17 Exciting and Unique Virtual Event Ideas

6 min read
May 6, 2021

Virtual events have become the most popular type of event. There are more people hosting and attending virtual events than ever before. What does this mean for you? It means that competition in the online event space is heating up.

Some event organisers have started scratching their heads. What is the best virtual event format? How can I stand out from the crowd? Participants will get bored if they constantly experience the same stale formats.

Table of contents

  1. Live Scribing
  2. Digital Scavenger Hunt
  3. Mini Live Concert Sessions
  4. Wellbeing Activities
  5. Speed networking
  6. Guest Speaker
  7. Exhibition Hall
  8. Team Workout
  9. Escape Room
  10. Virtual Lunch
  11. Award Ceremony
  12. Virtual Show and Tell
  13. Personality Test
  14. Virtual Coffee Break
  15. Mindfulness Activities
  16. Brainstorming Session
  17. Final-Thought

To assist you in your quest to host unique and successful events, we have prepared 17 virtual event ideas. These will spice up your company's virtual event schedule and boost your engagement. 

Exciting and unique virtual event ideas

Live scribing 

Live scribing is a fun and unique way of boosting engagement. A live scribe joins your meeting and creates real-time animations. Attendees will pay more attention when content is accompanied by live art.   

One of the big benefits of this is the shareability and social element. Participants can share the annotations on social media, show them to friends and colleagues, etc. 

Digital scavenger hunt

Scavenger hunts are an exciting way to keep your audience engaged. They can be simple, e.g. “how many times can you spot the monkey in the PowerPoint”. Or, more complex, e.g. tell the audience to solve a riddle using mystery clues to win a prize. Doing this will definitely keep guest's eyes on your presentation!

Mini live concert sessions

Why not include a mini-concert in your virtual event? Earmark a 5-10 minute session and poll attendees to decide on a song or music genre.

In fact, there are so many up-and-coming artists these days you could easily secure a miniature live performance. Including live music will keep your event fresh in participants' minds for weeks to come. 

Wellbeing activities

Stanford University recently highlighted a condition dubbed "virtual fatigue". It occurs when you have been sitting down staring at a computer screen for too long. 

The longer your event drags on, the harder it is for you to keep your attendees attention. Here are some quick well-being activities you can include to beat “virtual fatigue” in your event. 

Allocate time for breaks. People need time to get food/drink, visit the bathroom and take their eyes off the screen for a moment.

You can take this step further and invite a guest to guide attendees through a physical session. This could be chair yoga or some other low-intensity activity.

Speed networking

Networking is one of the biggest reasons people attend virtual events. You should allocate time specifically for networking, your attendees will appreciate it. 

We recommend you set aside 10-15 minutes for guests to mingle, share virtual business cards and generally socialise. You can gain extra credit here by reminding attendees to share their favourite moments on social media.

Guest speaker

Why not invite a guest speaker? An interesting guest speaker can quickly spice up an ordinary event.

You should choose a speaker in a relevant field. You are using this technique to add some zest to your event so ensure the topic is engaging. 

You could poll participants before the event to see what subjects they would like a guest speaker to discuss.

Exhibition hall

An exhibition hall consists of a collection of speakers/booths/professionals from industries relevant to your event. A varied selection of exhibitors will create a stimulating and valuable attendee experience. 

When hosting an exhibition hall, we recommend using a platform with a breakout room feature. Breakout rooms let you separate your audience into small groups. You could create a series of breakout rooms, one for each exhibitor. 

Exhibition halls let participants choose who they interact with and when. An exciting range of exhibitors will stir up a buzz about your event.

Team workout 

This is a super unique way of keeping attendees engaged! We don't literally mean that you run through a whole P90X class with your audience. But you could designate five or ten minutes for a brief Tai Chi session or some gentle stretching. 

Think about it. Events can be long and people get agitated when they have to sit for long periods. We have all turned our cameras off at events to sneak a little break. 

Guess what? The longer you make people sit, the more likely you lose their attention. Movement is a basic human function and incorporating it into your virtual events is fun. 

Escape room

Ever been to an in-person escape room? They are a lot of fun. You enter a themed room (Harry Potter, Sherlock Holmes, prison, etc) together and have to escape. Your team has to find a way to escape by looking for a series of clues. 

Sites like Escape Live offer virtual escape rooms that are fun for the whole team. You could create a whole event around the escape room or use it as a team-building/icebreaker activity.

If you want to make things competitive, split your event attendees into smaller groups and have them try and be the fastest to escape.

Virtual lunch

You can be sure of this, everyone loves lunch. Why not have a whole event dedicated to lunch? This format is actually quite popular already. Lots of us will have experienced a "lunch and learn" style event. 

There is an easy way of making an event better for your employees. Buy them lunch! If you need ways of driving attendance to an important event, giving participants a free lunch is a great way to do it.

Award ceremony

Do your employees feel underappreciated? Maybe it’s time to show your appreciation by hosting a virtual award ceremony. You can even broaden the event by inviting suppliers, partners, clients, etc. 

These are a great way of building team morale. Award ceremonies are also famous for being raucous events that people look forward to. 

A bit of appreciation and humour can go a long way towards showing your employees what they mean to you.

Virtual show and tell

Remember show and tell in school? Well, you can do the same thing virtually as an adult. This one might sound a little immature, but trust us, there are plenty of opportunities to get some good laughs and lift morale. 

Naturally, this activity is better suited to less formal events. Expect to see some funny show-and-tell items while having a great time.

Personality test

There are a few different personality tests you could use for this. The most famous are the red/blue/green/yellow test and the 16 personality-type quizzes. 

You and your participants will have a great time learning about your personalities and comparing test results. It’s amazing to see how accurate these tests can be.

Many companies put a lot of stock into the results of these tests. They are regularly used in top recruitment processes.

Virtual coffee break

Pretty much everyone likes coffee. Well, apart from you tea drinkers, don’t worry, you can still join these sessions! Why not schedule a virtual coffee break? Coffee has always been the perfect accompaniment to a stimulating discussion. 

These work great as informal catchups and socialising sessions. Lots of teams host virtual coffee sessions once or twice a week to have a general catch-up. You could designate a virtual coffee session as your event’s networking time.

Mindfulness activities

As mental health awareness filters into workplaces across the globe, mindfulness activities are becoming more common. There are many different mindfulness-boosting activities: meditation, breathing exercises and even just taking a moment to be “present”.

If you want to include a mindfulness activity, we recommend using a tried and tested app or routine. There are plenty of mindfulness activities already available on the web.

Brainstorming session

Brainstorming has become a cliche term but it remains an incredibly powerful tool when used correctly. It doesn't take a mathematician to realise that 10 brains are better than 1 for problem-solving.

The key to an effective brainstorming session is to include everyone. A small portion of the group often dominates these sessions. As the group organiser, do your best to bring as many people into the discussions as possible. 

Final-thought

You can take one fact for granted, virtual events are here to stay. New figures show that 74% of marketers see virtual events as key to their marketing strategy while in-person events trail at 63%.

Keeping your events fresh and engaging is going to be a barrier to success as the online event space becomes more competitive. 

Using our ideas, your events will continue to be interesting and unique. Virtual meetings should be viewed as a battle for audience attention. 

Get creative with your virtual events and you will always be ahead of the competition.

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