Right Angle Events is run by ex-Scotland Yard police officers Kate and Steve Gaskin. Launched in 2007, the company offers a range of quirky, alternative activities for team building and development. Specialising in Crime, Mystery and Intrigue events, their latest experience, The Killing activity, recently won Team Building Experience of the Year at the C&IT Awards. Marketing Director Lizzy Dring explains what makes a successful team building event.
What type of venues work best for your events?
The venues we use for our events depends on the chosen activity. We have a range of team building activities from large outdoor events such as It’s a Knockout to smaller indoor events including Bake That. The setting can really complement the event. For example, our Real Life Clu’Doo event works really well in private country house setting because clients get a truly immersive experience. Having said that, we have worked in venues such as London’s Tower Bridge, abandoned warehouses and cruise ships!
What are the latest trends in team building and how are you adapting your events to them?
A new event industry trend we have seen recently is Virtual Reality (VR) vs Reality.
VR is becoming more and more popular; the progression of VR within the events industry is creating new opportunities for organisers, especially for live entertainment options, it’s going to give people a far more engaging experience.
We are now using VR to enhance The Killing. Clients can step right into our VR Crime Scenes or explore the Crime Scene in a ‘Dolls House View’. This innovation puts us ahead of the game and is a great way to combine new technology with team building.
We’re also finding that guests are increasingly asking for events in unusual venues. Our teams are running events in aquariums or outdoors in yurts and tipis. ‘Creative space’ is the latest industry buzz word!
Immersive experiences are also extremely popular. Event organisers want more than a typical raft building or river crossing team-building scenario so we’re keen on putting delegates at the centre of the action so they step out of their comfort zone and properly engage with one another.
Clients increasingly want measureable outcomes from their events, rather than just a fun day out. We offer some fantastic leadership packages alongside our team building activities which can be a great way to further develop a team making the whole event even more relevant and valuable to our clients.
How do you stay ahead of the curve and anticipate new trends that people want from team building events?
We’ve always picked up on upcoming trends – or created them! We look to see what is popular and we often develop bespoke activities based on this. For example, we discovered that more than 8 million people were watching CSI on TV each week so we devised an amazing experience to mirror this.
We’re lucky to have such a creative team who are constantly coming up with new ideas; scanning the market to keep one step ahead of the game. We work closely with our clients and regularly ask for their feedback to find out what improvements we can make and what they are looking for as a customer.
What are the most unusual team building days that you’ve organised?
We have organised many unusual team building activities over the years and we are especially well-known for our crime solving events, the most popular being our award-winning activity, The Killing. Delegates are entertained and captivated with a series of forensic challenges involving psychological and cyber-crime, giving them the opportunity to solve cases with the actual methods employed by real Crime Scene Investigators. We once ran this event for a group of journalists on a beach in Mauritius!
There are so many unusual ideas and briefs that we’ve worked with, that it’s difficult to choose one. It is great to have clients that are willing to try something a little out of the box.
There is yet to be a brief we can’t work with; we love a challenge.
What’s the best way to warm people up or break the ice if they are not looking forward to a team building exercise?
We have a range of conference energisers that can be used to warm people up before their activity, such as human bingo, where guests must circulate the room “ticking” off facts about other guests on their bingo cards. We strongly recommend introducing several short-and-sharp, energising activities into the programme over the course of the day to keep people mentally sharp and to maximise the learning experience of the conference.
We have seen how an interactive, ‘up-on-your-feet’ exercise can have a huge impact on productivity; we believe this type of activity is paramount to a successful and enjoyable day.
What’s your advice for people looking to organise a team building experience?
Our advice for anyone looking to organise a team building experience is to find out as much information as possible before you start researching activities. It is really hard to start planning the event until you have a number of specifics such as number of attendees and most importantly what the aims of the event are. We provide a free guide for everyone with fantastic hints and tips to help organisers make sure they have covered all bases.
See more here: www.rightangleevents.co.uk.
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