The Apprentice – a mighty Team Building Event in Cork

 

 Well I do like to experience the events and venues that I suggest to my clients so on Friday I arranged a fun team building event – a very fun version of  “The Apprentice” for the BNI Cork City Chapter.  It is the brain child of John Fitzgerald from Fun Ireland and he was the acting “Bill Cullen” or “Sir Alan Sugar” which ever TV version you are most familiar with.   The difference being that John is mighty craic and has a laugh at what the teams got up to all the way through it.   I partook in the event myself and my cheek bones were sore from laughing come 9 o clock Friday night.  It was a fantastic night and there has been great feedback since.

“A BIG CONGRATULATIONS TO Ciara for organising what can only be described as one of the best social events we have ever had in BNI. A great night was had by all”

Of course, not everyone agreed with the Judges (john from Fun Ireland’s) final decision on the winning team  ….

objections

“ true for what my learned friend(paudie) has said ,it was a great
night , but as you know,that down through history there has been many miscarriages of justice.for example….  

             1 the nailing of jesus to the cross.
             2 nelson mandela(30 years).
             3 the guilford four.
 now i think we can safetly say we can add another one to that growing list ,yes you have guessed right my friends……last night…..it was on par with a guy standing over a body with a smoking gun and getting off scot free…..team farting were clearly not the winners ,their storys had more holes in it than a teabag,we of team fe*K$rs are the true champions..watch this space……..?”

The night started and ended in the pub.  The Chambers Inn in Cork  . We all met up for a half hour, were divided up into our teams (of 10 or so), given our challenges pack, appointed a team leader and we went from there.  We had to complete about 8 challenges ranging from getting a photo taken with a chef  or Garda  

Friendly Cork Gardai

to “acquiring an Irish Cottage or Sheep”. 

Some creative thinking was done on the sheep challenge where a blow up sheep was purchased in Ann Sommers and that started a whole other round of slagging.  We all had to be back to the pub for 7.45 where we had a recap on the challenges and did a quick presentation on our results.  This was nearly the best part of the night as the competition between the teams heated up and the serious slagging started.    Two teams were fired and the controversial winning team announced. 

The controversial winners - there are sore losers in the group

 

What was best about it for me was I looked around and everyone was laughing, there was an immediate buzz and atmosphere and we all saw and learned a different side to at least  a few members of the team.  As a networking group, that was very important and signalled the success to the evening for me…
 In anycase, I would highly recommend it as an event for a group of people.   My next event to try out will be breaking  Santa out of Jail in Cork Jail (Goal) – the historical jail that is… 

For ideas and tips on arranging an event and finding the perfect venue – contact Ciara – Ciara@findaconferencevenue.com.  353 (0) 26 21015.

Warning on Conference Room set up styles, Corporate Event Planning Tips

I was working on an enquiry for a conference  set up “cabaret style” and went to a number of venues and corporate meeting hotels Ireland, to get a quote.   I stated each time that the room needs to be set up “cabaret style” – which is a round banquet table but set for a max of 6-7 people – basically so no one is twisting their neck to see the speaker or have the backs to the speaker – it is a very conducive style to networking, brain storming or having lunch in the same room…. anyway, I digress.  I discovered by doing my own calculations on the size of the room that I was being mislead.  Warning.   Some venues are calculating that cabaret style is a table set with 10 people…. so a lot more people can fit in the room…..  THIS IS NOT CABARET STYLE.   Imagine sitting at a table for an all day conference and discovering that you have your back to the presenter!!  If you are an organiser you would also end up booking a room far too small for your Conference or Meeting.  In the UK and US Cabaret style is referred to as Half Moon or Crescent style.  But in no country does cabaret style exceed 7 people at a table.  So watch out for that.  I am finding some Irish Venues are not calculating this correctly.  Ensure you clarify how many delegates at a table they consider cabaret style conference set up to be.  It is  important to be able to independently determine the number of attendees that can be seated comfortably in any given function room. Fortunately it is relatively easy to do that – click through to my site for many more tips on planning events.