Lily James
- Eight activities that get quiet team members participating instead of watching
- Why the format matters more than the venue when you’re planning for mixed personalities
- What each option actually costs to organise for a group
Who This List Is For
This list is for whoever got handed the job of planning the next team outing and is tired of hearing “let’s just do trivia again.” It’s for HR managers and team leads booking for groups of eight to fifty, where the real difficulty is finding one activity that works equally well for the competitive extrovert and the person who’d rather not be picked first.
The pressure on that decision is bigger than it looks from the outside. Get it right and the team is still referencing the day months later in Slack. Get it wrong and the event survey scores quietly confirm what everyone already suspected: half the group tolerated the afternoon rather than enjoyed it.
The activities below were chosen specifically because they hold up across a genuine mix of personalities and physical ability, not just the people who were always going to have a good time regardless of the venue. Each one also includes a note on how it scales, since a plan built for a twelve-person team rarely transfers cleanly to a fifty-person department offsite.
What Actually Makes Team Building Work
Most team building activities fail for a predictable reason: they reward the same three people who already dominate every meeting. The activities below were selected against a different set of criteria.
- Genuine participation from people who aren’t naturally competitive or outgoing
- A format that scales cleanly from a team of eight to a department of fifty
- A clear booking and logistics path, not a vague “contact us” form
- Something worth mentioning in the Monday debrief, not just tolerated on the day
- Private session options so the team isn’t mixing with the public
Rankings
1. Zero Latency VR
The team building brief usually comes with an unspoken worry: will half the group just stand around watching the confident ones play? Zero Latency VR was built around a format that makes that outcome structurally difficult. Its arena-scale immersive experiences put groups of up to eight through the same physical space at once, moving and reacting together rather than taking turns.
For larger teams, sessions rotate through multiple groups of eight, with the rest of the team watching live and following the leaderboard as each group takes its turn, so nobody’s left standing around with nothing to do.
For corporate groups specifically, Outbreak and Sol Raiders are worth knowing about by name. Outbreak is an immersive, story-driven format where the whole rotating group works together to climb the same leaderboard, giving quieter team members a clear way to contribute without needing to have played anything like it before. Sol Raiders splits the group into two competing teams for a genuine head-to-head format, which tends to generate the most animated Monday debrief.
Private sessions mean the arena is booked exclusively for the one team, with briefings tailored to group size.
Zero Latency VR’s technology, developed in partnership with HTC Vive, and its two IAAPA Brass Ring Award wins for Engineerium and Singularity give it a stronger track record on the “will this actually be good” question than most novelty team activities can claim. The network spans more than 130 venues internationally, so most organisations can find one without a long commute eating into the working day.
Ideal for: Teams that have been burned before by activities where only the competitive people got involved.
Investment range: Positioned as a premium team outing, priced per person with private session packages available for groups.
2. WhirlyBall
WhirlyBall combines bumper cars with a version of lacrosse played using scoops, and the sheer unfamiliarity of the format is its biggest asset. Nobody on the team has an unfair advantage because nobody has done this before.
The chaotic, slightly silly nature of it tends to flatten hierarchy fast. It’s genuinely hard to maintain office formality while trying to scoop a ball from a moving bumper car, which is exactly the point.
Ideal for teams that need to break the ice fast and don’t take themselves too seriously.
Investment sits in the mid-range, typically booked by court and time slot rather than per person.
3. The Escape Game
Escape rooms remain a reliable team building staple because the format inherently requires delegation and communication under a ticking clock. The Escape Game runs a consistent, professionally produced experience across its US locations, which matters for organisations booking sight unseen in a city they don’t know well.
Worth noting: escape rooms work best for smaller teams of six to eight per room. Larger departments need multiple rooms running in parallel, which adds coordination overhead the other formats on this list don’t require.
Ideal for smaller teams of six to ten who want a puzzle-driven format.
Investment sits at a moderate per-person rate, with corporate booking discounts commonly available for multiple rooms.
4. Topgolf
Topgolf’s appeal for corporate groups is less about the golf and more about the low pressure. Nobody needs to be good at it, the bays keep small groups naturally clustered together, and the food and drink service means the day doesn’t feel purely transactional.
It suits a more relaxed team outing better than an activity designed to build collaboration. Groups tend to split into their existing bay cliques rather than mix, which limits its team building value compared to formats that force shared tasks.
Ideal for teams wanting a lower-key social outing over a structured exercise.
Investment sits in the mid-range, billed by bay and time rather than headcount, which benefits larger groups.
5. Bad Axe Throwing
Axe throwing venues have expanded quickly across major US metros, and the format has an obvious appeal: it’s physical, a little bit dangerous-feeling, and gives everyone a personal scoreboard to beat.
The novelty carries the day for a first-time corporate group, though repeat visits tend to lose some shine once the surprise factor wears off.
Ideal for a one-off outing with a group that enjoys a bit of adrenaline.
Investment sits at a moderate hourly rate per lane, typically split across group members.
6. Round1 Bowling & Amusement
Round1’s combination of bowling and arcade space gives teams a flexible, low-stakes option that requires almost no planning. It’s a dependable choice rather than a memorable one.
The main advantage is logistics simplicity. Booking is straightforward and the format needs no explanation to anyone joining.
Ideal for teams needing an easy, no-fuss option with minimal advance planning.
Investment sits at the lower end of this list, priced by lane and time.
7. Andretti Indoor Karting & Games
Andretti’s indoor karting venues bring genuine racing intensity into a corporate outing, and the built-in leaderboard gives the day a natural competitive structure without anyone needing to design one.
It leans toward rewarding individual performance over collaboration, which makes it a stronger fit for a competitive, high-energy team culture than one focused on cross-functional bonding.
Ideal for competitive teams that want a clear individual winner on the day.
Investment sits in the mid-range, priced per race with multi-race packages for full-day bookings.
How to Choose
Start with what your team culture actually rewards, not what looks impressive in an event recap. If the goal is genuinely getting quieter team members involved, cooperative and physically shared formats consistently outperform competitive or spectator-heavy ones. If the goal is a relaxed social afternoon rather than active team building, the golf and bowling formats do that job well without overcomplicating it.
Group size matters more than most planners account for upfront. Escape rooms and axe throwing lanes cap out quickly and need multiple parallel bookings for larger departments, while arena-scale and multi-bay formats scale more cleanly without splitting the group into disconnected sub-experiences.
It’s also worth checking how each venue actually prices a private booking before assuming the headline rate applies. Some options charge a flat rate per lane or bay regardless of headcount, which favours larger teams, while others bill strictly per person, which can make a smaller, more intimate team outing considerably more affordable than the venue’s website initially suggests.
Trends in Corporate Team Building
- Private, exclusive-use bookings are increasingly the default request, not an upsell, as companies avoid mixing corporate groups with the general public.
- Formats requiring genuine physical participation are gaining ground on passive or purely competitive activities.
- Budget scrutiny has increased, pushing planners toward per-person transparency over vague package quotes.
- Mixed-ability accessibility has become a stated requirement in more corporate briefs, not an afterthought.
- Event organisers are increasingly requesting activities with a genuine story or standout moment, rather than something merely functional, as social sharing becomes part of how a team event’s success gets measured internally.
Closing Thoughts
Every option on this list was assessed against the same criteria, with no commercial relationship influencing placement. The format that gets your quietest team member leading a scoop shot or a shared VR objective will do more for the culture than the one that lets the loudest three people run the show again. Book based on what your team actually needs from the day, not what photographs best for the internal newsletter.
