This was a Raft building team building event with BigDutchman in Pattaya, Thailand.
Overview
Making Teams organised a raft building team building event on 18 January 2018 in Pattaya for 110 delegates from BigDutchman. It was a half day raft building and racing event in the sea with a giant banner creation at the end.
Location
The raft building took place on the garden lawn of the Renaissance Pattaya Resort & Spa located in Jomtien beach, Pattaya with the raft racing on the beach.
Company / People
Delegates from BigDutchman, industry leader in feeding systems and housing equipment for modern pig and poultry production since 1938, had come together for a sales meeting over several days at Renaissance Pattaya. The group of salesmen already knew each other well, so there was no need for ice breaking activities, they wanted to go straight towards the goal. Participants came from various countries; Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Indonesia, USA, Germany, Netherlands, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Cambodia. Teams were mixed based on age, position level within the company and nationality.
Objectives
The objectives for the raft team building event was for participants to experience something new, fun and challenging and at the same time improve teamwork and communication with the eventual goal of winning together. The activity also had to reflect work-related challenges such as the fact that different teams often work with different sets of tools and equipment trying to establish the same goal with more or less resources.
Event Program
During the event briefing teams were informed of the goal of the activity; to collect the most points through building a raft, racing it on the water to collect vinyl sheets and by hanging these on a bamboo structure build by their team depicting the company logo and tagline.
After the main briefing, team leaders went back to their team and had 10 minutes to brief their team about the rules and instructions. On the sound of the whistle all teams started to build their raft and banner construction. Different teams had different sets of materials to build their raft and team members had different roles within the team.
Roles & Tasks
Leader – Leads the team
Rules and Time keeper – Keep track of time and ensures rules are followed
Material manager – Manages inventory for use between raft and structure
Raft designer – Designs the raft and supervises builders
Construction supervisor – Supervises building the construction that holds the banner
Bamboo carrier – raft – Carries materials within the building place
Bamboo carrier – construction – Carries materials within the building place
Rope knotter – raft – Ties the rope for building the raft
Rope knotter – construction – Ties the rope for building the construction
Floating manager – Inflates the floaters/innertubes/balloons
Scoring
Scoring was done based on six points below and recorded by facilitators on a scoring sheet;
1. The time spend on building the raft and structure to completion
2. The total time one or more team members are not participating in the raft and structure building
3. The design of the raft in terms of strength (how well elements are tied together) and floating capacity (how many team members can safely sit on the raft while floating in the sea without sinking),
4. The position in the race including hanging the vinyl sheets up in the right position on the structure.
5. Teams with fewer and lesser quality materials receive starter points to even out the difference and establish fairness between teams.
6. Teams moving the raft between building and the race are disqualified after one warning.
Event Schedule
2.45 pm – 3.00 pm Briefing of teams and leaders
3.00 pm – 3.15 pm Team leaders brief their team
3.15 pm – 3.30 pm Materials assignment to teams
3.30 pm – 4.15 pm Building the rafts and structure to hold the banner
4.15 pm – 4.30 pm Announcement final 15 minutes. Raft testing and getting ready for the race
4.30 pm – 5.00 pm Raft racing, collecting banner pieces and attaching to structure
5.00 pm – 5.15 pm Finish race and announcement top three teams in the race
5.15 pm – 5.30 pm Final challenge to be announced.
5.30 pm – 5.45 pm Wrap up
5.45 pm – 6.00 pm Group photo of teams and whole group
6.00 pm – 7.00 pm Freshen up
7.00 pm – 7.30 pm Debrief, scoring announcement and awarding ceremony top three teams
7.30 pm BBQ dinner
Final scoring
1 Deep blue – 24
2 Orange – 41
3 Red – 15
4 Light green – 39
5 Yellow – 18
6 Black – 30
7 White – 30
8 Blue – 22
9 Purple – 20
10 Light purple – 27
11 Dark green – 33
12 Pink – 21
