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A New Kind of Business Conference Bonding
By Terry Trucco
Published: April 16, 2007

CALL it the business conference bonbon, the afternoon activity in which colleagues bond, polish their team skills and kill a couple of hours after the day’s heavy-duty meetings. For years, golf ruled, but golf is so 20th century.

How about sending people on a treasure hunt instead? Is the meeting in Italy? Offer a pasta-making lesson. Participants work together, experience the local culture, learn a talent and can eat the results.

Better yet, how about an afternoon assembling bicycles for kids? With a dash of philanthropy, the finished products are donated to charity. Everything gets a makeover eventually, even business conference downtime. In the last five years, more companies have bypassed mainstay activities like organized sports and rope courses in favor of less traditional events, often tied closely to the meeting’s purpose. They are meant to promote active participation, impart new skills, offer a sense of surprise and entertain even the most jaded employees.
The change comes partly from the increased financial accountability many companies are feeling, said Kurt Paben, vice president for business development at Carlson Marketing, a conference planner.

“A good investment,” he said, “is seen as an event that moves the company towards its objective instead of a frivolous social activity.” About a quarter of all the conferences Carlson plans include a nontraditional event, he said, “and the trend is growing.”
Since the Sept. 11 attacks, some companies have blended philanthropy with conference activities. “If one of the goals is to promote camaraderie and team building, then bike building or working with Habitat for Humanity does all that and also gives back to the community,” Mr. Paben said.

The ideal is an event that swings both ways.
For example, when Best Buy was introducing new digital video cameras, it held a training meeting, and invited families who had relatives overseas in the military to dinner at a hotel, Mr. Paben said.

After dinner, people from the company showed the family members how to use the cameras. The businesspeople honed their demonstration skills, and the families created videos that were sent to their relatives stationed overseas.

Participants are kept on their toes by a blurring of fiction and reality. The actors in the game are not in obvious costume, so players often don’t know if the vagrant offering advice is part of the drill or “just some guy on the street,” Mr. Tommarello said. Meanwhile, a facilitator evaluates leadership, team building, creativity and performance after the game.
“If the activity is planned correctly, it’s usually well received,” Mr. Paben said of conference events. Planners keep in mind participants’ ages and sex, but most of all, they watch the clock. “Beyond two hours,” Mr. Tommarello said, “it’s not much fun.”