In the last few months, the world has turned into a giant innovation laboratory, and has set out on an adventure to find ways to continue to function despite global pandemics and social distancing.

And of course, the most obvious way has been to pump up the digital world, in our case virtual events and remote team activities, and make it easier to sell them.

But the question is, do these activities live up to expectations? Or are they weaker alternatives to the real-life ones? Well, I’ll let you, the reader, decide!

So, how does a virtual team activity take place?

For this example I will use my favourite activity – Heroes of Troy. An engaging, mythological story with good lessons for teams that is fresh out of the digitization oven.

As with any successful event, matching the audience, its objectives and the proposed programme is of utmost importance. Clarifying the objective of the event with someone in the organisation, as well as sending out an invitation to pique the participants’ curiosity, are the first steps that should not be overlooked for an online event. What’s extra compared to a normal live event is that you need to make sure everyone is comfortable with the platform used for the meeting, whether it’s Zoom, MS Teams or a fully customizable one like MyConnector.

For groups looking to get immersed in a rich storytelling experience, see how the team operates in a virtual environment, and then talk about it, Heroes of Troy is a unique option.

On the day of the event, after welcoming participants, we ask them to find a super team name and choose their favorite mythological god in a brief team huddle in their virtual room. Sharing this information with others then sets the mood and breaks the ice.

To create interaction and set the right expectations, our goal is to deliver a clear brief and a great challenge for teams. In Heroes of Troy, the team’s mission is to guide Paris and Hellen safely from Sparta to Troy as they overcome numerous obstacles and recruit the largest army. Strategy, communication and teamwork are more than necessary to complete the mission successfully. On top of that, teams also receive an information pack with possible roles, details of the journey, a map and access to the webpage where they set and control their chosen path.

Teams are on their own, but the facilitator’s role is to guide the participants so that they can have an enjoyable journey. This involves clarifying possible technical issues, but also asking the right questions if teams get stuck on the way. This guidance can be subtle or consistent depending on the objectives discussed at the beginning and the circumstances of that team.

Groups working together, in most cases, are included in our activities because this leads to easier communication and increases the involvement of each participant.

After the activity is over and the teams have reached their destination, it is always interesting to reflect on the journey. Teams start with similar resources, but very often achieve different results. The debrief at the end of the activity is the perfect place to look at the team’s progress, discover the key element of their success and sediment the learnings. In addition, it is also the perfect place to celebrate successes and give prizes, however simple they may be, from a box of chocolates to a themed souvenir.

In conclusion, it is a joy to see the reactions of the participants to such activities, although they are remote, words like “I didn’t even notice how time passed.” and “I felt the challenge was just like in real life” never stops appearing.

Of course, nothing can replace an activity done in real life, but this type of activity is simply different, in the same way that virtual work does not replace real life work , it just comes with something extra, is another dimension or extension of it, a necessity due to distance, globalization, costs, or just a simple choice to access a greater number of talents.

So this is how a remote activity happens in theory. Does that sound tempting to you? Our advice is to try it personally, either in an open demo – click here – or with your team.