EXPERIENCES

1. The challenge
Our client, a prestigious Canada-based incentive house, required an innovative team building activity for the incentive program of one of its top customers.

Our solution
Since 1999 Premio Incentives has been a pioneer in organizing socially sensitive activities involving an active interaction with communities. This program seemed to be a great opportunity to materialize another socially oriented function.

With this in mind, we selected the SOS Children’s Village located in a small town outside of San Jose as the location for the group project. The village’s goal is to provide the basic elements to satisfy the needs of 82 children whose state of abandonment and abuse has put them in a position of social risk. SOS has aimed to offer a complete approach to raise these children in a normal family environment and eventually, to re-incorporate them into society.

The project
The corporate client had never experienced an activity with social orientation in any trip before and was not sure if it was going to be properly accepted by the participants. However, the site inspection was crucial to ignite the interest and show the many ways by which the company could motivate the achievers and at the same time help a community. From the moment the project was approved there were several challenging details to put together since we were dealing with both a "difficult" population of children in social risk and the logistics of repairing a whole village for the team building in a half-day visit.

Achieving the goals
It was our duty to not only prepare the content of the program itself but also to work closely with the village, given that the children required some previous preparation to take the activity in a positive way. Participants knew they were to confront the reality of these children; nonetheless, their level of motivation was very high, as they were aware they could do something to alleviate it.

With everyone’s collaboration, the interaction was achieved in a natural way and the result was phenomenal. The key element, which was "leaving something behind" was accomplished beyond expectations; the language barrier was overcome easily and both participants and children enjoyed a day of friendship and camaraderie that truly touched their spirits.

2. The challenge                                                                Top
One of our clients asked for a new, exclusive off-property function for its 250 guests, owners of a supermarket chain, during their Costa Rica incentive trip. They were well traveled and had been customers of his company for over 18 years, so he was presented with the challenge of finding an exciting venue for this function.

Our solution
The program was based on a property on the north Pacific coast of the country, in the province of Guanacaste. This is a beautiful area with gorgeous beaches, dry forest and cattle ranches; it is also the land of Costa Rica’s most authentic folkloric traditions. However, it is still very rural and does not have off-site venues that can hold a group of this size. So our solution was to take over a small town and offer our client an authentic Guanacaste Fiesta, with friendly local people as hosts.

The project
The client loved the idea, as he knew his guests would appreciate an event that reflected the idiosyncrasy of the country. However, the main challenge was to convince the community to re-create one of their local festivities for a group of visitors. This seemed to be out of proportions for them, since they were a small village used to only a few visitors. But after continuous visits to the town and meetings with the community leaders and the school staff, we were able to put together a fantastic program.

It would take place in the central square with booths of local specialties, games, and drinks; a parade with school children with lanterns, decorated oxcarts, folk dances, and cowboys; and, to top it all, an exquisite barbecue dinner with catered service. The client was also willing to contribute further and the agenda included a donation of materials and equipment to the local school.

Achieving the goals
When the group arrived and saw how the town had turned out to see them, opening their homes to their new friends, the great local decorations, the kids in their school tunics and the phenomenal dinner set up… it took their breath away. The warmth of the townspeople and the wonderful feeling of being able to help the school with the donation left the group with memories they will never forget.

3. The challenge                                                                Top
An active group of doctors from the Czech Republic requested an incentive program with activities where participants could compete and earn points throughout the trip.

Our solution
In order to include a nice variety of activities in the program, we suggested a point-earning system that could work both individually and in teams. In this way participants were able to accumulate points with individual tasks and also teaming up with other guests.

The project
The program started with a coffee tour followed by an entertaining coffee-picking contest. Right after the tour ended, guests got on a cart pulled by a tractor and headed deep into the coffee plantation looking for the right spot with enough ripe coffee for the contest. They were to handpick coffee in the traditional way, carrying a straw basked around the waist. After 15min of enjoyable competition, the best four coffee pickers were selected and they earned a number of points.

The next day they were organized in teams of four participants each and started a jeep safari to the north Pacific coast. The self-drive excursion in 4-wheel-drive vehicles not only provided a burst of adrenaline, it also gave participants the chance to travel through picturesque little off-the-beaten-track towns, meet local people, and experience the country in a way that would not be possible on traditional transportation. On this route, they stopped for local treats with friendly local hosts, had to decipher spontaneous directions and were assigned tasks that had to be fulfilled in order to score points. They were exposed to unusual situations such as obtaining a special permission at a local police station, buying lottery tickets or collecting produce at a local market. Each team carried a list of assignments in English & Spanish as well as a certain amount of Colones (Costa Rican currency) to fulfil the tasks.

Achieving the goals
When participants reached the beach they thought they were done with the point earning; however, they still had one more goal to achieve: winning the hermit crab races. They had the chance to select their own hermit crab, and the race took place.

At the end of the program, the happy winners of the first three places of the entire competition received their prizes. Nonetheless, the overall feeling was that all participants were winners themselves, given that on top of the number of points they had accumulated, they were motivated by the extraordinary experiences they had lived in the program.

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