WHEN: Friday 15 november 15th 2019
WHERE: Center of Antwerp
Our first real team-building event... exciting! A group of 60 people with different interests, a Friday in November with the possibility of rain (or snow)… Not at all easy, but I think we succeeded in organising this first team-building event so as to make it fun and personal.
Work vs. pleasure
We invited everyone to breakfast at the office on Friday morning at 8 a.m. That gave them all a chance to see the new Oude Leeuwenrui location with a coffee and a croissant to start the morning off. The day began well when I saw that everyone was mingling and chatting away to get to know one another a bit better. After all, this is a group of 60 people who work at over 15 different locations. So we had a lot to talk about to get to know one another better
The whole crowd moved from Oude Leeuwenrui towards Antwerp’s famous museum, the MAS. Here we stopped for five minutes to take a real team photo. Because let’s be honest: you can’t have a team-building event without a complete team photo.
We continued the morning in Zaal XL, a hidden gem in Antwerp above the Burgerij eatery. Frederic gave a presentation about the past year, future projects and other matters. Alizé and Stefanie contributed to the presentation, too, announcing innovations in HR and Marketing. After a short coffee and smoking break, we continued with… a speed dating session!
As I’ve already said, we realised that it was important for the group to get to know one another better. To prevent the same little ‘cliques’ staying together or people dividing up into age groups, we decided to speed date in mixed groups. Whenever the music was turned up loud, it was time to move on to the next place, to another group. People talked about hobbies, family, work, trivia and more. A great way to get to know one another better. During lunch (with mini-hamburgers, of course), you could see straight away that everyone was mixing again to carry on chatting to certain people. Mission accomplished!
Pleasure
We continued the day on the roof of the MAS. Here Jan was waiting for us. He really immersed us in what ‘team building’ means. He did that by carrying out very creative, fun tasks with us during a walk through the centre of Antwerp. We took a break in the well-known De Muze café to warm up a bit again, because it was a cold Friday! Dry, but cold.
The tasks really did serve to strengthen teams and groups. To get to know one another better by having fun, with laughter and shouting. Some people were rather more competitive than others, that’s for sure ;-)
The day finished in the Grote Markt, Antwerp’s main square, and which café should not be missed at the end of a walk through this city? ‘Den Engel’, of course! All 60 of us went into the café, where drinks were served very fast. I was amazed how smoothly it went. A very relaxed, informal atmosphere that was an ideal way to end this day.
I’m already looking forward to organising another team-building event with this lot in 2020!
