Team Building in Hua Hin with Smartrac
Twenty-two people from Smartrac were selected to join a company outing and team building activity in Thailand from 26th to 30th January 2015. The group was accommodated at Dusit Thani, one of Hua Hin’s leading luxury resorts.
On 28th January 2015, Makig Teams organized a half-day team building activity “Cultural Discovery” for Smartrac.
The group gathered at 2 p.m. at Napalai B Ballroom.
Martin Lavis, Beunite’s lead facilitator briefed the group in regards to their upcoming challenge.
The task at hand was to travel around Hua Hin and Cha Am (the neighbouring beach resort) , to visit 12 culturally important sights, to take a group picture, to answer a question to each location and to buy local artifacts for a final fashion competition.
The objective was to finish all challenges in the given time and the first team to return to Dusit Thani was the winning team.
Delegates were equally split into teams of eight based on nationality, gener and position.
Each team was provided with a clue sheet, a map of Hua Hin / Cha Am, an air-conditioned mini-van with driver and a Beunite facilitator to accompany the team.
Teams were given bandanas in red, blue, green and orange.
While they travelled, they visited important touristic sights and experienced Thailand’s culture at first hand.
Some of the stops are listed below:
Wat Cha Am Kiri
After climbing a 112-step staircase to the entrance of the temple, delegates were hit with an awe-inspiring sight: A giant meditating Buddha statue was placed in the center of a limestone cave. After following the narrow path deep into the cave, another enormous Buddha image appeared. The clues to this sight were carefully worked out yet with a combined brain power of eight computer engineers solved in a few minutes.
Hua Hin Railway station
Seven locations in Hua Hin were within easy reach so organizers decided to drop teams off at the Centara Grand and from there, delegates travelled on foot to each location. Hua Hin Railways station is one of the most adorable railway stations in the world. Small, yet well-maintained with a special waiting area for the royal family.
Neronchararon Temple & King Naresuan Monument
At Nerochararon Temple, teams were asked to buy a lotus and letting it float in the magic pond. Throwing one-baht coins into the bowl that was placed in the middle of the pond (and hitting the bowl) brought luck and the team who succeeded in this challenge had a substantially higher chance of winning the competition (include VDO).
From Nerochararon temple, teams were changing modes of transport from mini-van to 3-men and 4-men tandem bicycles and cycled a strip of about 300 meters to King Naresuan Monument.
King Naresuan was a former Thai King who reigned the country during the Ayutthaya kingdom from 1590 until 1605. He is famous for freeing Siam from Burmese occupation.
Teams were instructed to return to Dusit Thani hotel at ten past five and one team (the red team) returned on time and collected the 10 bonus points for punctuality. The blue team just missed it by three minutes.
In the debriefing, Martin was revealing the sights, clues and the answer to the questions. After the first part, the score looked like this:
Team Green: 21
Team Orange: 30
Team Blue: 27
Team Red: 39
Before the photo competition, team red was leading with 9 points ahead of team orange.
Teams were asked to take a group picture at each location according to a theme. The best picture of each location was awarded three points. So teams who were visiting all location in the given time had a substantial advantage over other teams to win the photo competition.
Each team had three “best” pictures therefore awarded 9 points, yet the red team had a total of four best pictures.
So the score looked like this:
Team Green: 9
Team Orange: 9
Team Blue: 9
Team Red: 12
After the photo competition team red were expanding their lead and the total score was as follows:
Team Green: 30
Team Orange: 39
Team Blue: 36
Team Red: 51
After the photo competition and with a lead of 12 points it seemed as though red would be winning the Cultural Discovery.
What a surprise that team orange was awarded 10 points for winning the fashion competition and received 10 points for returning to the hotel on time.
Team Green: 30
Team Orange: 39 + 20 = 59
Team Blue: 36
Team Red: 51
What a roar of applause when the final points were announced. What an outburst of emotions from team orange while team red was crying in agony.
Gifts for team orange were awarded by the organizer and team red’s disappointment evaporated soon after the final winner was announced.
Teams left with magnificent memories of Hua Hin, Cha Am and the Thai people and culture and the “Cultural Discovery” was a great success.
