What to Do When the Boss Wants a “Team Building Activity”

So the head of the company has spontaneously decided he/she wants to have a “team building activity,” and has dropped this assignment in your lap. As the operations manager, department head, HR director or summer intern, it is suddenly your responsibility to identify, arrange and execute an event for staff, with little or no guidance.…

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Which Era is Your Corporate Culture From?

My wife and I just saw the new Woody Allen film “Midnight in Paris” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Not to spoil it for those who haven’t already seen, but basically the premise is a guy goes to Paris, and finds himself inexplicably transported at the stroke of midnight to different eras of Parisian…

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5 Companies Trivia Team Building Activities Won’t Work For

Team building trivia events are my passion. I love everything about them, from customizing trivia questions for specific groups to hosting events, to seeing the enjoyment people get out of them and the smiles they beam afterwards. However, as strongly as I feel about this unique form of corporate employee entertainment, I know that live…

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Why So Complicated? Less is More with Employee Entertainment Activities

I’ve worked with many companies and corporate groups over the years, with the goal of developing customized employee entertainment in NYC and the surrounding areas. I don’t have to tell you how hard New Yorkers are working every day – especially since the economy tanked in 2009, and many people are doing twice as much…

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Customizing Corporate Team Building Activities: Silly or Significant?

I was recently on the phone with a prospective client, who was interested in building a team building trivia party for her office. While explaining my company’s range of services, she asked an astute question: what is the value of customizing a team building event? I’m glad she asked that, because I feel passionate about…

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What Does the Perfect Trivia Team Building Event Look Like?

Ah, perfection- that most elusive of goals. For those of us who work in the live event industry, we know how hard – actually, impossible – it is to run a “perfect” event, what with so many plates spinning and balls in the air at once. With team building and corporate entertainment activities, the usual…

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Frequently Asked Questions About Trivia Team Building

With the rise in popularity of pub quiz has come a growing interest in using live trivia as a corporate team building activity. However, as a relatively new approach to an area long characterized by ropes courses, scavenger hunts and 3-legged races, companies probably have a few questions of their own about how trivia can…

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Matching Company Culture with Summer Associate & Intern Entertainment

Each summer, New York City and other large metropolitan areas are flooded with summer associates & interns – undergrad & graduate students from across the country and world, who arrive for highly competitive (and often lucrative) temporary positions at leading financial, legal and other professional institutions. This summer staff typically works hard and plays hard,…

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Conducting Virtual Team Building Events – MTV Case Study

It’s a classic problem for office managers, corporate event planners and human resources professionals in the 21st Century. You have been tasked with creating a team building activity to help boost morale & foster goodwill amongst the disparate groups which make up your office or department. The only problem is, while you and the majority…

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5 Features of a Perfect Corporate Team Building Activity

Whether held in Peoria, Toledo or New York City, corporate team building and employee entertainment events should have a lot in common. Sure, there is a lot of variety out there, and plenty of activities to choose from (although “trust falls” may be a bit past their prime). However, when it comes right down to…

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Why New York City Team Building Events Are Tops

New York City corporate team building events are awesome. That may seem like a rather broad, stereotypical NYC-centric statement, but it’s true. Our city is really like no other in terms of diversity, density and sheer variety of options for truly everything imaginable, and team building activities are no exception. Prior to starting a professional…

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Making Trivia Questions Bulletproof

As a trivia theme party planner and team building event producer, I am responsible for researching and writing trivia questions which are appropriate for a wide variety of audiences: bankers, lawyers, teachers, IT professionals, nonprofits, government workers- you name it, it’s up to me to customize it. One aspect of my job, however, which remains…

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In Defense of Fun in the Workplace

When my father-in-law met my younger brother for the first time, he asked him what he did professionally. My brother, in between jobs at the time, replied – half-jokingly – “I have fun.” If only life could be so simple, right? Imagine, going into work every day, and having that be your description of work:…

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5 Trivia Event Rules, and Why They Matter

Every game has rules, and live trivia events are no exception. In order to ensure that an event is run both fairly and efficiently, there are several crucial rules which much be effectively communicated to the group, and enforced by the host. Below are the most important rules employed in a live trivia event, and…

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How to Specialize Without Being Pigeonholed

I recently returned from my honeymoon, during which time I had the chance to do some relaxed reading- however, instead of my usual diet of books about social media, collaboration & business development, I was able to enjoy some fiction, as well as other lighter stuff. One of the books I got to was Red:…

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