Successful Meetings - January 2008 - (Page 59)

Fortune 1000 AIG Executive Liability sends attendees on the hunt for teambuilding By Corrie Dosh “Teambuilding event” can be an agenda item that sends shivers down the spines of meeting attendees, who may envision building towers out of office chairs, trust falls, or other often pointless efforts to bond. So in October, when a member company of insurance giant AIG brought a group of newly promoted managers into New York for a two-day training meeting, the company meeting planners decided to do things a little differently. Blending business goals with a competitive game, attendees were sent off on an elaborate scavenger hunt through the streets of lower Manhattan. A far cry from clue-driven hunts of years past, modern scavenger hunts are multilayered challenges designed to entertain and educate participants. “Hunts may be the next fad in teambuilding exercises, folSUCCESSFUL MEETINGS JANUARY 2008 Game On lowing the popularity of ropes courses and rock climbing activities,” says Dr. Pam Brill, a Boston-area consultant who provides senior-level coaching for business and sports organizations. However, though vendors may tout them as a perfect blend of fun and business, corporations would be well advised to consult a professional when incorporating a competitive activity into their meetings, Brill says. Otherwise, competition can naturally bring out the worst sort of behaviors in participants. (See sidebar.) “They market the illusion of people working together in teams, but for people to really work together, it’s far more complex than doing a scavenger hunt. Even the bestdesigned scavenger hunt that takes into account the team’s goals and development is not addressing the challenges of working mimegasite.com together as human beings,” Brill says. TAKING IT TO THE STREETS For AIG, the appeal of a scavenger hunt came simply through its nature as “a fun, outdoor activity,” says Gail LoPinto, marketing coordinator for AIG Executive Liability and American Home. “Part of what attracted us to this event was that it was October, it was still fairly warm outside, and because the scavenger hunt would take the group outside and through the streets of the city, it was a ‘breath of fresh air.’ We wanted to get them out and not be in front of a PowerPoint presentation all day long. It was intended to get them to interact with the public as well as their teammates.” The hunt was the final activity of a management development program at corporate headquarters for the AIG Excess PHOTO: MIKE KENTZ 59 http://mimegasite.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Successful Meetings - January 2008

Successful Meetings - January 2008
Contents
Editor's Note
Associations
Research
Events
Suppliers
Associations
On the Record
Associations
Suppliers
Planner Spotlight
Websites of the Month
Management Matters
Meeting the Law
Personal Success
Mouth for Sale
Food & Beverage
Professional Development
On Site
Pre-Event
Tools of the Trade
Veggie Power
Tennis, Anyone?
Seeing is Believing
The Wild Green Yonder
Game On
Places & Spaces
Galveston & Texas Beaches
Greater Seattle
Singapore
Gurus

Successful Meetings - January 2008