A Palatable Team Building Event
Avanceon is, generally speaking, split into three business units, or “pods” (and not a day goes by that I don’t make a reference to my “pod people”). As one of the few associates who overlaps pods (I claim possession of Pods 2 and 3), I get to compare and contrast the inner workings of both, and often reap the rewards of a dual involvement. Specifically: pod events.
Having been an intimate part of the decision making process, I can say first hand that team building events are a challenge to plan. It’s difficult to find an interactive experience sans cheese, and even harder to please everyone with one activity. I personally just wanted to go pet dogs with my coworkers for a day, but that was pretty quickly turned down. (I’ll just have to focus my energy on encouraging Bring Your Dog to Work Day for the whole office!)
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What we did land on, for Pod 3 at least, was a collaborative competitive cooking class. Split into random teams, we were each responsible for one dish and then ate EVERYTHING. The venue (Cooking Spotlight in Phoenixville) prepared a multi-course menu, prepped stations for each team, assisted as needed, and judged our creations. We were awarded Best Tasting, Best Presentation (props to the hand-cut lemon wheels from our former bar-back!), Best Teamwork and Most Creative (kind of a terrifying one for food!). No one was hospitalized or went home wearing their meal, and everything was edible. The blend of work and play led to a fun, successful event.
Next I’m hoping that Pod 2 will plan a Room Escape or Seinfeld Trivia!
What team events have you seen go well, or horribly wrong?!