Southern California team building activities

As announced last month, TrivWorks shall be expanding our offerings to the Golden State starting this summer. It’s an unbelievably exciting step, and one which I am deeply vested in – so much so that my entire family and I shall be relocating to Long Beach, CA in a couple of weeks, so that I can set up shop and get the ball rolling!

I can remember vividly the first time I ever went to the West Coast – not shocking, since it was a surprisingly short time ago! My wife is from there, and when we started dating almost eight years ago, we took a trip so that I could meet her family. Now, I’ve lived here on the East Coast my entire life; I was born in Manhattan, my parents relocated to Southwestern Connecticut when I was a toddler, I stayed there until moving to Boston for college, then back to New York for the past fifteen years. It’s quite literally all I know.

That first visit West, I was really excited, but also curious: what would it be like? All I knew about the area was what I’d learned from pop culture: movies, TV shows, music, the news, etc. But what would it REALLY be like? What would surprise me? What would stand out? How would the people be different, the places, the weather? I was completely ignorant of all of these things, and was eager to find out.

I was of course pleasantly surprised – at everything. How nice people were, how generally relaxed and positive the attitude there is, and of course the sunshine. Who could argue? Every time we’ve visited since, we step off the plane onto the tarmac, I turn to my wife and say, “we should live HERE!”

And in a couple of weeks…we will!

But for now, I am having some more questions percolating through my mind. It’s one thing to live in this new environment, but quite another do business – and not just any business. As a creator of corporate team building activities in Southern California, I will be responsible to boost morale and improve teamwork of office employees just like I do back East – but it is NOT like NYC out there. It’s different!

Here’s what I’m wondering about my new market:

• 1. Will audiences respond well to my product? – What I do is quite unique – I create live trivia events for the office, designed to get people to know one another better through a competitive, social positive shared experience. One of the things which groups here love about my events is that they rely on sharp-witted humor; sometimes it can be VERY sharp, even cutting – but after having done this for 10 years, I know: THAT’S WHAT PEOPLE HERE LIKE! They enjoy it – but is that because so many of them are in industries which lend themselves to that sort of thing? Am I taking if for granted that I work with many groups of financial service professionals, attorneys, and advertising/marketing folks, who appreciate and in fact thrive on “New York-stye” brusqueness, sarcasm, and even insults, so long as it’s good-natured, well-timed and funny? Or are my new clients in Cali so nice to one another, so polite and happy, that they won’t “get it” like my existing clients do?

• 2. What issues do teams face? – Here, the biggest reasons I’m brought in to create group bonding ideas are to improve team spirit and cohesion, welcome new hires/interns, or reward a group of hard-working staff on the successful completion of a project, goal, or year. But what will it be like out there? Are teams on the Pacific Coast more interested in improving collaboration and communication, or in resolving conflict? Are offices so laid back that they don’t need a boost, so much as a jolt to get them back to producing at their highest levels? I am genuinely curious about what reasons my new inquirers will be seeking my services for, and comparing it to the groups I’ve worked with in the past.

• 3. What will they want to get out of it? – It’s the biggest question I ask all of my customers during both their initial inquiry, as well as during our customization meeting to plan their event. Invariably, I am told (in one way or another) that the ideal outcome of the exercise is to just have a good time, so that the teams can bond. But is this what I can expect in the new territory? People already seem pretty happy out there, don’t they? What if instead of just putting smiles on faces, they REALLY need something else – to defuse the power conflicts and political maneuvering which exists within every workplace? Or perhaps the big outcome will be for people to just get along even better than before, so that we can help create a more enjoyable place to work?

• 4. Will I be effective? – Here’s where my anxiety gets the best of me, and I start wonder things like, “what if it doesn’t even WORK for them!” It’s a silly fear, I know, and most like a manifestation of the bigger changes happening in my life. And yet, when I look at the companies whom I have been creating events for, and successfully creating an atmosphere where people can truly get to know one another better while reinforcing positive team goals and objectives, I wonder as I peer westward: will it stick out there, too?

These are the sorts of things I’m wondering as I prepare to trek across the country, to give people who have never heard of what I do something new and exciting. It’s been received extremely well, and I’ve been fortunate to see this grow beyond my wildest dreams – albeit on the East Coast. Just how different are the people, the offices, the workplace dynamics out in California? Let’s find out – I promise, when I do have an answer I’ll be writing about it here on my blog…!