CounselLink Fun in a Virtual World - How to Host your own Virtual Team Scavenger Hunt via WebEx

Kelley Howell, Consultant Manager, LexisNexis:

There are pros and cons of being a virtual employee here at LexisNexis CounselLink.  You can’t beat having a zero mile commute and working in your pajamas all day, but some of us miss the personal connections made by being in the office.  It’s also hard not being able to team build or have lunch meetings on a regular basis – sure, we meet by video conference twice a month as a team, but we get down to business really quick.  So we decided to bring in some fun and have a virtual scavenger hunt.  The team grabbed the items as fast as they could, typed in their item in the chat, and the first person to chat and show their item won that round.  We got to see what beverage everyone was drinking at 10am, who still had a paper calendar up in their office, and who kept multiple forks on their desk…  It only took 15 minutes of our meeting and there was a lot of laughter.  Not to mention gift cards for the winners.  Want to host your own? 

 

Rules:

Players –

  • Use the WebEx link in the invitation and turn on your video camera
  • Have WebEx call you back (don’t use the number and call in yourself)
  • Open up your chat window and make sure it says to message “Everyone”
  • When the host reads out each item, go grab it and chat what you grabbed (example: host announces “Closest drink to you”, you grab your drink and chat “Pepsi”)
  • Feel free to comment on the weird things your teammates bring back

Host –

  • Send a note a day in advance so your virtual team knows they’ll have to turn on their video cameras for the meeting (hint hint take a shower)
  • Set up your list of items (10 takes about 15 minutes)
  • Write down your players so you can keep score
  • Open up your participants and your chat screen and have them side-by-side
  • Read each item, whoever chats theirs and shows the item first wins that round
  • First place and second place overall won a gift card
  • And there was a bonus round that won a gift card – we asked everyone to show their most random, non-work related item they had on their desk, and we chose the best answer for the winner (2 year old Halloween candy won hands down)

 

Here are some ideas and things the team hunted for:

  • Company swag
  • Closest beverage to you
  • Paper calendar (yes, they still exist)
  • Homemade artwork
  • Photograph with you in it
  • Item that is mostly the color yellow
  • Something you got at our last gift exchange
  • Fork
  • Keychain
  • Toilet paper :/

 

You can do this with Skype or any other conference tool but you’ll need to figure out the best way to logistically run it.

 

Happy hunting!