Contrary to popular belief, there are plenty of things to do indoors during the summer. Just scroll through your social media feed to find a selection of events happening near you.

If there’s a certain event you’re interested in but it’s not posted on social media or anywhere else, then perhaps it’s time to host your own!

Here are our best suggestions to get you started on your event-planning endeavor:

Common-Interest Con

Summer is the perfect time to focus more attention on your hobbies and interests. Cons (short for conventions) have become a hub for special-interest communities in recent years. If you’re short on time, you can start small. (Large-scale conventions take months, if not a whole year, to prepare.)

Creators of all shapes and sizes pursue their interests for a living. In a common interest convention, artists and illustrators can share a table and present their merchandise to other participants. Authors can band together to bring out their books for others to browse. Independent filmmakers can set up a booth where they can present their storyboards and deliver their spiels.

Do a survey and find out what interests you and the rest of the people in your company. Some may already be plugged into a larger community and can help you book a featured guest/speaker. For small/mini conventions, you can set up in a cozy flex space where you can have real conversations.

Company Mixer

Consider hosting a company mixer where you and your team can unwind and chat for a few hours without the pressure of everyday tasks.

You can also invite business partners or office neighbors. Grab the opportunity to expand your network and work out how you can collaborate. Imagine the number of genius ideas that can come to life with that many great minds huddled in the same room?

Show off your company culture and get to know your peers beyond your office’s four walls. After all, how productive can you be if you don’t even know the people you’re working with?

Host your mixer at a venue that’s ready to support your entire event with catering, maintenance, and IT services. This way, you can be truly productive and focus all your attention on building connections.

Fitness Class

Access to workouts has never been easier! With apps you can download on your phone, there’s barely any excuse for you to laze around. Still, after a long day at work, convincing yourself to even stand up can be a challenge. What could make it easier is having a buddy or two to work out with.

Exercise has its fair share of benefits, but office workers probably have the most to gain from it. Sitting at your desk for eight hours every day is more taxing than you realize. By exercising regularly, your concentration and memory improve, you learn faster, your mental stamina and creativity are enhanced, and your stress levels are lowered.

By hosting a fitness class, you encourage everyone to live a little healthier. Set a weekly or monthly schedule so you can incorporate exercise into your everyday routine. We recommend hosting your class indoors to avoid the risk of sunburn/sunstroke. You can have the room to move for any activity in a flexible workspace.

Foreign Film Feature

Put a twist on the classic movie night trope by hosting a foreign film feature. Take a step out of your normal Netflix niche flicks and introduce movies that might be tougher for the crowd to access. Foreign films can be great conversation starters. They also add a sense of mystery to your mellow gathering.

Aside from foreign films, you can also host viewing parties of local and indie movies. Partner with the producers of these little-known shows. Boost their exposure to the film community and have a small meet-and-greet for fans.

The right film can inform and inspire in an entertaining way. Or it can just be heartwarming and uplifting. Watching films is an effective distraction that can give your brain a tiny break. Either way, after a movie session, your batteries will be recharged and you’ll be ready to get back to work.

Choose an event space that can provide a projector on site or a venue equipped with huge TVs, along with a catering service for your movie snacks.

Game Night

Playing games can be an effective team building exercise (and it’s definitely cheaper than an out-of-town trip). This is also a great way for members of remote teams to meet up for something other than work.

There’s a reason why we’re encouraged to play games when we’re kids. It’s a fun way to improve mental, motor, and interpersonal skills. Of course, just because we’ve grown into adults doesn’t mean that we should stop working to improve these skills. Playing games is a way to exercise your brain without it feeling like a chore.

Engage with people you’ve only had online conversations with. Really get to know one another and see how competitive each of you can be. Find a venue with the right atmosphere, somewhere fun and full of personality.

Hackathon

Hackathons are great platforms for burgeoning techies and data nerds. They get to showcase their skills and ideas to business veterans looking for the next disruptive innovation.

It’s not just about making tech anymore; it’s about applying tech in all walks of life, such as food, fashion, and transportation. Prepare challenges that can unleash your team’s productive and creative spirit. End products from your hackathon’s participants are sure to motivate you to host your next event soon.

Make sure that your venue is well-equipped to handle several people accessing the internet at the same time. Also, ensure their access to amenities and refreshments. Since participants will be working on their computers and other gadgets, this has to be an exclusively indoor event.

Workshops

A workshop is one of the more common events that you can host — not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Workshops provide a quick way to learn new skills or improve on old ones. Your team can either teach the workshop yourselves and share your expertise or you can collaborate with other professionals that have a penchant for teaching. Either way, you get to pay it forward and mold minds.

There’s no shortage of things that you can host a workshop for. You can have a wellness class, a creative workshop, a tech-talk, an intro to coding — among many others! It’s essential that you prepare your workshop according to the interests of the community you’re fostering. Do a bit of research and get to know your target crowd before diving into the fray.

Any event, big or small, takes time and effort to prepare. And you won’t always be able to hire an event planner to help you make the decisions.

Having excellent support to help you out is the key to a successful workshop. If you’re doing it on your own or with a small team, make sure you’ve covered all the bases in preparing for it. Come up with a budget, a date and time, then find a space that can make planning simpler for you. Partner up with businesses you can trust to provide quality service that will make your summer event the productive-est!