Bespoke Badger is quarantine at its best: Ten tips for making your virtual pub a great success
Thursday night is trivia night at the Bespoke Badger virtual pub. The proprietor might be just outside of London, but our little circle of the world is there at the Badger. Every Thursday.
Coronavirus quarantine has introduced many to video-enabled happy hours, work meetings, and family reunions. But the Bespoke Badger is next level. It is quarantine—and the world—at its best because it brings people together over drinks, laughter, and serious talk in a way that I would have never imagined virtually possible six weeks ago. Nor is it insignificant: We’ve had nearly thirty people in the pub on a single evening, and there are now over fifty of us for whom it’s become rather our local bar. I’ll just be over here stringing up flags for some of the folks who have recently stopped in for a drink…
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OK, good. Now that we’ve got some color on the wall, I’ll share some of my observations as to how others can build similarly special virtual spaces with friends, family, colleagues, and strangers. Fundamentally, though, the secret here is in creating virtually the same sense of community that we’ve long created in the physical world. The whole idea is to the extent possible do for the virtual as you would have done for a physical pub.
1. Establish a consistent “place” to get together
Settle on “where” to bring people together each time, and keep it consistent. I prefer Zoom because I love the gallery view that plasters your screen with video feeds from everyone present. Don’t discount this tech because you’ve heard security concerns about “Zoombombing”; we’re building a pub, here, not protecting trade secrets. You will almost certainly want a paid plan. The “Pro” plan should do it for most, and don’t feel badly about sharing the cost with regulars at the bar.
2. Give that place an identity with real world qualities
The genius of the Bespoke Badger isn’t that it’s a virtual happy hour, it’s that naming it imparted an identity. The name created a thing, or a place, for which those who congregate there can feel real affection similar to what so many of us have felt for our favorite bars and neighborhood joints in the physical world.
3. Connect with others over different channels
Create different channels where regulars can find one another. There’s a website where the link is posted for the evening’s virtual session. The pub is on Twitter. A happy hour group on WhatsApp keeps us chattering when the pub is “closed”. Rarely a day goes by when I don’t run into at least one of my buddies across the different places we congregate.
4. Start with a core group, but welcome newcomers
The Badger began with a core group of incredibly close friends and—in some cases—colleagues, but at this point I find myself meeting new people there. I’ve worried a lot about quarantine’s effect on the formation of new relationships, be they friendships, romances, or work relationships. Time will tell, but seeds are being planted at the Bespoke Badger. Importantly, when someone drops in who may not know everyone there, it’s the responsibility of someone who does to ask the question, and make the introductions if necessary.
5. Think across timezones
This is important if your circle of old or new friends spans countries, continents, or the globe. The Bespoke Badger runs on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) because our “proprietor” is in the United Kingdom, but we’re spanning many timezones at any given time. So it’s 21:00 in London whilst 16:00 in New York whilst 23:00 in Helsinki. But the world turns, so if the New Yorkers are still rolling at 23:00 they’ll find that it’s almost time for the Kiwis to go off to (slightly) early happy hour at 15:00 in New Zealand. The date matters far less than the time of day. Oh, and embrace 24-hour time for this purpose, because you’ll find it a much less confusing way of thinking across timezones.
6. Turn on some music
…not to drown out the conversation. Actually I mean this more figuratively. The shared “jukebox” at the Bespoke Badger takes the form of a collaborative playlist on Spotify. Set one up and invite the pub’s regulars to contribute their top five favorite songs. We’ve only been doing this for a few days, and it has proven an incredible success! I’ve rediscovered some great music that I had forgotten about, and will surely find some new stuff that I’ve never heard.
7. Keep things interesting
Meeting up for drinks is great, but don’t be afraid to mix up the activities. Pub trivia night is solid gold, and Crowdpurr makes it easy to do virtually. Placing a witty master of ceremonies in charge of organizing it helps spread the burden of running your pub around a bit. I’ve also seen PlayingCards.io work well, and I am sure there already / will be many a classic game updated for the virtual world.
8. Ask questions
A round of question and answer is great for creating space for the less talkative. Just ask the group a question, answer it yourself, and nominate someone else to answer next. Repeat this until everyone has answered. You’ll learn fascinating things. And as much as I feared at first that this might be too cheesy, everyone seems to love it. Q&A starter pack:
Where do you consider to be your hometown? I always find it fascinating to hear people identify with birth, growing up, current home, etc.
How many siblings do you have? There is little more formative, for better or worse, than those with whom we grew up (or didn’t).
Who is the number one person you’d bring back from the dead, and why? Musicians to politicians, inventors and artists, loved ones, too.
9. Embrace the bizarre
Roll with it when things get strange, because they’re likely also about to get hilarious. One evening, for whatever reason, everyone started turning virtual backgrounds on camera into pictures of our friend Kaila. Hilarity ensued. On another occasion I went off to get a new drink, and by the time I returned, everyone had taken screenshots of my video feed and turned my home office into their own video background.
10. Embrace quieter moments, too
It’s great to have thirty people on trivia night, but remember that pubs have quieter moments, too. Embrace those, because I’ve found that it’s equally great to meet up with three or four friends on an off night. Think of it as you think of the ebb and flow in your favorite physical bar… sometimes it’s a party, and sometimes it’s a deep chat amongst old and new friends.
