Winning Pitch
The company credited with being the originators of corporate teambuilding, Catalyst, hosted its global conference at the Anantara Riverside Resort in Bangkok from October 29-31. Held every two years, the event brought together partners from across 60 countries under the event slogan 2020 Vision – Our Future, Our Network.
CSR took centre stage at this year’s event featuring keynote speaker Paul Dunn from B1Give1 [Buy One Give One], a non-profit that helps small to medium-scale businesses incorporate charitable activities into everyday transactions.
Highlights
Complementing this theme, Catalyst showcased a selection of its own CSR-inspired activities, including community teamwork activity Toy Factory and Hole in One, which takes its inspiration from mini-golf and uses canned goods and non-perishables within the game. The items are later donated to local charities.
Digital was high on the agenda with the introduction of two new tablet-based products. Incorporating a series of brainteasers and physical challenges, ‘Push It!’ was unveiled to delegates, offering an immersive tabletop activity for groups, along with ‘Peak Performance’, a game based on climbing Mount Everest.
Other products introduced included ‘Beat the Box’, which revolves around a series of mysteries which teams must solve against the clock to unlock “the box”. Puppet Master’s was another feature activity at the conference, which has teams manoeuvring oversized puppets to perform simple actions and movements.
Stuart Harris, co-founder and managing director of Team Building Asia, said: “The Catalyst conference is a highlight of the year, as a chance to learn from fellow teambuilders and this year there were 20-plus new events, including a few business simulations which are very popular with clients.”
The Upshot
David Powell, managing director of teambuilding programme developers Asia Ability – Catalyst licensee operating in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand – said this year’s event was the most valuable he had attended. This is his fourth Catalyst Global Conference.
“There was an excellent combination of opportunities to learn about and try out new teambuilding products that we can now offer to our clients as an expansion of the wide variety of creative team events that we provide,” said Powell. “There were also thought and discussion-provoking sessions around the nature of business and presenter Paul Dunn spoke about ‘The Power of Small’ and the B1G1 which was inspiring to all.
“It was great to learn that Catalyst is now a B1G1 partner and will be supporting good causes around the world as an integrated part of our day-to-day operations,” said Powell.
Harris added: “The first days of the conference were spent bumping into old friends; the hotel was a perfect location with a welcome cocktail on the first night, many coffee breaks, long lunches and a group dinner on the second night.”
Event: Catalyst Global Conference
Organiser: Catalyst
Venue: Anantara Riverside Resort, Bangkok
Attendees: Approx 70
Big moment: CSR partnership with B1G1
Dates: Oct 29-31, 2015
