7 tips for organizing a bomb virtual team building bingo party

Bingo is a popular game that’s ever-present at many parties and game nights, but what if we told you that it’s more than just a fun party activity and could be used strategically to unite and strengthen your remote team?  

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Not only is a game of bingo effective at helping players let loose and have a time of lighthearted fun, but it’s also great at getting teammates to share experiences, enjoy a good laugh together, and form meaningful work relationships, and we can show you how! 

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For your convenience, we’ve put together a list of easy and helpful tips on how to put together your virtual team building bingo party. If you're looking for more ideas, check out our list of the best team building apps or a list of virtual game show ideas.

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Practical tips for organizing online bingo for team building

To help you plan your perfect virtual bingo party, we’ve put together a list of 7 practical and easy-to-follow tips. We’ve also included two bingo game generators that’ll make organizing your bingo game smooth sailing. 

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1. Come up with your bingo statements 

The first step to organizing an online team building bingo game is putting down your bingo statements.  

As daunting as this may seem, it’s a pretty straightforward and, dare I say, fun process. Instead of using the regular number system, you can spice things up by coming up with funny, weird, and interesting statements your remote team would be able to relate to. 

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For example:

• Has worn pajama bottoms during a conference call
• Has worked from their sofa
• Learned how to bake bread during the quarantine
• Sent a ‘working from home’ meme or GIF to a colleague 
• Did some house chores while on a work break 

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Many remote workers can relate to these statements, but you can definitely put your spin on things by making them a bit more personal to your team. You can even ask teammates in advance to submit fun facts about themselves, which you can include in your bingo board. 

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Pro-tip: You can frame the statements into quiz questions and use them in your next 'get to know you activity'.

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2. Build your board

A typical bingo board consists of 24 statements, so once you’ve come up with yours, you’ll need to build your board. 

Here’s how to do this manually:

• Create a table with 5 rows and 5 columns  
• Fill each box with a statement while leaving the center box free. 
• Save the filled-out board as a picture 
• Create color stamps that players can move to cross off statements 

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Alternatively, if you don't have the time to do this yourself, many virtual bingo websites take care of the hard bits for you. For example, My Free Bingo Cards and Bingo Baker are free bingo generators that help you create your custom bingo boards. There’s also a wide variety of team building bingo game templates online.  

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3. Make it a themed party

This isn’t an absolute necessity for a virtual team building bingo game, but if you want this activity to be a lot more engaging and interactive, embracing a party theme can help you achieve that. 

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You can organize your virtual bingo games to coincide with special occasions like Christmas, Halloween, Easter, or Saint Patrick’s Day. You’ll also need to find (or design) bingo boards that fit the theme and include statements related to the special season or occasion. For example, a fun statement to add for a Christmas theme could be “put up their Christmas tree before 1st December”. 

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4. Incorporate food and drinks 

Bingo is a lot more fun when food and drinks are involved. For example, when anyone loses a game or tries to cheat, you can have them take a shot. 

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 If it’s within your budget, you can get teammates eager to participate by delivering small snacks, meals, or drinks to their homes. However, this might only be possible if all employees live in the same town or country, so if you have team members in different locations, you might want to consider sending them little money vouchers to buy their own snacks and drinks.  

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5. Set up the virtual meeting and send out invites 

So you’ve got your bingo statements, your custom board, and have even made arrangements for food and drinks. With everything ready, all that’s left to do is set a date and time for the party. 

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You want to make sure you choose a time that is convenient for all players, so you may need to consult your team and come up with a period that works best for everyone. 

After work on a Friday is always a good option because everyone’s done with their tasks for the week and can focus on relaxing and having a good time.

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Once a date and time have been marked on the group calendar, you can send out invites and share links to the video conference meeting and bingo board on the day of the online team building bingo party. 

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Pro-tip: If you use Zoom daily, there are plenty of fun team building activities you can do on a weekly, biweekly, and monthly basis.

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6. Call out the statements

Now it's time for the game, but before you start, here are a few things to tick off your checklist.

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Make sure everyone:

• Can access their bingo boards
• Has a stable internet connection and has joined the video conference meeting 
• Is aware of the rules of the game

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Once that’s all sorted, let’s play!

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As the organizer of the virtual bingo game for team building, you’ll be in charge of calling out the statements. You can call them out in any particular order you choose. Alternatively, if you’re using a bingo generator, it’ll randomly select statements for you to call out.  

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After calling out a statement, if players relate to it, they’ll need to cross it out of their board. The winner of the game is the first person to cross off an entire row, column, or diagonal line. 

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Pro-tip: Keep in mind that the aim of this team building virtual bingo game is to help teammates learn more about each other and strengthen the team bond. So make sure to give players the opportunity to discuss and share their stories, jokes, and experiences about the bingo topics called out.  

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7. Include a prize for the winners

Prizes are always a great incentive for team games because it makes people eager to participate and compete, so consider arranging some for your bingo winners. 

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The gifts don’t necessarily have to be anything over the top. They could be simple and relatively inexpensive, like gift cards, store or restaurant vouchers, lunch delivered to their doorstep, or a t-shirt or coffee mug that says something like “(insert team name) bingo winner 2023”. Prizes could even be free, for example, a day off, an extra hour for lunch, or a chance to put together the bingo board for the next team building bingo game. 

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On the other hand, if you want to make things even more interesting, you could prompt players not to lose by including light-hearted dares for losers of the game. For example, losers have to wear a funny hat at the next video conference meeting. 

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What are the benefits of hosting a virtual bingo game for team building? 

Without a doubt, bingo is an engaging and fun game to play. That said, just because an activity is fun doesn't mean it’ll be effective at team building, which is why a customized bingo game is more suited for strengthening a team. 

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A custom bingo game replaces traditional bingo numbers with statements designed to help teammates learn more about each other. This is especially beneficial for remote employees as they have limited non-work-related interactions with their colleagues.  

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Some other benefits of a team building bingo game are:

• Improves communication between teammates
• Increases employee engagement and satisfaction in a virtual setting
• Helps employees find common areas of interest with their colleagues
• Minimizes conflict as employees get to understand each other more
• Brings everyone together to have fun together as a remote team

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Team building: Bingo edition 

Not only is bingo an easy and entertaining game to play, but it’s also an effective way to bring remote teammates together to have fun and learn more about each other. More than that, it’s an activity that’s fairly inexpensive to put together, making it ideal for teams of all sizes.  

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If you’re on a tight budget but still want to organize virtual team games, we’ve also put together a list of free virtual team building activities for you to try with your remote team. To learn more about Gomada and how we can help tailor team building activities to fit your remote and hybrid teams, visit our website.  

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FAQs

What is the game of bingo?

Bingo is a popular game of chance where each player has a bingo card with 24 numbers between the values of 1 and 75. A moderator calls out randomized numbers and when a number on your card is called out, you mark it off. A game of bingo is won by the first player to mark off a vertical, horizontal, or diagonal line of numbers.

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How do you play a team building bingo game virtually?

Bingo is traditionally played in person, but you can organize a virtual bingo game for your remote team. All you need need to do is make virtual bingo cards and markers and host a video conference meeting where everyone can play together and discuss. 

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How can I make bingo more fun?

There are a few ways to spice up your virtual bingo games. You can organize a themed bingo party, incorporate food and drinks in the game, create custom bingo cards tailored to your players, and even up the stakes by offering a winning prize.

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