Note2Note

An innovative, fully personalized, teambuilding event called ‘Note2Note’ was organized as an internal corporate event for Outfit7, one of the fastest growing international IT companies. The event needed to be kept top secret, since it was a surprise for client’s 180 employees and management. The event had three main parts (Morning incentive journey, Afternoon musical lesson, Evening themed party of new corporate image).

Participants started the day with a bus&train trip from Ljubljana to Maribor. teh train was the first opportunity for networking and teambuilding activities, which slowly started to reveal the concept of the event. After arrival, the participants were lodged in the 5 star Hotel Habakuk and divided in 7 groups and introduced to the their instrument types.

The groups were then separately coached by music professionals and trainers to learn the musical composition of Carl Orfs “O Fortuna”, which is a part of the opera Carmina Burana. After workshops participants visited the Opera and Ballet SNG Maribor for their first joint rehearsal led by a conductor. The teams were supported throughout by their musical instructors. There was also a singing part, which was led by popular singer Neisha. She guided and encouraged the participants through the singing challenge. The peak of the day was their real music concert in front of the audience. The applause was admirable and the event concluded at the after party based on the client’s new application My Talking Angela.

Creativity

The event was organised as a perfect combination of surprises, music art and an innovative teambuilding programme. Creativity was clearly noticed on all phases of the event. Different types of transport vehicles were chosen (bus, train) and very different and unique event venues were selected, such as the train station, Opera and ballet SNG Maribor, Hotel Habakuk and the Maribor University.

Part of the creative process was also choosing the appropriate team building programme which can transfer the management message to all employees. The strong creative point was also choir part of »O Fortuna« sang in Latin and implemented in the music part of Carmina Burana, art masterpiece on the final concert. Strong creative touches were also expressed on the thematic after party. The virtual world was brought to real life in many different aspects; copying of visual elements (colours, writings, candy shop etc.), game play elements – the level advancement feature, supported with the animation and sound elements from the actual game. The creativity of the participants, their openness to new challenges and using their music skills to reach a common aim were the keys to a successful event.

Innovation

It was a big challenge to lead such a group with no musical background to successfully perform »O Fortuna« after just one hour of music lessons on assigned instruments. Such an event hasn’t been realised in Slovenia and neighbouring countries yet. Some of our partners have done it abroad, but none on such a high level and with such complex elements. The final concert performance in front of an unexpected audience was recorded with professional audio equipment. They were joined by Slovene pianist and pop singer Neisha, while the recording from their previous performance with instruments was played in the background (they were singing to their own musical track. The real orchestra conductor was replaced with one of the companies’ animated characters – talking Tom – which was pre-recorded and animated in advance.)

The second innovation was a themed party created on the newest product application on the market: My Talking Angela. The virtual world was brought to real life in many different aspects.The train ride to the main event was an innovation itself – they transformed the whole train, decorated it with post-its that were actual instructions for this part of the event, and included several surprise elements along the way: from coffee service and “random” groups entering the train at different stops giving participants new materials and animating the group to the musical and marching band performances on several stations along the rails.

Execution

The event can be divided into three parts:
• Morning train incentive ride
• Afternoon musical lesson and concert performance
• Evening themed party and introduction of new corporate image

Every part of the event had an independent event manager and more than 30 Team Building Academy trainers, who played different roles during the day. All groups were coordinated from the lead event manager. During the whole day there were more than 100 people supporting the main event team.

The event was a logistic challenge itself – moving a group of 180 people, that didn’t know where they were going or what they can expect, through all the different venues – 8 separate locations and 3 different transportations. More than 20 subcontractors were cooperating on all event phases during the whole day: catering service on the train, hotel catering, special catering service in the Opera house, various groups for animation and musical performances on the train, musical instructors, the conductor, singing instructors, pop singer Neisha, locations managers, audio & video recording team, photographer, wardrobe team, security services, stage construction team, lighting& SFX support, makeup artists, dance acts and several others.