Your Remote Team Is Meeting in Person for the First Time: What Should You Actually Plan?

Your remote team knows each other’s profile pictures, voices and carefully curated home-office bookshelves. They’ve probably delivered tricky projects together and racked up hundreds of hours on calls. And yet meeting in the same room can still feel surprisingly awkward.

That’s not a sign your remote relationships are weak. Online, everyone has a clear purpose and knows when it’s their turn to speak. In person, there are suddenly dozens of little decisions: where to stand, who to talk to, whether to talk about work and how to join a group that already seems to know each other.

The best remote team meetup ideas make those first moments easier without forcing instant best-friendships. They give people some structure, a shared experience and enough unplanned time for proper conversation.

Decide what the first meetup is for

Don’t start with a packed agenda. Start with one goal. Is it about helping colleagues feel more confident socially, kicking off a new piece of work, celebrating what the team’s achieved or building connections across roles and locations?

One meetup can’t do everything. Try to squeeze in a strategy day, training session, company update and party, and people might head home having barely spoken to each other.

Write a simple promise for the day, like: “Everyone will meet colleagues outside their usual project and leave with one great shared memory.” Then use it to test every session. If a presentation doesn’t support that goal, send the information before or after the event instead.

Expect a little awkwardness

There’s often a funny moment when someone looks familiar but not quite like their video tile (usually taller, or with legs). Give people an easy first step rather than throwing them into unstructured networking in a big room.

A relaxed arrival might include:

• Clear signs and a named person to welcome everyone
• Name badges with the name people actually use at work
• Easy-to-grab coffee, soft drinks and food
• A simple table prompt, map or visual activity
• Seating that doesn’t form one intimidating circle
• Twenty to thirty minutes where nothing formal is happening

Skip any games that ask people to share something personal in the first five minutes. Doing something ordinary together first builds familiarity much more naturally.

Send the useful details in advance

Remote colleagues are used to everyone joining the same link. An in-person event adds travel, outfits, bags, weather, food and unfamiliar spaces, so a short pre-event guide takes a lot of pressure off.

Include the venue address, arrival window, local transport, access information, what to wear (and what shoes), how much time will be spent outdoors, meal plans, finish time and who to contact with questions. Give a sense of the activity and how much joining in it involves.

Ask privately about dietary, mobility, sensory and other access needs early enough to plan for them. If people are travelling from different regions or countries, be clear about the local time and think about when their journeys start. A 9am kick-off could mean a very early alarm for someone.

Don’t let introductions do all the heavy lifting

Introductions matter, but a long round of job titles can make everyone more self-conscious. Keep the whole-group welcome short, then move into smaller conversations with a purpose.

Pairs could share one thing that works well about remote working and one thing that’s easier face to face, or small groups could map out where their work overlaps. It gives useful context without turning into a formal workshop.

When weighing up remote team meeting in person ideas, ask whether the format makes it easier to start a conversation. A shared task usually works far better than telling people to “go and network”.

Mix the groups with care

Let everyone pick their own seats and project teams will probably stick together. Make teams completely random, and someone might end up with a group of colleagues who already work closely together.

Plan a light-touch mix based on role, location and how well people know each other. Spread out the team leads and confident talkers, and avoid putting all the new starters together or making one person represent a whole office.

Give each small group a manageable task with different roles, such as navigator, clue reader, timekeeper, photographer, puzzle solver or note-taker. Nobody should need to be the loudest in the room to be useful.

Choose in person activities for remote teams that create shared ground

The best in person activities for remote teams give people something to solve, spot or create together. They should be easy to explain and flexible enough for different personalities.

A personalised Scavenger Hunt sends small teams around a location to find items, crack clues and complete creative photo and video challenges. The Big Smoke Events’ Scavenger Hunt is fully hosted, with a route tailored to the team and the chosen location.

For a single venue, a Personalised Quiz, Giant Jenga Challenge, Crazy Golf, Magic Bingo or Ping Pong Challenge each create a different kind of interaction. Look beyond the name of the game and compare how much people move around, how loud it gets, what tech is involved, the room layout and whether people can take on different roles. You can see several of these in action on The Big Smoke Events’ YouTube channel.

The first meetup doesn’t need to test how well colleagues know each other. If you’re including trivia, balance company questions with ones a newer colleague can have a go at too.

How two teams made their first meeting work

Dojo’s Creators Summit shows how a shared activity can bring together a remote and fast-growing team. The Big Smoke Events designed a personalised Scavenger Hunt for 400 employees, many of whom had recently joined or worked remotely. They were split into 40 teams for a 90-minute challenge around East London, with 24 bespoke tasks, and a five-minute highlights film brought everyone together at the end.

The key takeaway is the structure: mixed small teams, company-relevant challenges and a shared finale gave a big group plenty of common ground.

VolkerFitzpatrick went for a different format when members of its national senior team were meeting in person for the first time. Its Ping Pong Challenge used random doubles pairings, personalised mobile trivia and a hosted tournament, showing how deliberate mixing and a shared focus can get new conversations going.

You can read both stories, and more, on The Big Smoke Events’ case studies page.

Protect time for informal chat

When face-to-face time feels precious, it’s tempting to fill every minute. But that leaves people comparing agendas rather than actually getting to know each other.

Build proper gaps around the structured sessions. Make lunch long enough for people to eat and swap seats, and have a comfortable space for chatting after the activity, when everyone has fresh stories to share. Let people step outside or take a quieter moment without it being seen as switching off.

A good flow for the day might look like this:

• A relaxed arrival and breakfast.
• A short welcome and the goal for the day.
• A focused business session.
• A proper break for informal chat.
• A hosted team activity.
• Shared highlights or recognition.
• An optional or lightly structured dinner and drinks.

Adjust it to suit travel times, the venue and your group’s energy levels.

Make food and drink work for everyone

Meals are often where real relationships start, but only if everyone can join in comfortably. Collect dietary requirements, label food clearly and offer good alcohol-free drinks as standard. And don’t make the pub the only place your team is expected to bond.

Think about noise, seating and service too. A long queue or a table where nobody can hear each other can undo all the effort that went into the activity. Decide whether a seating plan will help people mix or whether big shared tables will feel more natural.

Give the day a proper finish

A first meetup deserves a clear closing moment, like a short highlights reel, some light-hearted awards, a team photo or a simple thank-you for the effort everyone made to travel.

Let people know what happens next. Share photos in line with the permissions agreed, send round anything useful from the work sessions and make introductions that help new connections carry on online. And please don’t follow a great day with a survey so long that nobody finishes it.

Remote team offsite ideas: common pitfalls

Even the most promising remote team offsite ideas can fall flat if the pace or format isn’t right. Watch out for:

• An agenda packed from breakfast to late evening.
• Individual performances before people have settled in.
• Competitions that only reward speed or specialist knowledge.
• Surprise physical activities with no warning.
• Social plans built entirely around alcohol.
• Compulsory late nights after long journeys.
• Assuming the people who talk most on calls will happily host the room for you.

Give the first meetup enough warmth and breathing space for real relationships to start.

Plan your remote team meetup around your people

Your team already has a working history. Meeting in person is a chance to add faces, shared memories and a better understanding of each other. The best remote team meetup ideas come down to a clear purpose, an easy arrival, a structured way into conversation and enough space for people to be themselves.

If you’d like to add a hosted activity to the day, take a look at The Big Smoke Events’ away days, then share your location, group size, timings and goals through the enquiry page and the team can help find the right fit.