Let’s talk team building activities in Austin!
We know this won’t come as much of a surprise, but we love corporate events, team outings, and team building activities. We’ve seen the transformative power of what an incredible team event can do for your company. Could your office benefit from increased communication, collaboration, creative thinking, problem solving, and morale? Would your teammates find value and appreciation in a fun company off-site?
The answer is almost undoubtedly yes. Even if you think your office is firing on all cylinders, your employees will embrace the opportunity to spend a few hours away from the desk having a great time, coming together, and enjoy some well-spent team bonding time.
Since we love team building so much, we wanted to ensure you’re picking the right corporate event for your next team outing. With all of the choices out there for team building activities in Austin, it can be hard to know where to start, especially if you’re new to putting together team events. Our hope is that this list of the best team building activities, corporate event ideas, team outings, and team bonding opportunities will serve as the ultimate resource for planning your next company off-site in Austin, Round Rock, Georgetown, Elgin, and Lakeway.
1. Team Building Hero
Team Building Hero is out to change the way businesses book and run corporate team building activities, and we love what this company brings to the table. Team Building Hero’s aim? To be the only team building facilitator you need. You’ll receive a dedicated sales rep who will work with you for the duration of your engagement with Team Building Hero. This rep will learn your business, your team, and your individual goals and needs when it comes to corporate events; this means Team Building Hero will be able to provide personalized, custom team building events on a level other companies can’t. If you’re worried that your team events will become stagnant with the same team building provider, then put your fears aside. Team Building Hero offers such a wide range of different team building activities that it’s practically impossible for your team outings to feel repetitive, boring, or stale. Think museum tours, scavenger hunts, food-making competitions, company holiday parties, high-intensity games and activities, and storytelling workshops, to name a few options. Team Building Hero is a great place to start when you’re looking at planning your next corporate event. (Hint: Book a full year of team building activities upfront and receive a discount on each one.)
2. The Great Guac Off
If booking long-term team building activities sounds a little overwhelming to you, then we’d suggest giving The Great Guac Off a call. The Great Guac Off is our favorite standalone team outing in Austin. Your time with The Great Guac Off includes fun team building activities, games, challenges, and the piece de resistance: an epic guacamole making competition! Your team members will be broken down into smaller groups who compete to craft your office’s best guac recipe. Include secret ingredients for an extra competitive twist your team members will love. The Great Guac Off touches on key elements that make for an effective team building event: fun, friendly competition, a fast pace, and great food. Add upgraded catering like a burrito bar and BYOB (cost-effective!) to really wow your employees. Bonus: The Great Guac Off can accommodate any group size and each team event can be held anywhere, from your office to a local Austin venue of your choice to the company’s Austin location. You’ll love how much fun (and how well priced!) The Great Guac Off is.
3. Gingerbread Wars
We never thought we’d see the day where a company revolutionized the standard for company holiday parties, but that’s exactly what Gingerbread Wars has done. Gingerbread Wars is our favorite niche provider of company team building activities. Your employees will love having the office holiday party flipped on its head this year; plus, Gingerbread Wars offers the opportunity to inject some seriously fun team bonding time into your party. Your team members will compete to build the most creative gingerbread house in the office. With other holiday-themed games, activities, and trivia sprinkled in, and catering, snacks, and BYOB available, Gingerbread Wars is the ultimate holiday event for your office. Hint: Gingerbread Wars’ elves answer the phone yearround, but corporate events are only held from October-December. With such great pricing, Gingerbread Wars tends to book up fast, so we’d recommend getting on your company holiday party on the calendar ASAP.
4. Launchy Birds
Launchy Birds is new to the Austin team building activities scene, but it’s a worthwhile addition and belongs on any short-list of fun company events. Launchy Birds uses construct and deconstruct game strategies to craft a team outing unlike anything else out there. Your group will be split into smaller teams who are given a pile of strange objects that each team must use to build a castle. Then, groups receive equally weird objects that are used to try to knock down the other castles. Last castle left standing wins! This is a fun, high-energy, fast-paced team event that focuses on creative thinking, strategic problem solving, and having a great time. Launchy Birds can work with groups of any size, making it an awesome option for team building for large groups in Austin.
5. East Austin Culinary Studio
Love to eat? East Austin Culinary Studio offers an opportunity to team build with a focus on food. The studio hosts cooking classes designed with elements of team building and team bonding. You can rent out the entire space for a private company event where your group learns how to make a select meal from a professional chef. Team building options include cookie decorating, pickling and canning, and creating a four-course meal with drinks, among others.
6. ScavBoss
Scavenger hunts are a great option for company team building activities. A scavenger hunt hits on a ton of crucial elements for successful team bonding. Hunts are fun, competitive, high-energy, engaging, and require teamwork. What more could you ask for from your next company outing? ScavBoss offers pre-planned and custom scavenger hunts in Austin. Choose from a menu of different scavenger hunt locations, try your hand at an impossible scavenger hunt (aka, the clues are designed to be impossible to solve, which adds a challenging element and teachable moment in your corporate event), or request a custom scavenger hunt of the location of your choice; questions for these scavenger hunts can be designed with your company or team building goals in mind. ScavBoss is the leading authority in team building scavenger hunts in Austin.
7. St. Edwards Park
Austin is a beautiful city, and weather permitting, it’s a cool idea to take advantage of the great outdoors. Explore St. Edwards Park and incorporate an element of physical activity and exercise into your next team event. St. Edwards Park offers dozens of trails, scenic views, and cool water features like creeks and even a waterfall. St. Edwards Park is a good choice for companies looking for active team building activities on a budget.
8. Austin Bike Tours and Rentals
Austin Bike Tours and Rentals offers team building in a similar vein to getting out into nature and enjoying the sights of Austin. Reserve bikes for your team members and take a spin around town on a DIY-crafted bike route or book one of the company’s corporate event packages. A guide will take your group to the location of your choice, whether that be the Butler Trail, Pedestrian Bridge, or Lady Bird Lake. Your guided team building activity will touch on Austin’s impressive history as your group pedals through town. We recommend this team building event for small groups who may not need as much face-to-face time to improve morale and connections.
9. Plan a meetup
A meetup is a cool corporate event option designed to be more inclusive than your standard team building activity. What is a meetup? Great question! A meetup is a gathering of people with the intent to make new connections and deepen old bonds. All you’ve got to do to have a great meetup on your hands is settle on your guest list (we recommend inviting employees, employees’ families, vendors, customers, and suppliers), then find a venue that can accommodate your group size (local park, local venue hall, your office parking lot, etc.). Great creative with the team building activities at your meetup; we suggest games like Human Bingo designed to foster new connections or a photo challenge. Include snacks or a full meal to round out the meetup.
10. Upgrade your next meeting with burritos, ice cream, etc.
Smart companies don’t miss opportunities to incorporate team building activities wherever possible, and that includes your regular team meetings. Upgrade your next scheduled meeting and surprise your team members with something fun and tasty, like a build-your-own burrito bar or make-your-own ice cream sundae station. This is a simple, easy, and relatively low cost way to DIY team building activities in the office and ensure you are constantly mindful of building company culture. Your team members will feel appreciated and enjoy the unexpected twist to your next meeting.
11. Austin Panic Room
Escape rooms are an obvious choice for company team building activities. We like escape rooms for small groups. Austin Panic Room has four different escape rooms to choose from. Your group will have an hour to solve the puzzle and break free from the escape room. Success in an escape room requires communication, problem solving, and teamwork, which is why so many companies have turned to this as a team outing option.
12. TopGolf Austin
Break out the putters and hit the links at TopGolf Austin. No matter what skill level your team members bring to the table, TopGolf Austin is a fun option when choosing group outings for employees. TopGolf offers indoor golf simulators, hitting bays to practice your swing, drinks, food, and music. TopGolf is a good choice for an easy-to-plan team building activity during happy hour. You can also choose the full corporate events package that comes with game time, refreshment, and TopGolf staff who will ensure your team outing goes off without a hitch.
13. Archery Training Center
Archery is another option for a team building activity in Austin that most of your employees probably haven’t done before. Learning a new skill together is a cool way to come together and spend some time team bonding. Archery Training Center will provide a lesson on how to shoot a bow and arrow, then will split your team members into groups who will battle it out for medals, Olympics style.
14. Lockout Austin
Lockout Austin is another local provider of team building escape rooms. Lockout Austin has at least five different escape rooms, including murder-themed escape rooms, nautical-themed escape rooms, and an Area 51-inspired escape room. If you book all five rooms, then you can bring a group as big as 40 people to Lockout Austin, knowing that your team will be split into smaller groups. Consider adding the one-hour debrief corporate events package to end of your escape room experience to boost the team building impact.
15. K1 Speed
Getting the adrenaline flowing can be a cool way to promote feelings of team bonding and camaraderie. At K1 Speed in Austin, your group will enjoy a fun time driving go-karts around an indoor track. Let your team members experience some friendly competition, then check out the venue’s cool collection of racing memorabilia. Book K1 Speed’s corporate events package for an afternoon of intentional team building activities on the track. K1 Speed can accommodate groups up to 30.
16. Stunt Ranch
Jump out of a burning building, run from exploding cars, and live out your action movie hero fantasies with Stunt Ranch’s fun team building activities in Austin. Stunt Ranch is the country’s only ranch dedicated to living out movie stunt fantasies. The corporate events packages include team building activities, games, and challenges that promote teamwork, problem solving, and creative thinking.
17. Ceramics Bayou
Tap into your team members’ creativity and artistic skills with a team outing to Ceramics Bayou, a paint-your-own-pottery venue in Austin. Your employees will be able to choose whatever piece of pottery they want and paint it in their own style. This is a fun team building event that allows for creative expression and relaxation. Take the team out for appetizers and drinks after to complete the afternoon of team bonding.
18. Board Game Challenge
Who doesn’t love a good afternoon full of board games? We love this simple DIY team building activity because it can be held anywhere, it’s cost effective, and it’s fun. Ask your employees to bring in a few favorite games from home and take over your conference room with some fun, friendly competition. Order in catering like burritos or sandwiches, or just pack the room full of yummy snacks and beverages, and you’ve got all the makings for a fun afternoon away from your computer screen.
19. Austin Food Truck Crawl Tour
Austin has a booming food truck scene, so why not take advantage of this cool local industry and turn it into your next company outing? Austin Food Truck Crawl tours the best food trucks in Austin. Your group will be treated to a handful of stops at different food trucks; each corporate event includes games and team building activities, including a food truck scavenger hunt and food and drink challenge.
20. Bake-Off
Host an in-office bake-off to inject a delicious bit of friendly competition. Assign each employee something to bake, from brownies to cookies to cake to cupcakes, and then appoint a judge. Award points for different categories, like most creative cupcake or craziest ingredient used. Hand out prizes, then let everyone come together to sample the delicious baked goods. This is an easy DIY team building event that can help boost morale in the office.
21. Hot Dog Eating Competition
Host a hot dog eating competition, or a watermelon eating competition, or a sandwich eating competition, or really any competition with any food that you and your coworkers enjoy. Turn your conference room into the annual Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating contest and see which of your team members has skills like Joey Chestnut. Hand out prizes for the winners, then consider making it an annual competition with the winners’ photographs hanging in a place of honor somewhere in your office building.
22. The AR Adventure
AR Adventure offers a few different team building activities. AR Adventure focuses on augmented reality games and activities, like a murder mystery game, scavenger hunt, and spy game. The AR Adventure is a good choice for teams who like competition, mystery, and intrigue.
23. Try a new restaurant
Austin is home to dozens of cool new restaurants. Find a new one that no one on your team has tried and make it a team outing to give it a whirl. Play a few fun games at dinner, like Human Bingo, or host a photo challenge, and incorporate some team building into your evening. Your coworkers will enjoy coming together over a delicious new meal, drinks, and time spent away from the office.
The Final Word: Austin is a hotbed of team building activities.
Austin has so many cool companies, and so many cool opportunities for hosting regular team building activities. Done well and done often, team building will help produce a better company culture. You’ll see better communication, stronger bonds, and more creative thinking; plus, your employee loyalty, engagement, and retention should increase. We believe team building is one of the most important investments you can ever make in your business.
Questions about planning your next company off-site in Austin? Send us a message; we’d love to help!
