31 May Bleisure, evolution of incentive trip

Bleisure, evolution of incentive tip

Have you already heard the word BLEISURE? We did and got very curious… unless discovering that we have been doing bleisure for years without knowing it! It is explained as Business Leisure, to say a business trip that offers also time for leisure. It is a natural evolution of incentive trip. We often manage foreign clients coming to visit Italy for an incentive travel. So, now we are going to share with you some tips and tricks on how to organize at best a bleisure trip!

Bleisure: what is it?

More and more HR directors of big national and international enterprises are aware of a fact. Employees have developed the tendency to add some day of “holiday” to their incentive trip or corporate event. This year, the 40% of HR noticed it; and probably others aren’t still aware of the growth of this phenomenon. Let’s admit it! Our first instinct when we are proposed a business travel in a beautiful and interesting place is to spend there some more days in freedom, maybe even to stop for the weekend. Some of us do it, traveling by car or asking organisators to change their return plane ticket. This is a “natural”, self-organized bleisure. But it also can be promoted by the company!

Why organizing a bleisure trip?

First of all, because employees do it already, for our HR department it will be useful to think in advance about the solutions to adopt. Solving every single employee’s need and problems can be challenging. That’s why it’s easier to propose a common solution for all the length of the event.

In second place, this will be a great occasion for building loyalty. A business travel is often experienced as hard and exhausting, and many people complain that they don’t see almost anything of the visited location. Thus, they will certainly appreciate the effort of making their experience more pleasant. Don’t forget that evolution of incentive trip is directed to always more flexibility and fun!

Last but not least: in view of corporate goals, the days dedicated to Business Leisure won’t be wasted. We can indeed take advantage of this occasion to improve integration, communication, mutual understanding and team spirit. It can be just a “natural team building”: conversations at dinner, a walk all together, a visit to the museum. Or… we can organize a real team building and incentive event. But, of course, the activity will be much different from what is usually done during a corporate training team building!

Which Team Building to choose for a bleisure occasion?

Each event must be suitable for the occasion in which it is done. For a corporate team building we usually choose a highly motivational activity, often demanding from the physical and/or cognitive point of view, one that will require all the team’s capabilities and put them to the test. A bleisure team building will be completely different! At the end of a meeting or a business travel, employees wish to spend some days with freedom and fun, together with their family or friends. So, each activity we will organize will have the following features:

• allow rest and relax after some challenging days
• leave space to individual freedom
• consider the needs of potential companions
• let discover the location of the event.

The last is of particular importance. Though we all have Google at our fingertips, it isn’t always easy to find what to do and what to see in a new place. Organizers of a business leisure event will have to solve this problem too, letting the participants experience all the best of the chosen location.

Here are some activities you should try!

1. Treasure Hunt

Treasure Hunt, or Team Building Urban Game, is the most thrilling and exciting way to discover a city or another kind of location. Between games, challenges and quizzes participants will walk through the city streets. The game can be completed with the visit to a famous monument or with tasting of local gastronomic specialities. For the most technological teams we offer an interactive Urban Game iPad. And for the laziest ones… a Segway City Tour!

Recently we brought an international team to discover the beauties of Cinque Terre. Take a look!

2. Team Cooking

Especially for a foreign group visiting Italy, learning to cook local specialities will have great impact. Pasta Cooking or Pizza Cooking are the best formats to discover Italian cuisine, and bring a lot of fun for participants of all ages.

And what about the evening? We have two outstanding formats for you colleagues! In the Cocktail Challenge we will learn to mix alcohol, soft drinks and fruit to create the perfect cocktail for our corporate occasion. In Wine Games, instead, we will challenge rival teams in the knowledge of wine. Don’t miss the wine tasting with blindfolded eyes!

3. Dinner with Murder

A way to have fun at the table, turning the usual corporate dinner in a thrilling adventure. In our Dinner with Murder can appear professional actors, but we can also make participants themselves “play” the plot. One of them will be the guilty… and the others must discover who it is!

A tip: organize your Dinner with Murder as a complete surprise for the guests. The effect will be exhilarating!

There are many more activities we can propose to exploit at its best this new evolution of incentive trip. Click HERE and contact us for more details!