Corporate teambuilding events or brand activations and displays are popular in B.C.’s warm summer months, but many can fail to dazzle those who attend.
Executives might try thinking creatively or hiring an event planner to provide fresh ideas for engaging teams and clients.
Carte Blanche Events owner Julie Connolly told BIV that one company, which did not want to be named, hired her to organize its summer staff party.
She booked three adjoining soccer fields at the Burnaby Sports Complex’s eastern side.
“Finding an available date in a park in the summer was a big challenge,” Connolly said. “There were not very many available dates. I had to book them three-to-four months out.”
One of the three fields at the July 28 event was reserved for some of the approximately 300 attendees to play soccer.
The middle field included a large buffet area with seating, and two food trucks—one by Yo-Bones BBQ Catering and one by Crema Ice Cream & Dessert.
The other field had three large inflatable games and a bouncy-castle obstacle course.
“We also had a three-lane bungee race, where someone would put on a vest attached to bungee cords and they ran far as far as they could to place a Velcro sponge,” she said. “A bungee cord would then pull the person back.”
Staff were put on teams and members got points for strong performances in games. Winning team members then got prizes.
Hiring event planners can also pay off for corporations who want to create buzz around a new product or new branding.
Connolly said one way she creates a “wow” factor for clients has been to provide experiences from Belgium’s Dinner In The Sky.
That venture often forwards North American customer requests to Carte Blanche, which organizes events across the continent, Connolly said.
The dining experience can be for various amounts of time, but often is for 20-minute excursions where diners get champagne and charcuterie after they and their table are lifted 150 feet into the sky. Diners wear harnesses and are strapped to their seats so they do not fall.
Connolly provided this experience for client The Score Bet at the RBC Canadian Open golf tournament in Hamilton, she said.
That client wanted to increase its brand recognition so it provided the elevated dining experience free of charge to various invited guests who were attending the golf tournament, Connolly said.
Holding innovative dining events that create lasting memories for attendees has long been a goal for event organizers.
Whistler-based Bearfoot Bistro director of marketing and communications Marc Des Rosiers told BIV that he would like to reprise SkyHigh—a five-course dinner held on the Peak2Peak gondola between Whistler and Blackcomb mountains.
The charitable SkyHigh dining event took place in 2016 on gondola cabins operating between Whistler and Blackcomb mountains | Glen Korstrom
Des Rosiers conceived the event during a brainstorming session in early 2014 and then was able to host it in 2014 and again in 2016.
“We cannot confirm it yet,” he told BIV. “But it’s something that we are investigating and that we would like to do again.”
The dining experience raised money for the Whistler Blackcomb Foundation, which supports local charities.
Des Rosiers said any revival of the event would need support and cooperation from the foundation and Vail Resorts Inc. (NYSE:MTN), which owns the Whistler Blackcomb Resort and the gondola.
At SkyHigh in 2016, 260 people consumed five-course dinners while seated around tables inside 26 Peak2Peak gondola cabins, which made multiple trips between Whistler and Blackcomb mountains.
Temporary chandeliers were added to the gondola cabins and the gondola’s speed was slowed to prevent cutlery and plates from sliding off the tables.
Diners ate each course during 18-minute trips between the mountains while staff at kitchens on each mountain had approximately 80 seconds to enter the gondola cabins, clear plates and bring the next serving and wine selection.
The gondola’s normal travel time is 11 minutes.
Companies paid $8,500 per cabin to invite up to 10 people to dine on food provided by Bearfoot Bistro. Proceeds after costs went to the Whistler Blackcomb Foundation.
The novelty of the event was why the cost per cabin was so high. Diners would simply not be able to go out and buy an experience like it on any random Saturday night anywhere in the world.
Des Rosiers said his 160-seat restaurant is a Whistler meeting venue that is available year-round.
One aspect that sets Bearfoot Bistro apart is that it has an ice bar—a room in which the temperature is set to -32 C that has a bar with shelving made of ice.
Bearfoot Bistro in Whistler has a room set to -32 C where guests can go to drink vodka | Bearfoot Bistro
Up to 20 people can visit the room at a time, so at corporate events where the restaurant is fully rented out, the guests rotate into and out of that bar.
“You go in with a vodka expert, and we have more than 50 different vodkas that you can choose from,” Des Rosiers said.
