Bringing completely different social circles together is always a huge gamble, but giving them a common, silly objective through team games completely shatters that initial social anxiety every single time. At our company retreat last summer, they mixed the accounting department with the creative sales team for a game night, and it was a total masterclass in team building because people had to rely on each other’s hidden, absurd talents to win points. We did everything from rapid guessing games to goofy physical challenges, and within an hour, the quietest people in the office were high-fiving the loudest extroverts because they had successfully won a ridiculous balloon popping relay together. To get a ton of inspiration for structured, high-energy activities that easily accommodate large groups and break down social barriers, I highly recommend looking through the ideas listed at https://teachers.gov.bd/blog/details/841973 as it provides a solid foundation for designing games that don’t require any expensive equipment. A great strategy is to create the teams yourself before anyone arrives, deliberately mixing up the different friend groups so they are forced to bond over trying to win the challenges. It takes away the pressure of making regular conversation because everyone is too focused on the sheer absurdity of the game itself.