooms within training sessions. We have worked for years with training companies that use our Drumming or Haka to add a dynamic element within their agenda. One client enquired about what would work on-line within their personality profile training. They were interested to explore which individual personality types would work more effectively together under pressure or adapting to new changing tasks.
The Escape Room format was perfect. We could determine the breakouts beforehand and the trainers could observe (in real time) the teams working/ or not, within the game. This would reveal live incidents and outcomes to remark upon within their debrief. This was very successful and added a new dimension to what at first might seem just a fun corporate entertainment. Since then, we have promoted it to similar training and Learning/Development organisations.
Mix and match different event styles
We also noticed that within a longer virtual conference day, clients often liked to pair this competitive activity with the complete opposite style of our…(please click on our videos)
By including two contrasting team activitiy concepts, separate groups first had the adrenalin rush of battling against each other in the Escape Rooms, then as the complete alternative, had the feeling of achieving and succeeding altogether as one. This ideas is very popular as a way of concluding an on line or hybrid conference. Please see our Virtual Events Web Page for even more interactive team ideas.
So, as you can see, this fast-paced group activity can be used as just fun with your group, a team build experience or even within the training environment. With only around 60%-70% of teams actually getting out in time because of the varied tasks set before them, this will keep everyone on their toes and totally engaged.
Regardless whether it is just your immediate team, the whole department or even the entire company stretching all around the globe, we look forward to locking you and your colleagues up very soon.