What are the most impactful trends corporate event professionals and destination management companies need to be aware of in the coming year? The developments and topics that can help turn an ordinary company gathering into an extraordinary experience?
According to Google Gemini, the business real estate team at OfficeFinder.com, our own team building and professional development experts here at Best Corporate Events, and other sources, below are the top 10 trends in team bonding and corporate events for 2025.
Here’s a detailed look at those trends, along with practical guidance on integrating them into your business events.
The Top 10 Trends in Corporate Events and Team Building for 2025
- Sustainability as a Core Element
- Incorporating Advanced Technology into Events
- Innovative Learning and Development Opportunities
- Bringing Remote Teams Together In-Person
- Focusing on Business Benefits
- Hosting in Trending Locations
- Fostering Wellbeing and Health
- Prioritizing Inclusivity and Accessibility
- Combining Business with Social Impact
- Connecting Employees with Brand Stakeholders
1. Sustainability as a Core Element
Companies will increasingly incorporate eco-conscious activities, carbon-neutral event planning, and themed challenges around sustainability into team building events. As Millennials move into management roles, they’ll make environmental impact a key consideration in event planning.
In addition to practices like encouraging recycling and public transit, minimizing the use of paper and plastic, and saying “no” to disposable swag items, businesses can incorporate sustainability and eco-consciousness directly into their activities.
Our Earth Wind and Solar team building program combines the fun competition of building and racing solar-power model cars with the corporate social responsibility (CSR) element of donating the kits to curious children at the end of the event. In Hydroponics for Hunger, teams assemble soil-free gardening kits for donation to community organizations to grow their own vegetables and herbs.
And for online (rather than in-person) meetings, our Virtual Environmental Trivia Challenge offers a fun and engaging way to learn about and discuss the earth’s ecosystems and the impacts of human activity on them.
2. Incorporating Advanced Technology into Events
Corporate events will increasingly blend in-person and interactive, virtual elements to both increase engagement and address accessibility needs. Gamification will be utilized to enhance participation and the sense of fun competition. And event organizers will leverage artificial intelligence (AI) for tasks like event registration, personalized recommendations, and real-time data analysis.
3. Innovative Learning and Development Opportunities
Per OfficeFinder.com, for professional development and training programs:
“Today’s attendees expect more than lectures and slide presentations. In 2025, events are set to transform into immersive learning hubs filled with interactive sessions, hands-on workshops, and collaborative activities.
“These learning opportunities aim to equip attendees with practical skills and insights they can apply immediately, creating more valuable and rewarding experiences…Scavenger hunts, escape rooms, and team-building exercises encourage attendees to interact with each other while learning new concepts.”
We couldn’t agree more with that last point! All professional corporate team building activities, CSR events, corporate scavenger hunts, and virtual escape rooms enhance communication, workplace relationships, and collaboration. Our City SmartHunt®, Amazing Chase SmartHunt®, and Escape SmartHunt® provide a high tech twist on traditional corporate scavenger hunts, reinforcing strategic planning and time management skills.
And our virtual escape rooms bring together remote or geographically dispersed employees in fun, engaging, immersive online experiences that build collaboration, reasoning, and problem solving skills.
4. Bringing Remote Teams Together In-Person
A growing number of companies are implementing return-to-the-office (RTO) mandates. It’s not just Amazon. According to The Business Journals:
“The most-recent KPMG CEO Outlook Survey…shows how there’s been a dramatic pullback in hybrid and remote work, with 79% of CEOs saying workers who used to be in the office will be back within the next three years. That’s a dramatic increase from 34% earlier (in 2024).
“Even more marked is the shift away from a hybrid structure of a few days in the office and a few days remote. Just 17% of CEOs said they envision traditional office roles being hybrid over the next three years, a substantial drop from 46% earlier this year.
“Additionally, 86% said they will reward employees who make an effort to come into the office with favorable assignments, raises or promotions.”
Whether your organization is bringing everyone back to the office on a full-time or just a “more days in the office” basis, it’s important to welcome them back from remote work. Ditch the awful and hated open-plan office design. Support employee wellbeing. Do special things for workers in the office, like free pizza lunches on Fridays.
Among the most effective and impactful ways to welcome employees back to office is to engage in team building programs. Any sort of fun competition and bonding activity helps employees build new workplace relationships, renew relationships with coworkers they haven’t seen or spent much time with in a while, build trust, and improve collaboration. The fun activities for bringing teams back together post-COVID that we wrote about in early 2022 apply equally well to today’s RTO trend.
5. Focusing on Business Benefits
There are lots of ways for employees to have fun at corporate events, from happy hours or boat excursions to magic shows and golf outings. While those activities are enjoyable and have their place, they don’t generally accomplish specific business objectives.
In the coming year, company leaders will focus more on activities that achieve measurable goals or address business issues while also helping employees have fun. Corporate scavenger hunts, as noted above, test strategy, communication, and time management skills. Escape rooms and mysteries enhance problem-solving abilities.
And many types of team building programs can be customized to help organizations navigate common business challenges such as integrating mergers and acquisitions, managing growth, integrating remote teams, improving cross-functional trust and communication, and fostering innovation.
6. Hosting in Trending Locations
Per corporate event planning services company GoGather, “In 2025, we’re anticipating a rise in popularity for a range of trending locations.”
While traditional conference destinations like Las Vegas, San Diego, Orlando, and Washington DC are always popular, trending up-and-coming “Cities like Nashville, Louisville, and Kansas City are catching attention, as well as warmer spots like Puerto Rico, Dallas, and Atlanta…As we head into the winter months, these locations become particularly attractive for those looking to escape the cold.”
Whether your business event is in your metropolitan backyard or a destination city, if team building or professional development training is part of your plans, it’s vital to choose a partner with the expertise to provide customized programming designed to address your specific business issues and objectives.
Best Corporate Events utilizes experienced, expert facilitators who can deliver events in more than 130 cities across the U.S.—and has delivered programs worldwide for U.S.-based clients with subsidiaries around the world.
7. Fostering Wellbeing and Health
Enterprises will increasingly include wellness activities, mindfulness practices, and healthy food options in their corporate events this year. Fostering wellbeing and health at business events can enhance attendee engagement, satisfaction, and productivity. By emphasizing physical, mental, and emotional health, companies and event organizers can create a more inclusive and energizing experience.
Techniques for fostering wellbeing and health at events range from incorporating physical wellness activities (walking meetings, “movement breaks,” even yoga) and encouraging active participation through gamification to providing ergonomic seating and serving healthy meals and snacks.
Physically oriented team building activities like our Team Olympics, Go-Kart Competition, and Corporate Survivor programs get participants actively moving and engaged. And charitable CSR programs such as our Mini-Golf Build and Food Donation or Build-a-Wheelchair® combine physical activity with the emotional reward of contributing to worthy causes.
8. Prioritizing Inclusivity and Accessibility
Another key trend this year is that planners will focus on designing events that are accessible to all participants with diverse needs and abilities. This consideration will affect food choices, venue selection, the use of accessible technology, and choice of activities.
Fortunately for those who want to incorporate team building into a larger company event, today’s programs are designed to involve participants of all abilities. Long gone are the days of grueling obstacle courses or “trust falls” as team building activities. Programs are now designed for inclusivity.
Game shows and trivia contests test knowledge, speed, and collaboration among all participants regardless of mobility. And many programs, such as our CSR Bike Build Donation®, Kids Rock!™, and Operation Military Care events provide different roles to actively engage all team members regardless of abilities.
9. Combining Business with Social Impact
In the coming year, corporate event planners will combine business events with social impact by incorporating initiatives that support local communities, promote sustainability, and align with the company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) goals. This approach creates positive change while enhancing attendee engagement and fostering a sense of purpose.
This can include not only prioritizing sustainable event practices and promoting inclusivity and accessibility (both of which are noted above), but also bringing in socially impactful speakers and panelists, and incorporating team building activities that contribute to positive social change through volunteering or charity-driven initiatives.
Our charitable CSR programs combine the core benefits of team building (communication, collaboration, problem solving) with social impact, providing an emotionally powerful shared experience for participants. Programs are designed to benefit a range of groups and causes, from the unhoused (Helping the Homeless) to children in foster care (Fostering Hope) to animal shelters (Putting for Pets).
10. Connecting Employees with Brand Stakeholders
In 2025 (and beyond), corporate event organizers will increasingly “think outside the organization” when planning their gatherings and activities.
Per event entertainment provider Interactive Entertainment Group, for 2025, “Brand awareness is king, but collaboration is catching up. 32.9% of respondents (in an IMEX America study) said ‘Driving Brand Awareness’ is their main objective… Interestingly, 22.5% identified ‘Fostering Team-Building and Collaboration’ as a major priority, showcasing the rising emphasis on internal engagement and cohesion within organizations.
“As the importance of corporate culture continues to rise, companies must focus on creating experiences that not only promote their brand but also foster collaboration and team-building. In 2025, expect more events blending brand promotion with team engagement—think interactive, collaborative activations that connect employees and clients in a meaningful way.”
In our experience, team building activities are usually limited to employees. But every year, we get a small but growing number of clients who invite their customers, suppliers, outside vendors, consultants, and/or franchise owners to their corporate events. It’s a great opportunity for networking as well as team building.
In some cases, companies include not only their vendors but also their vendors’ families, spouses and children, in their events. When companies go beyond inviting suppliers to a lunch or dinner by engaging them in a team building event, it demonstrates gratitude for the services and supplies that support their business operations, deepens relationships, and provides valuable networking opportunities.
When companies invite their customers to join their employees in a team building exercise, it humanizes the company, strengthens its brand reputation, and enables both customer-facing employees and the clients they work with “put a face with the voice” on the other end of the sales or support line.
These team building activities often focus on fun competition, but doing a CSR program adds a higher level of meaning and emotional impact to the activity. Expect to see companies doing more of this in the coming year.
Closing Thoughts on the Top 10 Trends in Corporate Team Building and Events for 2025
That’s a wrap! From considering social impact and incorporating innovative technology to expanding brand value and external relationships, that’s a look at the top corporate event trends for the coming year.
To learn more about professional development, training, and team building programs that can help you capitalize on these trends and improve your organizational performance, explore the Best Corporate Events site. When you’re ready, contact us for a consultation on customized leadership and team-building solutions.
