Is a Company Field Day Right for Your Team? Let's Find Out

When a Childhood Classic Meets the Workplace

After ten years of designing team-building experiences, we’ve learned something pretty simple: the best events aren’t about who wins. They’re about giving everyone a chance to show up in their own way and form real connections among the silliness.

We’ve designed everything from 12-hour city-wide scavenger hunts to intricate, tactile escape room worlds. But the throughline is always the same: build experiences that give different types of people ways to participate.

That's why we love a summer event classic: Field Day.

What Is a Field Day?

Think back to elementary school (if you can 😉). Remember that annual event where all the students would gather for races and games? Sack race. 100-yard dash. Relays. Ringing a bell?

Field Day might feel like a throwback to you, but the tradition goes back even further. In fact, Field Day is one of the oldest traditions in American education, popping up as early as the 1800s.

The original idea behind Field Day was to give young students a break, celebrate community, and show off pride in public schools.

That same light-hearted competitive spirit is what we channel into the modern company Field Day. Step outside, be in community, and enjoy a moment that feels different from the everyday.

What is a Corporate Field Day?

The Field Day we've designed does not include basic sack races and relays. It’s more strategic, silly, creative, and collaborative. It is more about employees coming together over a set of group games and having a blast along the way.

The games are fun, just a little ridiculous, and they’re structured in a way that encourages problem-solving, collaboration, and friendly competition.

We'll get more into the format below, but first, is this type of event right for you?

Why Field Day Might Be the Right Fit for Your Team

There are a million ways to gather your team. So why a Field Day? Here are a few reasons teams choose Field Days over other events:

✅ You want to be outside, but still stay together

Unlike scavenger hunts that split people into small groups and scatter them around, Field Day keeps your team in the same shared space. Everyone’s in the action, cheering each other on, rotating through games together.

✅ You have a large team with different skill sets

Field Day is built around challenges that call on a mix of strengths: physical, mental, and creative. That means your introverts, extroverts, problem-solvers, and analytical minds can all use their strengths.

✅ You want something active, but not overly competitive

This isn’t about cutthroat competition. It’s about collaboration with a bit of spice. Games are fun, strategic, and skew silly, but they’re also grounded in teamwork.

✅ You need something scalable and flexible

Whether you’ve got 50 people or 500, a Field Day scales easily. You can adapt the space, pace, and level of facilitation to fit your group’s needs.

✅ You’re tired of the same old team-building

Field Day is refreshingly different. Folks can feel like kids again as they play and genuinely connect in a new way.

What's a Good Reason to Have a Company Field Day?

Wondering if this kind of event is right for your company? Here are a few perfect fits:

• Summer employee engagement events 🌞
• Company milestone celebrations 🎉
• Outdoor team-building retreats 🏕️
• In-person team meetups or all-hands offsites 👥
• Kickoffs for new projects or quarters 🚀

The Field Day Games: A Bit of Survivor DNA (Without the Drama)

On Survivor, players are placed on tribes. In the early episodes, they have to work together with their tribe to complete challenges like solving puzzles under pressure or coordinating tricky physical tasks.

For the corporate Field Day, we used similar ingredients, and added a few of our own:

• Simple rules, so everyone can jump in
• A mix of challenge types to reflect different strengths
• Modular medals that tie the experience together (more on that below)
• Real-time scoring on a leaderboard to keep things exciting

There’s a bit of Survivor-style competition, sure. However, we've left the blindsides and backstabbing out of our game!

A Format That Feels Like Real Teamwork

Great teams are made up of a mix of personalities and skills. So why do so many team-building events only reward one kind of contribution??

Our Field Day format is built to reflect real collaboration. Players share ownership, support each other, and bring different skills to the table.

Every Handstand Field Day event includes a mix of three types of games:

1. Physical 🔥

Game type #1 is movement-based challenges that are more about communication and coordination than athleticism. There are intricate props and lots of group strategy, like this Mazed & Confused Survivor challenge.

2. Mental 🧠

Style #2 is games that challenge memory, observation, logic, and quick thinking. These kinds of challenges divert from physical skills and instead test your mind.

3. Creative 🎨

The third style is the Creative portion, where teams show off their humor, design skills, or improvisation chops.

No matter someone’s comfort zone, there’s a space where they can step in and contribute. That’s the whole idea.

Medals That Come Together...Literally

At each station, teams earn a shard of a medal—a piece that represents that specific challenge type (physical, mental, or creative). As the day progresses, those pieces clasp together to form a full medal, like puzzle pieces.

The final piece is a keepsake and a physical reminder of how the team worked together. People often hang onto awards like these long after the event ends, not because they’re flashy, but because they’re meaningful.

Our Guiding Principles for Designing a Field Day

We’ve spent years testing and tweaking game mechanics. These are the main pillars of our Field Day:

🔁 Replayability

Games should be fun across multiple rounds. It should not be a one-and-done. Players should be able to and want to try again with their learnings from previous rounds, without diluting the experience.

👀 Spectator Value

Even if you’re not playing, the game should be exciting to watch and easy to follow. Go back to Survivor. These challenges are exciting to watch, even from your couch.

🌍 Inclusivity

Design with different abilities, communication styles, and energy levels in mind. No matter where you fall on the spectrum of competitors, you should feel like you can contribute and have a great time doing it.

🛠 Customizability

The experience should match your company’s tone. Whether it’s goofy, high-energy, analytical, or all of the above. We take your group's story and reflect it in our tweaks to the game design.

✨ Aesthetic

We care about how things look. From medals to signage, everything’s thoughtfully designed.

The attention to detail is what makes the difference between something your team shrugs off and something they’ll talk about for the rest of the year.

What is the Best Time of Year for a Field Day?

Summer. Summer is when people want to be outside. It’s lighter, warmer, and a little more relaxed. That makes it a perfect time for an event like this.

A lot of summer corporate events fall flat because:

• Some are too passive (breakout sessions you'll forget next week)
• Some are too intense or awkward (partner yoga with a stranger)

A Field Day lands somewhere in the sweet spot, and it can happen pretty much anywhere: a park, your company’s campus, and even indoors if needed.

Rethinking Your Offsite

If you’re planning a summer offsite or just looking for a new way to get your team together, Field Day might be what you’re looking for. It’s a break from routine that brings people together and gives everyone a chance to show up in their own way.

And honestly? It’s just fun. Which sometimes is the thing teams need most.

Want to Build a Field Day That Fits Your Team?

We’d love to help.

Handstand Field Day is flexible, fully facilitated, and tailored to your team’s vibe. Whether you want something light and silly, big and bold, or a mix of both. We’ll help you create an experience your people won’t forget.

👉 [Reach out to learn more] or [schedule a quick intro call].

More FAQs: Corporate Field Day Edition

What is a corporate Field Day?
A corporate Field Day is a team-building event where coworkers rotate through a series of physical, mental, and creative challenges. It’s fun, lightly competitive, and designed to get everyone involved.

How long does a Field Day typically last?
Most Field Days run between 2–4 hours, including game rotations, breaks, and time for awards or celebration at the end.

What group sizes work best for Field Day?
Field Day is scalable, but most fun with at least 50 people, and ideally more. We group teams in a way that keeps things engaging and well-paced.

Is this just for outdoor spaces?
Nope. While Field Day is perfect for parks or...fields...we can adapt the format for courtyards, large offices, parking lots, and even indoor conference centers.

Does Handstand bring all the materials?
Yes. We bring all the props, signage, medals, and equipment needed to make the day run smoothly, along with staff to host and facilitate.