Event Yahoo! Hong Kong 2009 Kick-Off Meeting
Organiser Team Building Asia
Venue MGM Grand Macau
Group size 144
Date January 15-16

The brief
Yahoo! Hong Kong wanted to hold its 2009 Kick-off Meeting alongside its tenth anniversary celebration. The company wanted a half-day meeting, overnight stay in a luxury hotel and an enjoyable full-day teambuilding programme.

Challenges
Yahoo! Hong Kong chose two different teambuilding activities, which meant the ballroom had to be quickly turned around following each session. The afternoon teambuilding session involved painting. Team Building Asia used water-based paints and covered the ballroom surfaces with plastic sheets. Delegates were also given painters’ coveralls to protect their clothes.

Additionally, the morning session activity was originally designed for a group half the size of Yahoo! Hong Kong’s team. “This activity works best with 12 teams of six so we divided the ballroom and ran two identical sessions,” says Caroline Chan, account executive, Team Building Asia. 

Execution
Yahoo! Hong Kong arrived in Macau for the afternoon meeting followed by a team dinner. They had two activities planned for the next day in the ballroom.  The morning activity was Creative Juices, a strategic session that had smaller groups working together on a ‘chain’ of smoothie businesses.

The afternoon activity, The Big Picture, focused on creativity and teamwork by having groups paint pre-planned canvases that were later joined to form a giant tailor-made mural depicting Yahoo! Hong Kong’s logo and brand values. This was followed by an awards ceremony for its top performers. 

Comment
“Yahoo! Hong Kong did a great job organising their group in advance. More than 95 per cent of the office attended,” says Chan.