Conference Facilitation & Team Building Blogs

Top 10 Conference Cock-ups

After 20 years of supporting conferences, we’ve heard some tales that will send shivers up a conference organiser’s spine. Here are a few we can share – there are several more that we can’t.

Don't be left red faced at your own conference - Take note of the mistakes made by others, below, and avoid embarrassment.

1. Theme
If an event has the word ‘annual’ in the title there’s a high chance it shouldn’t be happening at all. …

Serious Business doesn’t take itself too Seriously

I spent two days of my summer holiday this year at Disneyland. Later in the trip we drove through Hollywood then past Google and Apple’s global headquarters.  It struck me that each of these mega industries was founded with fun in mind. And perhaps there’s more value to this distinctive founding feature than many CFOs have grasped.

Just how important is it for your employees to have fun at work?

When Walt built Disneyland he said “Disneyland is a work of love. We didn’t go into Disneyland just with the idea of making money.” …

Exercises to Support Covey’s 7 Habits

Along with the 15 million people who have bought the book, we love Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. We also firmly believe in experiential learning and so we’ve selected the following 7 training exercises to bring each habit to life and help to turn Covey’s ideas into behaviours. 

We love Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

If the exercises aren’t familiar to you and you’d like some trainer notes, click here to make a request….

Is there a place for Humour in the Workplace?

For most of us, work is serious business. We have targets to meet, projects to complete and in some cases even lives to save. A wise man once said, “Just because the work you do is serious, it doesn’t mean you have to be serious about the way you do your work“.

There are a number of advantages associated with allowing humour in the workplace...

This quote is perfectly illustrated by the image of doctors in an operating theatre…

DIY Team Building – 6 Solutions

As budgets tighten and in-house trainers look for more inspiring ways to get their message across, our collection of licensed team and leadership activities are proving popular both at home and abroad.

Why not try the DIY approach and organise a team building activity of your own?

Spicing up induction programmes and providing new managers with a safe environment in which to practice taking the lead are amongst the many ways in which our exercises are being used.  …

The Case for Experiential Learning – 5 ways we learn better by doing than listening

For years practical activities have been used in team building to help people get to know each other ‘off the job’. In management development case studies and role plays are used to turn theories into experience.

Fresh Tracks offer a range of Team Building activities which can help your employees get to know each other better

Experiential learning is more acceptable now than at any time in the past as participants have become less fearful of leaving the security of the classroom, relishing the opportunity to take a break from the monotony of the lectures.  …

Imagination versus Reason

Business is driven by reason, as is education, but perhaps our desire for everything to add up is causing us to miss out.  

Why does education and employment value reason over imagination?

Around the world from Cambridge to Calcutta, education has the same hierarchy of subjects, maths then languages, humanities and at the bottom, arts.  …

Is Stress Good? The Science Explains

In this excellent film from Scientific America our body’s chemical response to stress is clearly explained. Take two minutes to take a look and be better equipped to deal with the next crisis, deadline or difficult customer you face.

Gold Medallist TV Presenter Also Hosts Conferences

In this blog we’d like to introduce you to our good friend, Gold Medallist and Paralympic TV presenter Giles Long.

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Learn Leadership Lessons Off the Job

To ask a child to perform a piece of music, in front of her peers using an instrument she has never touched before, would rightly be regarded as cruel. Prior to the performance she should not only learn to read music and listen to others playing the same piece, she should also practice playing her instrument in private.

Employees taking part in one of our many team building exercises

Why is it then that we expect our bright young employees to step into management roles having read books and attended courses, yet never having actually practiced leading a team? …