Team building indoors has often been an interesting topic challenging traditional views that team building involves charging around fields on quad bikes or clay pigeon shooting on a hotels lawns on a summer afternoon. These views couldn't be further from reality as corporate event companies have had to develop and evolve to survive not only the challenges of the British weather but also the need to generate a business that isn't seasonal. As a consequence indoor events are now a major product group for event companies and often outnumber their outdoor counterparts in regards to number of events delivered on an annual basis. This increase in frequency of indoor events has led to a real commitment from event companies to devise and develop exciting and engaging indoor team building products to cater for the increase in demand. What we have been left with is a wide range of really innovative events that are flexible in the sense of being able to operate in almost any available indoor space, but also delivering the team dynamic elements associated with a traditional outdoor team building event.
Clients have bought into the indoor option too. It offers the safety of knowing that the event isn't subject to what the British weather throws at you on a particular day or indeed the need for an indoor contingency to be on standby just in case. It also offers great value for money. Often team building or activity days are part of a wider event, for example a multi-day conference or training programme, where team building forms a very small part of the overall agenda. In those instances indoor team building challenges can utilise the conference room and syndicate spaces already in use, eradicating the need for additional field hire costs that an outdoor event would incur. Indoor events also lend themselves to conferences and business meetings as typically they can be performed in normal business attire avoiding the need for delegates from having to change in to more comfortable and casual clothing.
Put into other words indoor events are a lot easier to plan and offer a more non-threatening approach as inherently they are less physical and therefore give you the best chance of maximising participation from conference delegates. Another major benefit to committing to an indoor event is the ability to be able to include a team building aspect in your conference agenda in months where the weather is unpredictable. Before the constant fear would be the weather and whether the event would be able to go ahead at all. Subsequently Autumn and kick off conferences at the start of year used to steer away from including activities in the agenda for this very reason. Now whether the conference is being run in June or February, team building has a place in the programme.
A subsequent development of the growth in indoor team building has seen the emergence of conference breakout activities typically shorter in length than a team building event sometimes as short as 20 minutes come to the fore. Management want to maximise information retention from attendees at conferences or meetings and asking your staff to sit through days of PowerPoint presentations will inevitably reduce what they can absorb. An indoor conference breakout activity will re-energise delegates leaving them refreshed, full of energy and re-engaged. Typically a breakout activity is placed within a conference agenda in the 'grave yard shift' after lunch which all presenters hate. Getting staff off their seats and active in an activity fills these tricky slots perfectly.
The days of assuming team building is solely an outdoor pursuit have long since gone. This is not to say outdoor team building events have seen better days, far from it. You simply can’t beat getting away from conference rooms and suites into the fresh air but indoor events are now firmly established as a legitimate equal. Corporate event companies have adapted and now offer a real variety of indoor products that have conquered the limited space issue and really do deliver fantastic solutions. The limitations of only being able to have team building events in the summer have been completely removed and the future of indoor team building events only looks likely to continue to grow.
M&MR are a specialist corporate events company based in the UK who deliver team building and activity days, evening entertainment, conference production (audio visual kit and crew) and exhibition support.
Having been founded over 25 years ago we have the experience and expertise to deliver events to the highest standard, on time and on budget. Having a footprint in a number of event areas has meant M&MR has become a 'one stop shop' for clients who know that everything can be taken care of in one phone call.
Unlike many of our competitors we don't subcontract to other event companies we are actually the team on the ground delivering the event. From conception through the planning stages up to delivery and post event feedback you have an M&MR member of the team with you every step of the way.
So, for unique team building activities, state of the art conference production and management and the most exciting corporate entertainment M&MR are the team to assist.
