Summer is a little different at work, too. People go on vacation, teams rotate, offices tend to be emptier, and the pace of work often slows down.

That’s exactly why summer can be a good time for simple activities that bring people together. It doesn’t have to be a big team-building event or some other activity that everyone is required to attend. Often, something small, voluntary, and easily accessible is enough.

We’ve selected seven ideas that you can adapt based on your company’s size, work style, and what your employees enjoy.

♻ August 26, 2026

1. Summer Photo Challenge: What Did You Discover This Year?

A photo contest is a classic. But “send in your best vacation photo” might be a little too personal for some people and uninteresting for others.

It’s better to give the challenge a specific theme.

For example:

• a place worth visiting,
• the best summer meal,
• the most beautiful view,
• the strangest thing you saw on vacation,
• a small moment that made you happy.

It doesn’t even have to be a contest. The photos can be used to create a summer gallery of employees on the intranet, Teams, or even on a bulletin board in the office.

And if you want to hold a contest, don’t just pick one “best” photo. Create several categories—for example, best view, weirdest sight, or best story.

Important: Sharing photos should be voluntary. Not everyone wants to show their coworkers where they’re spending their vacation.

2. A Quiz to Get to Know Your Colleagues

You don’t have to come up with a complicated trivia quiz. Summer is a great opportunity to find out things you don’t normally know about your colleagues.

For example:

• Who on the team is planning the longest trip this year?
• Who has ever slept in a tent for more than a week?
• Who has the most houseplants at home?
• Who makes the best homemade ice cream?
• Who went to summer camp most often as a child?

You can collect questions in advance and then put together a short quiz. People guess the answers, and only then do they find out who gave each answer.

The advantage is simple: it doesn’t involve another activity where people have to create something or perform a task. They just learn something new about each other.

For remote teams, you can use the same principle via Teams, Slack, or another internal communication channel.

3. A Fitness Challenge Anyone Can Join

A sports tournament can be great. But if you base your summer activity on soccer or volleyball, you automatically exclude everyone who doesn’t like sports, can’t play, or simply doesn’t want to compete.

So try a broader challenge.

For example:

How many kilometers will we walk together in August?

Anyone who wants to can log their walks, runs, hikes, or even their commute to work. The kilometers are tallied for the entire team.

Or you can create several categories:

• most kilometers,
• most days of activity,
• best outing,
• greatest team contribution.

It doesn’t even have to be a race. The goal can simply be to reach a certain milestone together.

100 people × 20 kilometers = 2,000 kilometers.

Suddenly, it doesn’t matter who’s the fastest. Everyone can do their part.