Designing Sustainable Events with Positive Impacts

Summary

Business Example:
Team Spirit Thailand

Location:
Bangkok, Thailand

Key Lessons:

• Consider group dynamics and organisational contexts. Make sure you understand the participants’ backgrounds well, and work with the specific context of each group, to ensure the event becomes relevant and meaningful to everyone involved.
• Invest in local leaders to facilitate positive experiences. Enhance participants’ experience by training and working with knowledgeable local experts with the right leadership and facilitation skills.
• Carefully choose your vendors and activities to minimise footprint. Take time to find and select local partners for your event, to ensure different aspects of your activities (transport, food, supplies, communication materials) are as sustainable as possible.
• Don’t miss the opportunity to immerse your participants in local culture. Events offer unique opportunities to help participants learn about and connect with the local culture, which helps make their experience even more memorable and meaningful.
• Help them digest what they learn from the event. Learning doesn’t need to stop when the event is over. Be sure to offer follow-up communications to help participants reflect on the lessons they’ve learned from their experiences.

Team Spirit Thailand offers professional services to develop and deliver student travel group programs, training retreats, corporate team-building incentives, conference designs, and business meetings. With a focus on sustainable event design, they aim to create personalised MICE experiences that embed sustainability values and help enrich local communities and the natural environment.

Using the example of a corporate team building event organised by Team Spirit Thailand, this case study highlights key elements of an engaging, educational and sustainable approach to creating a memorable event.

Understanding the Participants Needs

Recognising the diversity of the participant’s nationalities and various religious backgrounds. This meant different behavioural norms and expectations - as well as dietary requirements - among the group, and it is the job of the organiser to make sure everyone feels welcomed and respected.

A “Do’s and Don’ts” document is sent to the group as soon as the booking is confirmed, with instructions on what to bring, what not to bring, what to wear, and checks on allergies, dietary restrictions, and religious considerations like Halal or Jain.

Setting the Right Tone for the Event

It’s important to ensure all participants understand and appreciate the deeper purpose of their event, not just the itinerary.  

To book this event, in addition to the per-person fee, there was a minimum US$2000 donation requirement (more is always appreciated) that goes towards a local charity in Bang Krachao (Bangkok's urban oasis often called “the green lung of Bangkok”) for Nipa Palmrestoration and for supporting the protection of the Chao Phraya river canal system.

Working with Local Expert Guides

Group leaders who work with client teams have specific responsibilities that are different from those of a typical tourist guide. In addition to knowledge of the local sites and attractions, skills such as facilitation, leadership, problem-solving and motivation are needed.

For example, for the Photo Scavenger Hunt activity, a photographer with insider knowledge of the area served as the local specialist guide. The aim of the game was for each team to follow a series of photos taken along their assigned route (connected to the UN SDG commitments of the company), and find the missing pieces.

The Facilitator was tasked with:

• Explaining the do’s and don’ts of photography;
• Providing tips on capturing images along the walk; and
• Encouraging creativity and collaboration among team members.

Avoiding Negative Impacts

To reduce potential negative impacts of the event, various measures have been put into place within the design of the activities.

For example:

• For the Photo Scavenger Hunt, each team was given the same tasks, but along different routes to avoid overcrowding the area.
• The guides were directly in touch with the facilitators at all times, reporting and sending photos/answers along the way, avoiding printed materials.
• Guides help with managing expectations of both the guests and the variety of people they meet throughout the day.
• The teams were not given any disposable materials to avoid creating unnecessary waste.
• For local transportation, the teams were offered 6-seater EV Tuk Tuks. These innovative Tuk Tuks are operated by a Bangkok university start-up working with local Tuk Tuk drivers to convert them to EV, teach them to use a ride-share booking app with certain city routes to help employ and encourage change, whilst reducing pollution, preventing corruption, and teaching road safety.

Connecting with the Local Culture

Learning about, deepening an understanding and appreciation for, and connecting with the local culture of where your event takes place is a key part of an engaging and educational event experience.

Here are some of the opportunities incorporated in to the Team Spirit Thailand corporate team building event example, where the teams were invited to (in no particular order):

• Make merit in a small local temple or shrine. These are not religious activities but rather about paying respect to local culture, explaining deities, spiritual beliefs, and receiving good luck blessings.
• Find certain old heritage buildings and architectural styles down alleys and footpaths.
• Find three different local desserts or seasonal fruit to taste and learn about.
• Find the missing piece of the street art mural and name the local Thai graffiti artist.
• Purchase a speciality drink from a local vendor for a little break. The vendor has the next clue, so the team must speak to them and find out about their family and business’s story. Our pre-selected vendors use washable cups, natural packaging like banana leaves, and know not to give single-use plastic and non-biodegradable items.

Farm-to-Table Meals for Families in Need

Food is not only an important part of the local culture, but a cultural experience that brings people together. That’s why cooking activities are a great way to enhance event experiences - especially when they are designed to be local, sustainable and community-focused.

Here are some of the ways how local food and traditional cooking have been incorporated into the team building event:

• Teams were picked up with EV longtail boats and taken along the canals on the Thonburi side of the river to a 200-year-old family farm that still grows non-commercial crops for self-consumption. The family farms without the use of chemicals, and practises old wisdom of natural cycles, biodiversity and soil health.
• The teams tour the farm and get to pick and taste a variety of local herbs and fruit whilst learning about their stingless bee hive project.
• The teams will learn to cook three special family recipes taught by family members. But they are not cooking for themselves but for a low-income migrant community, with each team being tasked to make 40 portions to be donated.
• All the fresh ingredients laid out must be weighed and portioned based on the recipes they have learned. Food waste was weighed, and anything unavoidable collected for composting.
• Each team presented one of each dish for the judges to taste, before the “Top Sustainable Chef'' winners were selected. The prizes for the winners were local handcrafted gifts (not wrapped in plastic!) made by a home industry women’s group.
• The meals prepared by the teams were packed in reusable containers and collected by a volunteer from the community to take to the beneficiaries. The empty containers, by the way, were brought back to be washed and reused for the new batch of food.

Turning Memories into Lasting Lessons

Last but not least, the positive impact of the event should be reinforced by sharing with the participants, not just during but also after the event.

To facilitate the sharing of lessons and ongoing discussions around sustainability impacts, in the case of this corporate team building event, all photos from the different teams and those sent by the guides are uploaded and made available privately online for the client post-event, along with data on how many people benefited from their team building activities, and how each area of the event aligns with the company’s SDG commitments.

All photos by Gili Back