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IMAGINE going head to head against your colleagues in a true Survivor-style event - that is the reality created by one Australian company as it replicates the famous television program for the benefit of professional development.
Through its Survivor team building event, Corporate Challenge Events says teams must work together, communicate, negotiate, problem solve and effectively manage their time to ensure survival in the game.
"The common saying 'you can learn more about a person in an hour's play than in a lifetime of conversation' rings loudly," says co-founder Travis Ireland
"Our events extract people's true qualitiesas a team member and person in general, ranging from their motivation, competiveness, reaction to authority, reaction to stress and so much more.
"A team can be dissected and assessed on people's traits here and play an important part in team dynamics and role play."
Founded by Ireland and Dwain Richardson in 1994, Corporate Challenge Events offers close to 40 different team building activities from 'art in a day' to beach Olympics, a buggy rally, jet-ski safari and raft regatta.
It has delivered more than 7000 programs over its 21-year history and grown to employ more than 70 staff, with a presence in Australia and New Zealand.
Ireland attributes the growth of the business to general managers and CEOs recognising the importance of team building activities, along with Corporate Challenge Events' dedication and commitment to ensuring staff get the most out of their team building experience.
Ireland says some of the benefits of team building events include boosting staff morale, rewarding staff, reinforcing company values and helping to address specific team values and issues.
"What we do is get everyone out of the office and we work on whatever objectives have been outlined by the company, and we design a program that suits their goals," says Ireland.
"My main goal is to make sure I entertain those people - and when I say entertain I mean make sure the event is interactive, non-threatening, fun, worthwhile and challenging - and my secondary goal is to achieve the objective set out to me.
"And quite often we are given no objectives, we are just told to go out there and have some fun. But from a day like that we still achieve so many underlying messages of communication, planning, time management, workplace entertainment, fun and health and fitness."
The largest group Corporate Challenge Events' has worked with consisted of 1200 people.
In addition to team building events, the company boasts a conference and events department which has planned and delivered more than 50 events over the past three years, ranging from multi-day conferences for up to 250 attendees to fun days for close to 1000 people.
It has also launched The Run Down Under a virtual and online fun run, where you track the distance run in a calendar year.
In 2015, Corporate Challenges Events celebrated 21 years of operation and says passion has helped it to thrive.
"I love what we do and I believe in what we do here at Corporate Challenge," says Ireland.
"This passion then flows down to all our staff and is the reason we continue to thrive. One of our staff values is 'we care, it's not just a job'."
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