Case Study 1:

Two-Day Team-Building Near the Office

A client came to us looking for a way out of their Covid slump. They had been running annual (and sometimes even quarterly) get-togethers for their entire organization but hadn't been able to run a single event in over 18 months. They wanted a condensed, two-day meeting near their Philadelphia office, with a significant outdoor component. They only had a half-day of real sessions and directed a majority of their focus and budget on raising morale with Competitours to fill the rest of the time.
Day one began with a three-part, interactive scavenger hunt in Philadelphia. Teams of three were directed to either the Ben Franklin Parkway (between City Hall and the Art Museum), Independence Hall, or the Philadelphia Museum of Art. At each station, a series of challenges were presented, giving each team ample opportunity to work together, build on each other's strengths, learn about the city, earn points, and most importantly, have fun.
For day two, the request was made to keep everything within the confines of the conference space of the hotel. The day began in a large meeting room to allow for ample social distancing, where several morning sessions brought the team together, and focused on finishing their year with a bang. After lunch, we converted the large ballroom (balconies and all) into our Drone Wars arena.
For several hours we went through a series of drone races and precision challenges, complete with obstacles, balconies, landing zones, and more. These activities were designed to focus on communication and collaboration skills. It's incredible how much you depend on others when you're flying a drone with a blindfold…!
Finally, as we prepared for dinner we had several rounds of trivia, incorporating company history, general knowledge, and facts learned about each other and our surroundings over the previous 24-48 hours. At the end of the two-day event, we received high praise and were quite pleased with the results.

Case Study 2:

Three Days of Team-Building Fun Scattered Throughout a Weeklong NSM

We were called to Scottsdale, AZ by a company looking for a day-and-a-half of activities over the course of a week long sales meeting. What made this particular engagement exciting, was the request to be available "after hours" for some impromptu team fun.
With improv at the core of our pedagogy, the call for impromptu fun had us very excited, and our on-site Evil Genius was ready at the bar each night with ice-breaker and other improv-related games. On four separate occasions, we found ourselves entertaining 20-30% of attendees who chose to stay on-site rather than going out, to bond "after-hours." We strive to provide a safe, and welcoming environment that encourages such behavior; this is part of our secret when it comes to a natural, no-pressure approach and team-building fun.
The second day of the sales meeting was dedicated to a full-day team-building event. Because of the size of the group, we split into two separate teams and ran concurrent events over the course of the day. The first of the two events was somewhere between an escape room, a scavenger hunt, and a navigational challenge. Teams were given a golf cart, a map, and a series of historical clues, which led them to stations around the city. At each location, they were directed to complete various tasks, interact with locals (or even actors on staff), and unlock mysteries to help them at future stations. Given the time crunch and the sheer amount of information being thrown at these teams, this challenge was all about focus, presence of mind, time management and delegation.
The next event was at the Spring Training home of the San Francisco Giants, Scottsdale Stadium. We had the field to ourselves and split the space into four unique stations. Each was meant to bring out a different character trait or skill, though the overarching themes of this event were the spirit of playfulness, being comfortable in your own skin, creativity, and communication. Here, we had our teams playing games of charades 90 feet apart; we had teams guessing the speed of their own pitches while being decked out in the requisite 1920s-style pinstripes; we had teams "selling drinks" to our planted fans around the stadium, with made-in-the-moment vendor baskets; and we even had teams creating their own mascots!
During the final night of their sales meeting, we made our way to a cooking school where we threw out the instructions and created our own Iron Chef Competition. As expected, some were the chefs of their own home and others barely knew how to cut a cucumber. Despite the wide skill spectrum, our teams of four came together to create some unique dishes, even surprising our resident chefs. "I really didn't expect this to go well, but I'm very pleasantly surprised. Each of these dishes is really delicious!"
Even over the course of six short days, management was able to notice a tangible difference in the interactions of their teams and overall engagement. It was a pleasure to see and even better to be a part of.