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NEW YEAR KICKOFF · JANUARY 6 – FEBRUARY 14

The January kickoff, minus the ninety-minute slide deck

The first all-hands of the year sets the tone for the next eleven months, and most of them are last quarter's review with a new cover slide. The goal is not information, it is that people leave the hour feeling like one company.

Runs
January 6 to February 14
Teams start booking
early December
  • 5-10,000 players
  • In the browser, no installs
  • Priced per event, not per head
Get a price for your dateTalk to us

Pick the game, the date and the headcount, and the price is on screen. No quote call.

Mission 8-Bit

  • Bureau of Magical Affairs
  • Adventure Through the Ages
  • +55 more games for this occasion

Vertrouwd door HR-teams wereldwijd

  • Aviatrix
  • BGaming
  • Semrush
  • Exely
  • Planner5D
  • Colvir
  • Owlcat Games
  • Enterra Soft
  • Humbleteam

THREE FORMATS

One live session, a week of play, or a calendar

  • LIVE

    Big Game

    A host brings everyone into the same story at the same time. The whole company in one session.

    70-90 min · live host · 5-10,000 players

    For this occasion

    Sixty to ninety minutes inside the kickoff agenda, in the second or third week of January.

  • ASYNC

    Marathon

    The same story over 1-5 days. People play when their day allows, and the leaderboard closes at the end.

    1-5 days · no host · any time zone

    For this occasion

    A spirit week across the second or third week of January, so every office gets the same kickoff without a single shared hour.

  • DAILY

    Advent Calendar

    A short task a day for 4 days to 3 weeks: shared canvases the whole company fills, photo contests and quick solo quizzes.

    4 days–3 weeks · 1–3 min a day · up to 50,000 players

    For this occasion

    The first three weeks of January: a shared task every three days to bring a team back together after the break.

    See the advent calendar →

OUR PICKS

Our three picks for a January kickoff

One game about building something, one about the first week back, and a timeline the whole company repairs together.

  • Top pick

    AVONTUREN · Big Game / Marathon

    Mission 8-Bit

    Uw team zit vast in een retro arcade

    Why it fits

    The one we lead with in January. The arc runs setup, build, ship, which is the shape of the quarter everyone in the room is about to plan.

    Inside the game

    Book this activitySee the game

  • AVONTUREN · Big Game / Marathon

    Bureau of Magical Affairs

    Een geheim bureau dat magie reguleert. U bent de nieuwe medewerkers

    Why it fits

    A secret office that regulates magic, and paperwork meeting chaos. It lands well in the first week back, and it puts departments that never work together on the same squad.

    Inside the game

    Book this activitySee the game

  • AVONTUREN · Big Game / Marathon

    Adventure Through the Ages

    Een tijdmachine, een gebroken tijdlijn, uw team om die te repareren

    Why it fits

    A broken timeline the team repairs together, from ancient Egypt to the moon landing. It turns where the company is going into something people do rather than something they are told.

    Inside the game

    Book this activitySee the game

ALSO FITS

Also fits a January kickoff

See every game

What teams ask for

  • Something that mixes departments who never work together.
  • A shared reference people can still quote in March.
  • A block that fits inside the kickoff agenda rather than replacing it.

What to steer clear of

  • Bolting a game onto the end of a three-hour agenda. By then nobody is present.
  • Competition that reopens the rivalries the kickoff was supposed to close.

WHEN TO BOOK

Book in early December, play in the second week of January

Two weeks of December are holidays, so the runway is about three working weeks, not six.

  1. 1

    Early December

    Lock the date

    The second and third weeks of January go first, and sales kickoffs are booked before the calendar year ends.

  2. 2

    10 business days out

    Last call for a customized game

    This year's goals as the arc, or your leadership as characters. Count the holidays when you count backwards: ten business days across late December is most of a month.

  3. 3

    3 business days out

    Last call for a live game

    A hosted Big Game off the shelf. Two business days for a Marathon. The limit is the host's calendar, not the build.

  4. 4

    The kickoff itself

    Put it in the middle, not at the end

    Sixty to ninety minutes before attention is spent. A game bolted onto the end of a three-hour agenda plays to an empty room.

Kickoffs run January 6 to February 14, and teams book from early December. January second-week slots go first, and sales kickoffs get booked before the calendar year even ends.

MAKE IT YOURS

Make the kickoff about your year

  • $1,000

    Your branding

    Your logo, colors and this year's theme on the intro screens and the leaderboard.

  • $2,500

    Your people in the game

    Your leadership team as characters people meet and talk to inside the game, instead of as the first four slides.

  • $5,000

    Your story

    This year's goals written into Mission 8-Bit: what the team is building, what shipping it looks like, and what is in the way.

Take one, or all three for $7,500. Any customization needs 10 business days.

  • Coca-Cola HBC

    The brief
    LearnFest runs for the whole company. The closing event had to hold 6,000 people across 28 countries at the same time, on one connection, with no installs.
    What we built
    Two 30-minute virtual journeys back to back, Tokyo then New York, hosted end to end.
    people in one event
    6,000
    countries
    28
    journeys, back to back
    2
    start to finish
    60-70 min

  • Citibank

    The brief
    800 people in a banking operation, on shifts and in branches, who could not all be online at any one hour.
    What we built
    Game Marathon over a single day, branded, about 10 minutes per person, played whenever their shift allowed.
    completed in one day
    800
    support request in total
    1
    attendance rate
    86%
    would recommend
    93%

  • Playrix

    The brief
    A global mobile-games studio wanted an event their people would recognise as theirs, not as a vendor's template with a logo dropped on it.
    What we built
    Austin, their own character, rebuilt as a playable NPC: he greets the team, sets the tasks and reacts to what they do.
    participants
    180
    attendance
    90%
    custom scenes
    6
    would recommend
    95%
Get a price for your date

Pick the game, the date and the headcount, and the price is on screen. No quote call.

MORE DATES

Other occasions worth planning now

  • ONBOARDING · WHENEVER A COHORT STARTS

    Onboarding events where a new cohort actually meets the company

    New hires meet their manager, their laptop and a compliance video. They rarely meet each other, and almost never meet anyone outside their own team, which is exactly what makes month three lonely.

    See the occasion

  • COMPANY ANNIVERSARY · ON YOUR FOUNDING DATE

    Company anniversary events that bridge year one and year ten

    A milestone is the one event with a story already written: yours. The trap is that the story only belongs to the people who were there, and most of the company was not.

    See the occasion

Questions we get

Can it be part of a bigger kickoff agenda?
Yes, and it works best in the middle rather than the end. Sixty to ninety minutes, before attention is spent.
Can the story carry our own goals for the year?
With the story tier, yes: the arc gets rewritten around your year, and leadership can appear as characters inside it.
How far ahead should we book a January event?
Early December. Two weeks of that month are holidays, so the real preparation window is shorter than it looks.
We run a two-day sales kickoff. Where does this fit?
As the opening block of day one. A Big Game of sixty to ninety minutes gets the room talking to each other before the content starts, and the rest of your agenda stays yours. Only the engagement hour is ours.
Half the company is in another time zone. Which format?
Big Game if everyone can share one live window without someone taking a call at six in the morning. Marathon if they cannot: the same story runs over one to five days, people play when their day allows, and the leaderboard closes at the end for the whole company at once.

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