Your office has already won the lottery with tropical weather and incredible beaches in your backyard, and there are lots of fun team building activities in St. Petersburg to boost your business from the inside out. Outside of quick and easy team building games or ice breaker questions, planning team building activities has benefits for the individual employee and the organization as a whole. It can range from a day of volunteering or a brewery tour to more classic options that involve some healthy competition.
HRMorning says the benefits of utilizing team building activities in your organization range from improved employee morale, productivity and retention rate to encouraging creativity and boosting your business. Just like including perks at work is a nice way to show appreciation for your team, investing in activities small or large is a fun and creative way to get everyone working together better.
Getting to know your co-workers, including upper management, means everyone feels more comfortable asking questions and sharing ideas in the long run. Read on to discover the best team building activities in St. Petersburg. And if you're curious, you can also read our team building activities in Tampa if you'd like to travel to a neighboring city for your activities.
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- Culinary Team Building Activities in St. Petersburg
- Creative Team Building Activities in St. Petersburg
- Indoor Team Building Activities in St. Petersburg
- Outdoor Team Building Activities in St. Petersburg
Culinary Team Building Activities in St. Petersburg
1. Cooking Classes
Go above and beyond just treating your team to dinner and sign up for cooking classes in Tampa nearby. You can go the Chopped route and have it semi-competitive or stick with collaborative all the way.
Whichever option you choose, your group is going to explore new cuisines, learn new hands-on culinary skills and improve their time management and communication skills all while whipping up a tasty feast from all corners of the globe. This team building activity near St. Petersburg is a fan-favorite for a reason. Remote teams can also take collaborative online cooking classes at different times so that the entire team can enjoy these team building activities in St. Petersburg and beyond.
2. Designated Team Building Activities in Tampa
There are plenty of pre-organized team building activities in Tampa to engage your group. A trip over to Tampa Bay is the perfect backdrop for paint and sip, flower arranging classes, more culinary lessons or dance lessons. Poll your office and see which options appeal to them most before booking. You can even offer mixology lessons for a workshop in crafting the perfect cocktail.
3. Around the World With Food
Everybody loves a good potluck party, and the only way to make it better is to introduce a theme. You can host monthly or bi-monthly potluck parties in the office (or as a picnic outdoors) where everyone contributes.
Pick a single country and have everyone bring their favorite Parisian or Italian dish, or make the theme international and welcome dishes from all over the globe. Then the team members can explain why they brought their specific dish — maybe it's a family recipe or a part of their native country or culture. This is one of the top team building activities in St. Petersburg to form office camaraderie.
4. Take a Food Tour
With so many incredible dining options around the office, it can be a little overwhelming to choose the right place to have a team building dinner or lunch. Food tours in St. Petersburg take your team all over, showing off hidden gems and new pop-ups.
From local, homemade ice cream to Baja style fish tacos and a juicy cheeseburger all in one tour, this is by far one of the tastiest team building activities in St. Petersburg and it has something for everyone.
5. Visit a Brewery
You can shop local while engaging in team building activities in St. Petersburg at one of the many craft breweries in town. 3 Daughters, Pinellas Ale Works and Green Bench are highly-rated for their beer, food and ambiance.
6. Travel Up State
If you have the time and budget to do a company-wide retreat/vacation, you’ve got some great options within driving distance. Drive up to Epcot Theme Park or Universal Studios to explore team building activities in Orlando.
It’s not just the rides and immersive movie worlds that people travel from all over to experience. The food is top-notch and at certain times of the year, you can visit the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival, too.
Creative Team Building Activities in St. Petersburg
7. Enjoy a Paint and Sip Workshop
Book your crew for paint and sip in Tampa, the ideal creative outlet for groups. Beer and wine will get your team's creative juices flowing and an artist instructor can offer tips and tricks as everyone puts their own flare on a painted masterpiece.
You can also check to see if there are any paint and sips in St. Petersburg or even online. These types of team building activities in St. Petersburg can make meeting new people more comfortable where team members can bond over this shared experience.
8. Get Crafty at Teal Magnolia Workshop
Learning new skills is great for your brain, and getting to do it alongside friends and coworkers doubles the fun. Head over to the Teal Magnolia Workshop for some hands-on team building activities near St. Petersburg. They specialize in teaching DIY methods for home décor using raw materials. Think woodworking from sanding to staining or creating hand-painted serving trays.
9. The Cardboard Boat Challenge
This classic team building activity in St. Petersburg is popular all across the country and it checks so many business-boosting boxes. Apart from being super cheap, your employees will get hands-on crafting a seaworthy vessel of just cardboard and tape.
They must communicate and delegate with their team, work within a time frame and use critical thinking and creativity to “win” the challenge. After 90 minutes, one member from each team must prove that the boat works by racing across the water, either in a pool, over a river or a lake or the ocean.
10. Take Photography Classes
When you live in paradise, there are photographable moments all around you. Treat your team to photography classes in Tampa, St. Petersburg or online. While there might be a photographer or two in your office, it’s a uniquely useful art form that everyone can enjoy in their own way. This team building activity will teach your team how to capture landscapes, portraits and still life to level up their iPhone camera roll, Instagram page or maybe even the company’s social media manager role.
11. Share a Laugh at Funny Bone
Nothing breaks the ice faster that a good joke, and Funny Bone has you covered. This will be one of the most hilarious indoor team building activities in St. Petersburg, the perfect spot for bonding and laughs. Show up on an “open mic” night and see if anyone is brave enough to get on stage.
12. Build-a-Bike
Teams all over the country participate in charity bike build-a-thons every year. This rewarding team building activity in St. Petersburg involves assembling and donating bikes to organizations for children in need. It’s fun to do every year for team camaraderie where everyone gets to work with their hands and participate in a good cause.
13. Non-Perishable Mini Putt
Host a non-perishable goods drive for a few weeks and after you’ve collected all the food, divide everyone into teams. Task them with creating a mini golf hole using only the non-perishable goods to create walls, obstacles and slopes.
This creative team building activity in St. Petersburg can be done right in the office. Let everyone play the holes when they’re done, after voting on the best one and before boxing everything up to bring to your local food shelf.
14. Sand Castle Competition
You don’t need to plan much more than a day at the beach for your whole team to feel refreshed and reinvigorated, but a little friendly competition never hurt anyone. Choose the local beach that’s most convenient and after arranging for transportation and refreshments, announce that you will be hosting one of the top beach-inspired team building activities in St. Petersburg: a sand castle or sculpture contest. Certain towns create massive Christmas trees out of sand each year, so the sky is the limit, literally and figuratively, for creative minds.
15. Inter-Office Social Media Wall
You may or may not be on social media or be “friends” with your colleagues, but it’s still nice to know about their accomplishments outside of work. Create an “Instagram” wall in the break room including sticky notes or little white boards fastened to the wall and encourage everyone to bring in photos from their most recent trip, award, athletic achievement or anything else. You can clear the board every week or as you see fit. This fun daily team building activity in St. Petersburg fosters a sense of community in the office.
Indoor Team Building Activities in St. Petersburg
16. Visit the Florida Aquarium
Explore the depths of the ocean while striking up conversation (via Canva)
The Florida Aquarium is located right in Tampa and is a lovely location for indoor team building activities near St. Petersburg. From educational films and workshops to ever-changing exhibits, there are some truly incredible sights here. Perfect for a rainy or extra-hot day when you need to stay cool. This works as great date ideas in Tampa or date ideas in St. Petersburg too if you've sparked an office romance.
17. Explore an Escape Room
Escape rooms are one of the most popular team building activities in St. Petersburg and beyond for good reason. Besides being a ton of fun, they encourage creative thinking and problem solving in a different environment. The Great Escape Room in St. Pete is perfect for offices of all sizes.
18. Stroll Through the Dali Museum
Outside of Spain, the Dali Museum might be the best place to see Salvador Dali’s masterpieces. This trippy and imaginative place is one of the top creative spaces for team building activities in St. Petersburg. See the world through a different lens, just like Dali did.
This playful and interactive museum features old treasures and new technology, including an AI voice that sounds just like Dali himself and answers questions about the artist.
19. BioHacking Workshop
Explore the modern world of bio-hacking at the incredible ExerScience Center in Tampa. This is the coolest and healthiest spot for indoor team building activities near St. Petersburg. They offer pre-planned retreats in Tampa or abroad, as well as lots of fitness classes and services like personal training, physical therapy, yoga and more.
Outdoor Team Building Activities in St. Petersburg
20. Go Shelling at Shell Key Preserve
Make the most of the ocean paradise that’s in your backyard with one of the most fun outdoor team building activities in St. Petersburg. Catch a ferry over to Shell Key Preserve where you can spend the afternoon doing all sorts of beach activities.
This magical place is known for magnificent sea shells, and you can encourage creative tasks by sending groups off to find shells and subsequently build or assemble something special with them when they return. If you find something special like a dried out star fish or are inspired to make your own shell art, this is a lovely Florida gift for a loved one.
21. Visit the Sunken Gardens
Escape the hustle and bustle of the office with an afternoon at the Sunken Gardens. Team building activities in St. Petersburg don’t have to be so obvious, sometimes a peaceful afternoon making friends with colleagues and de-stressing together is invigorating.
The Sunken Gardens have been around for more than 100 years, housing thousands of tropical plant species and colorful, exotic animals. Stroll around and enjoy the beauty of Mother Nature. You can add some education to this one too by checking their schedule for workshops.
22. Volunteer at Seaside Seabird Sanctuary
Seaside Seabird Sanctuary is a stunning beachfront sanctuary is home to hundreds of sick or injured birds. Besides being a gorgeous retreat for photographers and nature lovers, they rely on volunteers to fuel their mission of resucing, rehabilitating and releasing these wild birds. This team building activity in St. Petersburg will have your group feeling good as they give back and take care of Florida’s wildlife.
23. Dolphin Sunset Cruise
Rather than just having happy hour at a local hot spot, enjoy cotton candy skies and turquoise waters with dolphins frolicking. Dolphin Sunset Cruise is one of the quintessential team building activities in St. Petersburg that you can’t find just anywhere. The group can enjoy cocktails and conversation as they make new friends and chat with co-workers from other departments. Team members can even choose to snorkel with the dolphins for a once in a lifetime experience.
24. Beach Olympics
Host your very own Olympics at your favorite beach. This is one of the most fun and memorable team building activities in St. Petersburg you can do. Especially popular in an office full of newbies or at a start up, come up with your own Olympic Games, complete with teams and win medals, to enjoy at the beach together.
Sand racing, beach volleyball and maybe even a sand handstand walking contest will have everyone collaborating as a team to put their best foot forward.
25. Team Bike Ride at Boyd Hill Preserve
Get outside and explore Florida’s diverse flora and fauna at the Boyd Hill Nature Preserve. Just under 10 miles of trails are the perfect place for outdoor team building activities in St. Petersburg. From a leisurely walk, a running club or just a casual bike ride through the glades, there are lots of ways to enjoy this nature preserve.
26. Group Kayaking at Shell Key
Nothing will force good communication faster than sticking two people in a kayak or canoe together. You absolutely have to communicate with your kayak buddy if you want to go anywhere but in a circle in a dual kayak.
Enjoy the gorgeous views of the archipelago near Shell Key for one of the most active outdoor team building activities in St. Petersburg. If you were wondering where is the most beautiful place in St. Petersburg? Shell Key would make the list.
27. Play 18 Holes
Florida is a big golf state, so it’s not exactly a gamble to book a few tee times and hope your employees enjoy one of the most ubiquitous team building activities in St. Petersburg. Even mini golf gets the job done. There are plenty of affordable and well-maintained public golf course where groups of four can go test out their communication and mental stamina.
Invest in your organization and have fun while doing it with these amazing team building activities in St. Petersburg. There’s so much to explore both indoors and out in this coastal paradise. You have access to top-notch shopping, dining and entertainment at a moment’s notice.
Apart from having fun and making memories, these team building activities in St. Petersburg truly do boost your organization as a whole. From helping you identify key leadership skills to improving employee motivation, creative thinking, communication and collaboration skills.
For even more fun team building ideas, check out other experiences happening on Classpop!
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