North Bay Biz
A New Kind of Business Conference Bonding
By Alexandra Russell
Published: April, 2008 (full article)
Speaking of interaction and consensus building, consider The Go Game, described by co-founder Ian Fraser as “‘Amazing Race’ meets Cranium on YouTube.” In it, teams of five are provided a Web-enabled cell phone, a digital camera and a map of the game zone (inside a casino or a specific neighborhood, for example). A series of missions and challenges are delivered to the phones one-at-a-time, and it’s up to teammates to complete or solve them to earn points and learn the next mission.
There are three types of missions: sneak and snoop, which are pop-culture based and require teams to decipher clues to solve a riddle (the answer will sometimes lead you to the site of the next mission); creative, wherein the group works together to create a solution to a posed challenge (and document it via video or pictures); and street theater interactions with actors posing as part of the neighborhood (a fake delivery man, or bride sitting on church steps, for example).
The Go Game is based on a dream Fraser had. In 2001, a technically adept friend named Finnegan Kelly helped Fraser complete six short versions that could be run in his hometown of San Francisco. Fraser and Kelly used friends as test pilots, and the feedback was overwhelmingly enthusiastic. In addition, Fraser says, “almost every one of them said, ‘You should do this for companies.’”
After pursuing it as a consumer game for a while longer, mounting debt made the pair rethink their audience. Their first corporate client was Yahoo in 2002. The Go Game ran 10 times that year; in 2008, Fraser estimates it will run between 50 and 100 games per month. To execute games across the country, the company has expanded to small field offices in Los Angeles, Austin, New York City and Orlando. Locally, it’s run games in Santa Rosa, Napa and Mill Valley.
“We’ve done games for North Bay companies,” says Fraser. “But also, the North Bay is a big destination spot. Many companies will bring their global sales force or management team to Wine Country as a reward or for a conference, and they’ll want to add a team building element to the week.
“So many people don’t have the chance in their day-to-day lives to just have fun,” he continues. “When people are playing The Go Game, random stuff happens—it’s funny and unexpected. Sometimes, things happen that people think are part of the staged game, but they’re not. Since we use reality as our backdrop, a lot of what happens is spontaneous and genuine.
“The Go Game is about being smart and creative, not physical. Our challenges are balanced to hit different intelligences and talents, so all team members can contribute.”
Upon completion of the missions or conclusion of the allotted time (usually about two to three hours, in which Fraser estimates most teams can complete between 15 and 20 missions), all groups gather to view the documented evidence and tally the points. All clips are then uploaded to a website so employees can relive the experiences. “We monitor that site,” says Fraser, “and in the days after a game, it’s unbelievable how much time people will spend with the pictures. It must be all they’re talking about!”