Team building and Sustainability

I was looking at an article covering a speech about sustainability given by the CEO of a global multi national. At around the same time I saw a company report from another blue chip company and the Chairman's statement was all about sustainability. It seems that it's the big trend in business at the moment.

Then I was thinking about team building events and how they fit with sustainability. If the CEO is saying that nothing is more important than sustainability but then the next day a group of the company's executives is burning around a field on quad bikes, leaving a scar on the land that will take months to heal, then you wouldn't be completely out of order pointing out the hypocrisy. Words are important, but actions speak louder than words.

The sustainability issue is going to start to impact on the sort of team building events that corporate clients choose. Quad bikes and tanks will be out, Community Projects will be in. Speedboats will be out in favour of sailing.

Team building providers are often small businesses who do not necessarily listen to the things that large corporates say are important. However, the industry needs to change and become more environmentally focussed. The corporate client is a very sophisticated entity and the days of petrol heads yahooing around a field will soon be over.

Progressive Resources has a wide variety of sustainable team building events.

2006 - Happy New Year!

The year has started well and all the signs point to 2006 being an excellent year for team building. We have a variety of new events on offer and added various new equipment over the Winter. We invested in a lovely old fire engine, a 1978 Bedford TK, and have created an event in which teams can take on the challenge of being a fire crew. This is great fun and involves rolling out the hose and hitting targets with a jet of water. She is also very useful for transporting water for our Water Wars event and It's A Knockout.

We are now prepared for the year ahead. It's going to be a good one!

September Team Building News

August was extraordinarily busy. Usually it's quiet because of holidays, but this year it was like a normal month. September is looking very busy too. We're having a night shift in for the first time to unload vans, clean and prepare equipment and reload ready for the following day. We have sold our old Lasersport systems and bought two brand new ones complete with electronic traps. These are extremely slick and a great improvement. We have also ordered two brand new vans from Virgin Cars. They had a very good deal on Citroen Relays offering a discount of nearly 40%. Citroen make a very good diesel engine. You can't cut corners on transport because we need it to be absolutely reliable so that we don't let clients down. Our policy is to have new vehicles and kit and replace them regularly. We're up to 50 instructors in the field and we're now recruiting actively. Our target for next year is 70 and these must be trained to full competency over the winter.



Preparations for Halloweeen are underway and people have already been caught out by heads appearing from holes in tables and a very spooky 6ft vampire which swoops down from the roof on invisible fishing wire. Every so often we've heard a scream from downstairs and some of the girls in the office are refusing to go down there until it's finished. Our product development area is like a mad cross between Department Q and Santa's Workshop!

As the Summer starts to draw to a close

Well, I suppose it's still a bit early to say that. We had a few events on today and the weather was just bizarre. Hailstones in August. August is usually a bit quieter because people go away on holiday and so clients avoid having events during the month. Still, we've had events most days. Now the busiest season of the year for team building events starts to build up. September through to mid November tends to be the big conference season. Hopefully it will be good this year, after all we're still owed a summer!

Busy year for events

2005 is going to be a good year. I estimate it will be more than 30% up on last year. The past five years have included a range of geopolitical events that have adversely affected the events industry. Foot and mouth, 9/11, Sars and the Iraq War are all examples of these events. Team building and corporate events are one of the first things to get cut when corporates aren't feeling confident and nothing affects confidence like uncertainty. This year, however, has been a level playing field (so far) and corporates are investing in their teams. This investment improves morale, teamwork and communication and these things have an accumulating effect in a business.

Team Building Galore

It is now clear that this is going to be an extremely busy year for our team. Bookings are very good and clients have reacted well to some of the new events we have developed. In particular our Parmesan Job treasure hunt event has been very well received. People love the new Mini Cooper and it does look fantastic when we have a group of them running around together - it really turns heads. Hunt The New Forest Beast has not been so popular as a team building event. It attracts interest on the website but we've only actually run a couple. I think that the idea of camping appeals to some but not others, personally I love it. My theory is that in a group of, say, 30 people between 5 and 10 people will be averse to physical activity and perceived hardships such as camping and they will veto such events. This explains why Treasure Hunts are the most popular event in the corporate event industry. They are acceptable to most people in any given team.

On the subject of camping I have signed up for two weeks' arctic survival in February of next year. I enjoyed the week surviving in the woods last year raising money for The Anthony Nolan Trust and so I have decided to go one step further with this event which will involve living in snow caves, fishing through the ice and travelling by husky and skidoo. I can't wait!

The year is underway

There is a day in the year when the events business, being seasonally affected, changes and becomes extremely busy. I have been monitoring this for the last few years and one date always comes up; 11th February. So, on 11th February this year I came into the office with a spring in my step and it there did seem to be some excitement in the air; more enquiries than usual and people actually looking to make decisions and pin down dates. This week, the week after the key date, has been extremely busy and that surprises me because it's half term and also Confex, the industry exhibition, is on this week. Given all of that I am expecting next week to be very busy, so it's all hands on deck again!

New Year!

We ran almost up to Christmas with team building events and Christmas parties. The Christmas break has been longer than usual, but we return to work tomorrow and the first big event is on 6th January. The first couple of months tend to be taken up with launch events as companies prepare for the coming year. There are still plenty of team building events, but they really kick in from March onwards. I think most of our team have had enough of the break and now want to get back into the swing of things.

Christmas Events Begin

We have still been running plenty of outdoor team building events, probably due to the mild winter. On Thursday we have the first of our large Christmas events in the form of a Winter Wonderland in the new Itchen Suite at the Southampton Football Club. The team in the unit is busily putting together all the theme decorations; we're going to transform the huge suite into a snow covered winter landscape, Elves are being measured for costumes and it's all a bit surreal.

Promotional Team Building Event

Today we held a promotional event at Somerley, a stately home close to our offices in Ringwood. In the grounds they have Old Somerley which is the site of the old house which burnt down before the current house was built. It seems to be a rule that stately homes have to burn to the ground and be rebuilt at some stage in their history. They now have a very attractive walled garden and a single storey building for hospitality which has been finished to a very high standard. We worked in conjunction with The Holt who have some static team building challenges in the woods there and we took along Laser Clay Shooting and Human Table Football. Guests from various companies took part in these activities, had a good lunch and went away with our brochures considering team building events for their companies, or so I hope.

Nine Team Building Events

There are nine team building events today and although that's a fairly high number for us we don't seem too pushed. Sometimes the content of the events make these busy days easier than other occasions just because the type of events fit with our staffing. Last October we moved into the offices we are now in. We have about 5,000 square feet with a mixture of offices and storage and this has enabled us to increase our stock of equipment. Other advantages of this location are that we're just off the motorway system and we are opposite a large van hire company. When we were based in Lymington the distance from the motorway combined with picking up and dropping off hire vans pretty much added a day to each event. Today we have a military style operation with vans coming in loading up and leaving with their team of instructors.

Here we go again!

There is always an increase in business after the holidays. I think people feel that they have been away, maybe lost some connection with each other and the business and the best solution is a team building event. Most of us in the office get our holidays out of the way before this starts but the effect has already started and a couple of people are still away so it's rather manic. We're having to turn away bookings that we usually would try to cover but frankly if clients want us to travel and won't pay full price it's not really going to happen, particularly when it's like this. 10th September is a real hotspot with 6 events, one of which is a huge It's A Knockout for 2,000 people requiring more than 40 staff. It will be one of the biggest of the year and we're all looking forward to seeing the field. When you've had a hand in putting together a large scale event it's really exciting to see it come together on the day.

When team building attacks!

We're all reeling from an event last night for a client who will remain anonymous. It was an event for trainees for a large financial. They were all men and sometimes these events can be a bit boisterous. It was an evening event and by the time they all arrived with us they had clearly had a skinfull and then they proceeded to drink heavily for the rest of the evening. By the time the events came round many of them were reeling on their feet. One of our older chaps was dressed in the chilli costume and for some reason they decided to try to remove his underpants. It was schoolboy prank style wedgies I think, but it still left our poor chap rather shaken. We had an attractive female instructor working and she had a lot of trouble. Most companies use drinking as part of their team building and I agree that this can work but sometimes it just goes too far. When they are that drunk I really don't think they care about the events; our priority then becomes damage limitation and making sure our own staff are safe. I understand the venue was trashed as well. Some companies need to be a bit more careful about the culture they promote.

August's Team Building events

August is traditionally a quieter month, however we have events every day this week. Unfortunately the weather isn't great; there was a storm last night and it's generally overcast. The events we do have are generally entertainment rather than team building, although there's always an element of each in every event. Today is also the Monday of Cowes Week, the famous yachting event. We have two yachts out with client teams on board today and this overcast weather with very little wind is bad on both counts. Never mind, we always put on excellent catering and plenty of drink so they will still enjoy the day.

A new week

This is a lighter week with the holiday effect kicking in. We are taking the time to repair, renew, paint and generally sort out our kit after one of the busiest runs of events that we have experienced. Our own team building went very well, although there were a few sore heads the morning after. The events during the day were excellent; low ropes, high ropes and general team challenges. They were a more challenging batch of activities than those we tend to deliver to our own clients but even those who were a little reticent enjoyed them. The acting workshop that many people were concerned about was great fun and, as always, people were surprised at how much they enjoyed it. It's amazing how the mind conjours up terrible images of what something is going to be like and it is always much better when it happens.

Our own Team Building

I had been expecting things to be quieter this week as business tends to decrease when the school holidays start, however it's been busy and we've had three or four events most days and five today. There are a few over the weekend but the main event is our own company team building. Last year we went to Paulton's Park and enjoyed the rides but this year it's more serious. We're going camping complete with team activities; high ropes etc, a barbecue and plenty of drinks afterwards. The itinerary went around the office this morning and we found out that we also have a drama workshop. Opinions are divided and some are really upset about it. It's fascinating to observe as this is what happens within our client companies in the run up to their events. There's always plenty to learn!

Mid Week Teambuilding Report

The Game Fair at Blenheim went extremely well. Pulse Ranger was very popular, but mainly with children. It works well for both children and adults. Rowan Atkinson was there with his son and they had a go on Laser Clays; he was fairly quiet but polite. This is the last busy week before the holiday lull. Usually the end of July and all of August is more quiet but this year it has carried on later. We will probably only have about 40 events through the whole of August because people go on holiday and firms therefore don't organise events. September through to November will then be very busy as the events start again and make up for lost time. No strange events or incidents to report.

Blenheim Palace

Lots of events today but all pretty straight forward; Command Tasks, Laser Clay Shooting, a Treasure Hunt, some Team Building theory, that sort of thing. I am spending the next three days at Blenheim Palace at the CLA Game Fayre where we will have Laser Clays and Pulse Ranger which is a Laser combat game; like paintball without the pain. We charge the public but it's also a promotional opportunity. So, I've been clearing my desk and preparing for a weekday out of the office. I'm quite looking forward to a break, albeit a hard working one. The total immersion in something with no time to think of yesterday or tomorrow can be as relaxing as a holiday.

More Team Building

Just one event today but tomorrow is very busy with five large events, mostly of a team building nature. There's lots of preparation in the unit today; vans being loaded, kit prepared. A couple of the events are a fair trek away so the teams arrive this afternoon, head to the venue and stay overnight in a Travel Lodge. This became company policy last year - previously we have left early and come home late. However, it's safer this way and clients get a fresh team rather than a tired one. The James Bond event went well at the weekend. There were one or two hitches, but there are on most events - the key is not to have zero problems but to make sure that clients don't feel any problems that there are. That's what separates the best Event Managers from the average or bad ones.

James Bond Theme

Just off to Beaulieu Motor Museum where we have a huge James Bond themed event for 500 people in a huge marquee. We have dancers, decorations, staff dressed as henchmen, lookalikes, casino tables etc. It's a massive event and I won't be finished until about 3 a.m. tomorrow.