Virtual Conferences and Online Team Building: A Quarantine Pivot

“I was curious about how to create a better virtual experience in the workplace, overall. Many teams are spread across the globe and existing technologies can feel stale and cold. How can we improve the model and make virtual meetings and experiences more inclusive, human, innovative, and fun?” -Co-founder, Finn Kelly 

The Quarantine Pivot: 

Go Remote (The Go Game) has set the standard for dynamic events and experiences, blending technology, creativity, and play (their events always have a live MC!) for Corporate America. Led by Co-founders, Ian Fraser and Finnegan Kelly, Go Remote has hosted tens of thousands of in-person, and virtual games and experiences for Fortune 500s. No strangers to invention and innovation, they even created the world’s first interactive cell phone scavenger hunt, before all things Pokemon Go. Their rare blend of “the best of humanity and technology” has helped them to partner on major activations and conferences like SXSW, as well as with the City of San Francisco, around disaster preparedness and natural disaster coordination, through gamification. 

18 months ago, the team became entirely distributed, while also fielding more inquiries from clients looking for engagement solutions for remote and distributed teams. The company doubled-down on a virtual product line and launched Go Remote in January of 2020. The timing, as it turns out, was uncanny with COVID-19 shutting down all in-person events which were their primary business channel at the time.

Since April 1st, they’ve been hitting the screens, as it were, running. This month alone, Go Remote has run online team building events, games and experiences with companies like Spotify, Google, LinkedIn, GoFundMe, YouTube, Amazon, Uber, Ernst & Young, Salesforce, Dell, and more. They’re leading 150 experiences per week and their monthly growth since March is nearly 300%. With the launch of a new virtual offering, Remote Reception this month, which will allow for 1,000 players, Go Remote expects this trend to continue, as corporate event planners look for ways to engage their conference audiences, online in dynamic, fun ways. 

“Companies are looking for ways to drive a more connected culture, virtually. Our team of experts know how to do just that and our platform is thoughtfully designed to encourage inclusive participation (and fun!) with live gameplay. You won’t find any Zoom fatigue with us.”  -Co-founder, Ian Fraser 

Lessons Learned: Both Terrifying & Exciting 

“We designed a game that we wanted to play when thinking about the product development cycle. It’s exciting and terrifying to push the envelope on the market in a new way, while also fundamentally changing the way we have interacted with our clients for decades. When you make something really good though, good things will happen.”-Co-founder, Finn Kelly 

Finnegan Kelly, who is also Go Remote’s CTO wanted to design something his friends and family would play. The technical team embodied this vision and focused on building a minimum lovable product instead of a traditional MVP. They launched and scaled Go Remote, extremely fast, not relying on existing models of video platforms for inspiration. The existing aesthetic, the team felt was stale and noninclusive for what they had become known for: team building and creating memorable experiences. 

The Go Remote platform is vibrant and user-friendly and it’s not a radical departure from the core of the company and previous products. The company sees itself as a human-centric, eyes-up technology company. Even if on a screen, Go Remote encourages authentic connection, spontaneous interaction, and heaps of creativity and fun. 

“Our team’s game today was awesome! This was the most effective and fun remote team building experience I have seen.” -Elizabeth Cooper, Google

Future of work, distributed teams, and culture setting:

Kelly sees the trend of distributed workforces as an opportunity for change. From where to source talent to how companies form, founders can begin to think differently about how they build and scale organizations. Oftentimes the hardest thing to figure out amongst remote and in-person teams and companies is how to set and maintain workplace culture. That’s what Go Remote helps to drive. 

The pandemic has also reprioritized culture and company cohesion for company objectives, across industries. This is good for business at Go Remote, as emotional connectedness is highly valued since teams are being forced to be apart, physically. 

“The old notion of how you’re able to be together is gone. With intentional content, curated engagement with live hosts and contests, and more- we can create inclusive environments that can drive a workplace culture. It’s a bold statement to make, but we see it happen every day. Employees leave more connected, more included, and more inspired by their teams and workplace community with Go Remote.”
-Co-founder, Ian Fraser

About Go Remote
Go Remote (The Go Game) sits at the intersection of technology, exploration, and creativity and is setting the engagement standard for virtual conferences and events, worldwide. Since 2001, the company has turned the most skeptical of employees and users into wildly enthusiastic team players for companies like Nike, Google, Salesforce, LinkedIn, Apple, Netflix and more. Learn more.