Thursday, November 6, 2014

Five Qualities to Look For in a Team Building Provider


For those industry professionals looking to hire a professional team builder, the process can seem a bit daunting. What will work to build morale and strengthen relationships, and how? What type of team building is truly and professionally effective, rather than simply being an excuse to play games or have a nice day outdoors?


 Separating the wheat from the chaff is not always easy. Some team builders are more casualthan others, and all have varying degrees of skill, so if you are looking for a serious provider that can deliver according to the needs of a large corporate client, its important to be selective and thorough during the hiring process. When searching for a professional team building provider, look for the following five qualities:

1. Check for experience. Novice providers are unlikely to have handled many large corporate clients, so if that is what you need, its best to look for a provider that has a large body of experience in tailoring and delivering programs to corporate clients. Co-ordinating a large corporate event in an organised fashion takes a whole different skill set than hosting, for example, a simple sporting event for a small group. Look for references and client testimonials, particularly testimonials from clients with needs similar to your own. 

2. Make sure that the provider has a wide range of methods, programs, and concepts at the ready, so that they can custom-tailor events to your needs. The provider should be willing to build a program from scratch to suit your specifications. 

3. Make sure the provider has comprehensive and total (not partial) public liability insurance. No professional team event provider even leaves the building with a group of people without this in place. Plus, the fact that a provider is deemed insurable is a good sign that they have a proven track record, one that is trusted by major insurance companies.

4. Ensure that the provider has a permanent stock of quality equipment suited to the kind of events it provides. This is essential for safety reasons, to create a well-co-ordinated experience, and it also shows a high level of commitment to team building on the part of the provider.

5. Look for a fresh take on how activities are developed. Beware of providers who use the same old stock of concepts to create events from, as an event that is not original will not be engaging to the team. Look for creativity and ingenuity on the part of the team building provider; this will lead to events that challenge your team and facilitate the best lessons in teamwork possible. 

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

FIFO (Fly In Fly Out) Team Building - Behind the Scenes

The ACE Team - Wade, Mike, Dan and Ben
Have you ever wondered how companies improve morale and teamwork at remote camps in the gas industry? For the last three years ACE has conducted team building programs across three sites in outback Queensland. The work involves significant travel, heat, freight, long hours and lots of unexpected surprises. This year was no exception.
City driving - traffic, rain and lightning
The adventure started at 6am in Melbourne on a day with so much rain and lightning that the airport was shutdown for the safety of airline staff. The result was that our first flight of the day was delayed by two hours. The airport was so crowded that there was no space in the departure lounge to sit down.
On the floor at the crowded departure lounge
In this photo, Ben and I are making ourselves comfortable on the floor as we wait for our flight. Due to the flight delay we missed our next flight from Brisbane to Roma. We were put onto the next available flight which was then cancelled. So after waiting in Brisbane for several hours we finally arrived in sunny Roma to a sweltering 41 degrees celsius.
Outback driving - sunny and no traffic
Our next surprise was the hire car. We had four passengers and significant equipment so a ute was not a suitable vehicle. We were unable to get the vehicle swapped so we continued on our journey. We were about to drive through a thunderstorm and some dirt roads so we stopped off in town to buy a tarp to protect our equipment. It was disappointing that the Corporate Travel agent booked a ute even though they were expressly told that a ute would not be suitable.
The hire car - not what we wanted
One pleasant surprise was the food at the camp. In a word... sensational. I particularly liked the juice station complete with fruit, vegetables and herbs ready for juicing. The quality and quantity of the food was amazing. For dinner there were six different main course options. The roast lamb and Jamaican chicken were restaurant quality.
The juicing station - a pleasant surprise

We had eighty delegates in the group so we had planned to show our presentation on two projector screens. We had two projectors and a splitter cable but we had to be flexible with our plans when there were no screens available. We improvised by taping two white table cloths to the wall. This worked well and the show could continue.
My front door
You never know what you are going to find when you open the door to your room but another pleasant surprise was a comfortable bed, television and ensuite. The best thing in the room was the air conditioner. Due to the extreme heat this was essential for a good night's sleep.
Home for a few days

The event was very successful and we met all of our client's objectives for the team building program. After another amazing breakfast comprising french toast, croissants and espresso coffee, it was time to head back to the airport.
The breakfast buffet

We knew the drive would take two hours so we planned to get to the airport 60 minutes early. After 30 minutes of driving we received a phone call telling us that the road to the airport to had been closed due to a road accident. I was told by the State Emergency Service that a vehicle had collided with a bull at 3 am requiring the driver to be air lifted to hospital with significant injuries. The road had been closed for several hours so we were lucky to make our flight back to Brisbane.
Road closure
We made our flight - time to fly home. Another successful program, done and dusted.


Saturday, October 4, 2014

Team Building - Where does the money go?


Team building can be perceived as an expensive undertaking so you might be wondering where does the money go? Here is a list of items that you probably get without realising.



Public Liability Insurance
We need to have a $20 million public liability insurance policy to work at some venues governed by Parks Victoria. A few years ago we only had a $10 million policy so we had to spend $400 to upgrade the policy for one day to run an event.

Customised Equipment 
If you have participated on an ACE program you have probably seen some of the specialised equipment that we use. Many of the items have been custom made for us, as they are not in mass production. Items such as the Briefcase Operated Satellite System are unique items and can be worth thousands of dollars.

Vehicle and Trailer expenses
We work at around 60 - 80 venues a year so we do a lot of travelling and we need to ensure that our vehicles and trailers are well maintained. In fifteen years we have never broken down or been late for a session.

Photography
You could employ a professional photographer to capture the priceless moments that occur during your event but it would unnecessary. We take quality photos on a digital SLR camera and then provide you with a photobook and the digital files after the event.

Audiovisual equipment
We have every sort of audiovisual system imaginable so that we can be seen and heard in every type of venue. Sometimes we use a portable PA system for outdoor sessions or we might need two large systems linked together for an indoor event for several hundred people.

Music and sound editing
Most sessions incorporate music or edited sound files to complement the event. Many of the sound files have been meticulously edited for a specific purpose.

Customised trophies
Many events have custom made trophies as mementos for the winning team. The trophies are specific to each activity and client.

Equipment Storage
Have you ever wondered where does all the gear get kept? We have an enormous amount of activity equipment for large group sizes that could fill a small warehouse.

Venue site visits prior to sessions
Whilst we work at many venues we also try and visit each new venue prior to running a session. It is important that we are clear about vehicle access, room size, audio visual requirements, break out rooms and outdoor spaces.

Consumables 
We provide consumables such as sunscreen, insect repellent, spare hats, snacks and water for a number of our events.

Costumes
A number of our sessions involve costumes, props and accessories. You might be pleased to know that all the costumes are washed after each use which can be very time consuming, especially for large groups.

Raincoats
If the weather is cold and wet and you have booked an outdoor team session you will be loaned a waterproof rain jacket. These coats are very good quality and are not cheap. We have around $5000 worth of raincoats on standby just in case there is rain.

New activities - research and development
How do we keep coming up with new ideas for activities? It's not easy and we need to make a conscious effort to travel and experience a variety of similar and completely different activities.

Liaising with venues
Most events require us to confirm meal times, book outdoor areas, and prepare floor plans with the venue to ensure everything runs smoothly. For evening events we normally prepare a floor plan showing the table placements and AV equipment locations to assist with the room preparation and set up.

Liaising with suppliers
Some events require us to book rooms, outdoor spaces, tickets or session times with venues including Parks Victoria, Kingpin, Eureka Tower, Point Nepean National park etc.

Travel
Ever wondered how we design car rallies or amazing races. We invest a considerable amount of time scoping areas such as Daylesford, Torquay and Woodend for new activities.

Staffing
Every ACE staff member is university trained and well compensated for their skills and time. We don't take shortcuts with staff as they are such an important component of every event.

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Advice for Trade Show Exhibitors - or 15 things I learned from my first trade show

After two days exhibiting at my first trades how, these are some things that I learned.


  1. Be friendly to everyone. Smile as people approach. It is a great icebreaker.
  2. Wear comfortable shoes
  3. Having an iPad on a stand that records prospects details works well. 
  4. I used an app called Leadsie that recorded the prospects details in a form that can be saved as an excel file
  5. Bring your own lunch (the tradeshow food cam be terrible, expensive and stale)
  6. pop up displays stands look fantastic. They are professional, quick to set up and quite cheap
  7. A shell scheme for the stand is a great idea. They are full length panels that attach to the wall with double sided adhesive velcro
  8. Trade shows are a numbers game. You need to talk to lots of people to find the ones that suit the business
  9. You don't need a big stand. I had tradeshow neighbours that were very successful exhibiting in small stands next to me. The right person will find you regardless of the stand size.
  10. All of the experienced tradeshow exhibitors have told me that the most important thing is to follow up all the interested prospects straight away.
  11. You don't need chairs as there is no opportunity to sit down. The experienced exhibitors know this and they have bar tables only.
  12. I had a gimmick on day one that was fun but did not attract the people that I was hoping to find. The main takers for the game were kids and teenagers that were bored as their parents talked to other exhibitors
  13. I did not use the gimmick on day two without any loss of interest in the stand but I did have chocolates for people that visited (on day one I had the chocolates as a prize)
  14. It is great to network with your stand neighbours. You become a little community and get each other coffees, watch each other's stand so you can take a break and there are plenty of opportunities to share success stories.
  15. You can't judge a book by its cover. You have to believe that every single person could be the right one or know the right one.


Wednesday, June 11, 2014

3 Tips for ensuring a PowerPoint Presentation Goes Smoothly

As a full time corporate trainer I see and hear a lot of presentations. Most go smoothly however there are some common mistakes that people make that are avoidable. I recently wrote a blog post with tips for giving a keynote presentation. Here are three more tips.

1. Check your presentation
At a recent awards night, we were involved in playing a PowerPoint presentation as people received their awards. You would think that the order of slides matched the order of awards being presented. It looks bad for everyone when an award is announced and a photo of a different person appears on the screen. So check and double check that the order of slides matches the run plan.

2. Don't embed videos into PowerPoint
PowerPoint allows video to be embedded into the presentation however this can be a problem. I am not sure of the specific technical reasons why it causes the program to crash but it is a common occurrence. When a presentation is being outputted through a data projector it requires additional resources from the computer's video card. So a presentation that looks and plays fine in your office may not work once a projector is connected. In my experience, Quicktime is an ideal program for showing videos and whilst it requires someone to hot key out of PowerPoint, if you know how to do it, nobody will notice.

3. Now hear this
Most people are nice. They are patient, considerate and tolerant. However, it is important that if you are showing video clips they need to be recorded so that they can be heard and understood. Even the world's best audio system will struggle to output a poorly recorded video. Remember garbage in equals garbage out. So make sure that videos are recorded with minimal background noise and with people talking clearly into the video camera.

Summary
Check your presentation, don't embed videos into Powerpoint and make sure that your video clips have clear sound.

By Daniel Cohen