Creative Team Bonding Ideas

Last week, we had the honor of producing an extremely special event. I received a call at the end of June from EuruKera, a prestigious global firm with its North America headquarters based in Greenville, SC. They were very specific about what they were looking for: the company’s Annual Team Day was approaching, and for a variety of reasons outside of the organizers’ control, they found themselves suddenly in need of a fun team building activity for employees.

Not only that – the event would be the following week… in Greenville, South Carolina.

Fortunately, TrivWorks has tremendous experience putting together customized group bonding events on short-notice (click here for more on that). As I carefully listened to them explain their unique goals and describe the attendees, I learned that this company actually puts on a full 8-hour day of entertainment and structured programs for their hard-working staff, purely intended to get them to know one another better, feel more comfortable working with each other, boost morale, and ultimately forge a stronger connection with the organization.

One thing which I was told about this group struck me instantly: they loves sketches.

It’s not often I hear that, even in theater-loving New York City. Usually I’m informed that groups are competitive, gregarious, ridiculously smart, introverted – but theatrical? That’s not one which quickly springs to mind for organizers.

Fortunately, I had just the thing to share with them!

Earlier this year, we announced a special new collaboration with Broadway’s Next Hit Musical, an improv comedy troupe which specializes in creating spontaneous songs on the spot, using made-up song titles and suggestions taken directly from the audience. I had seen this incredibly unique theater company perform live in Manhattan during one of their public shows, and was instantly hooked; I also knew instinctively that this would be perfect in combination with my team building trivia for the office, not just in NYC, but nationwide (BNHM performs about 50 shows around the country a year, in addition to their robust corporate event entertainment business).

I described the offering to EuroKera in detail. Unlike our other events, where we send a professional emcee or “Special Talent” host to run the trivia contest, for collaborative events with BNHM we will show up with an entire troupe of master improvisers as well as a corporate master of ceremonies. In between the fully-customized rounds of trivia, which have been tailored to the exact group in attendance, the host takes made-up song titles provided by attendees, which the troupe – including a professional piano player – will then turn into music, right before everyone’s eyes!

We booked the event that very day.

We then set to work customizing the gig, including the trivia and musical improv elements, to ensure that it was perfectly tailored towards this specific audience/event. During a follow-up call with EuroKera, it was determined that they were also in need of an event emcee for another portion of the day, separate from our two-hour event.

No problem!

I’d mentioned that BNHM provides a professional host, and in this case, they were sending the major talent: Broadway’s Next founder Rob Schiffmann, a highly seasoned corporate entertainer and presenter, would be on-hand himself to assist, and assume the additional hosting duties!

The following week, Rob and his fellow performers flew down to Greenville, where they met the production team and familiarized themselves with the venue and tech setup. The next morning was Game Day: 100 eager and diverse EuroKera employees showed up, donned colored team T-shirts, and were greeted by Rob as he led the room in a high-energy icebreaker activity. He then had the group come up with clever and funny team names for the day, followed by a comprehensive “Minute to Win It” challenge.

After some additional sessions and a break for lunch, it was time for the Main Event. Answer packets and pens were passed out to all of the teams, as well as song title submission slips. After collecting the title suggestions from the room, Rob dived right in with themed rounds of full-room trivia. In between each round, while our dedicated grading staff collected answer sheets and tabulated the scores, BNHM selected song titles, and did what they do best: created mind-blowing extemporaneous musical numbers!

It’d be impressive enough for Rob and his fellow performers to effortlessly create songs on the spot using audience suggestions. But what makes BNHM so special is that they take it a step further: incorporating fun facts researched previously about the company and attendees, as well as “callbacks” to previous jokes and trivia from earlier in the event! It’s truly amazing what they do, highly creative and engaging, while at the same time the most hilarious fun you can imagine.

After five full rounds of trivia, the event culminated with a dramatic announcement of the final standings and reveal of the winning team, following by a culminating closing number by BNHM which tied the event together. Rob and his team then stuck around a bit afterwards, to help EuroKera staff come up with their own funny songs to perform during the staff talent challenge.

The event was a huge hit. While no one in attendance knew what to expect beyond a vague description in the day’s agenda, people were laughing from start to finish, got to know one another better, let their hair down and didn’t take things so seriously, and realized how much they have in common with one another.

Even though I couldn’t personally be in attendance at this event, I could envision it vividly in my mind both before and after it happened. When Rob filled me in on how well-received it had been, I was beaming. Yes, we could have done one of our “regular” trivia events for this group, and I’m sure it would have been a success – however, the perfect match between this audience’s love of music/drama and the unparalleled talent and professionalism of Broadway’s Next made it too good of an opportunity to miss, and I’m so thrilled that we were able to deliver such a memorable and impactful experience for EuroKera!