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Battery Boosters

BC Business Magazine

September 2004

By Vicki O'Brien

Apparently, it's okay for corporate B.C. to have fun again. So if you want to perk up your next executive getaway or senior management retreat or add a twist to a customer appreciation event, it's a bit easier these days. All you have to do is loosen the purse strings and 'think different'.

Before we tell you how, you should know there's nothing new about using fun to achieve business objectives. Back ion the 4th century BC, the Greek philosopher Plato said: "You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation." Like most Greeks, he understood the value of a little R&R.

NOT YOUR USUAL HOTEL FANTASY

When Coast Plaza Hotel and Suites pulled in 100 managers and sales staff from the U.S. and Canada, it wanted to cap an intense two-day meeting with a unique, unifying social affair, with a message. For inspiration it turned to Vancouver event planner, Denise Dickson, who devised 'Knights of Power', and original fantasy challenge played indoors. (It was, after all, January in Vancouver) On the final night the cross boarder group met in a spookily transformed underground parking garage to receive instructions from 'monks' on how to defeat a 'dark force' that threatened the world.

Ten teams attended 'knight training camp' then aced a series of challenges before triumphing as one team and enjoying their reward: a highly authentic medieval banquet complete with court jester and minstrels. "Luckily the hotel was almost empty," says general manager Craig Norris-Jones, so Coast Plaza's "Knights of Power' could run merrily amok from the lobby to the penthouse suites. His verdict on the exercise: "Wonderful, exactly what we had in mind."