Choosing the right start and finish location for your team building scavenger hunt is an important part of your planning process. Getting this right can make the difference between a successful and unsuccessful event.
The Scavenger Hunt Start Location
Where is the best place for a scavenger hunt to start?
For many groups this can be the boardroom or meeting room at the office.
In other cases, a hotel conference room is ideal, as long as the hotel is within the scavenger hunt area.
If the group is particularly large then it may make sense to have a microphone and speakers set up so that everyone can hear the pre-hunt announcements.
An Outdoor Start Location?
In some cases indoor options aren’t possible based on the group size or other logistics and it is possible to start a scavenger hunt outside. If that’s going to be the case for your group there are a couple of things to think about.
- Where specifically outside will the group assemble and how will you tell them exactly where this is?
- You need to consider the noise factor. If you are going to do the briefing in a busy soffice building lobby or on a street corner there will be a lot of ambient noise. Somebody will need to make announcements and it may be difficult for all participants to hear, especially if the group size is larger. For larger groups, an indoor location would best.
Scavenger Hunt Finish Locations
The obvious decision to make after choosing a start location is to choose to finish location. Selecting the right finish location will depend on what is happening immediately after the scavenger hunt finishes. Will people stick around and have drinks and food or do they need to leave and go home? Or perhaps you’re at a conference and there will be a break before dinner at which time the results will be announced. If choosing a bar or a restaurant a venue that has a private room is ideal because then you may turn off music in order to make announcements without the ability to do this again it will be difficult to hear the announcements being made.
Start and Finish at the Same Place?
Should the finish location be the same as the start location? This makes sense if your group is at a conference and needs to return to the meeting room afterwards. It can also make sense if you’re starting and finishing from your office. You’ll need to consider again what happens after word, do people need to access their vehicles or some of the things you should be thinking about.
What else will be happening at the finished location? Will you be debriefing the scavenger hunt? Some groups like to talk about the scavenger hunt and discuss what can be learned from the activity. If this is the plan then a noisy saloon is probably not the best option for a finish venue. This may seem obvious but we had a client do this exact thing.
How about a Slide Show
If your group is doing a smartphone scavenger hunt then it may be possible to download the photos immediately afterwards. If you have enough time to set up a slideshow for the group then you should make sure your finish venue has the right AV set up so you can plug in your laptop and show the slideshow.
If your group is at a meeting or conference venue they definitely will be able to provide the right kind of AV so just make sure you give yourself enough time to set up a slideshow using PowerPoint or some other slideshow software.
Sometimes there is a break between the scavenger hunt part of a meeting agenda and the dinner. That could be a great opportunity to prepare a slideshow that can be already running when people arrive at the dinner facility. Wouldn’t that be slick?
Do you need help planning your team building scavenger hunt? We’re available to answer your questions!