One of America’s great cities, the third largest by population, and with the world’s second busiest airport, largely due to the thriving business community, it’s no surprise that Chicago is host to innovative team building companies to serve those growing businesses as they develop their teams.
With natural beaches, the beautiful great lakes setting, and the Mississippi River watershed as the setting, it is perhaps unsurprising that many take to the outdoors for their team activities… in the summer at least. However, many companies are able to offer year-round experiences to challenge your teams, improve performance, and boost morale.
Giving is part of Chicago’s heritage, and we’re proud to list a number of local charities with annual events, that many businesses are choosing to support. It’s possible for your teams to do good, as well as boost their performance, and charity team building in Chicago is a powerful way to engage in, and give back to, the people of the city.
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[Image Source: Chicago Brew Bus]
[Image Source: Chicago Crime Tours]
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There’s more to corporate team building than just brushing up on key skills or presenting the latest tips and tricks to your sales team. Done right it can boost staff retention by as much as 79% as teams whose members find friends within the team, and socialize together are shown to be more loyal, productive, and more likely to stay at the company.
With companies becoming more flexible about the types of team building on offer, the days of just popping out for a team meal are rapidly becoming a thing of the past. Teams are engaging in a range of educational, fun, and unique experiences, that they’d be happy to choose for a vacation activity, let alone a corporate event.
112 E. Wacker Drive
Chicago, IL 60601
847.358.1330
Booking Website
With hundreds of opportunities to take pictures (ideal for your corporate blog or intranet), and local tour guides with a wealth of experience in explaining Chicago’s beautiful, and unique, architecture, this is an ideal way to combine a fun day out with a great learning experience. Reviewers describe it as one of the best activities available in Chicago. Relaxed, informal and with plenty of room to mingle and chat as you explore the beauty of Chicago, it’s a great mix of education and entertainment for your team.
Our address is at 54 E. Ontario St
Chicago, IL 60611.
(312) 981-6633
Website
Challenge your team to have the resoursefulness and ingenuity to become a super spy at Escape House Chicago. A great way to blend a lot of fun with challenging teamwork, as your team will have to work together well to solve the mysteries within the alloted one hour time limit. One of the exciting, relatively new trends, to hit team building, these events are so popular with participants that they are often booked for private parties and birthdays as well as corporate events.
All our public tours leave from the South entrance of the Intercontinental Hotel
(505 N Michigan Ave on the Magnificent Mile).
847 902 0733
Website
More than a traditional winery tour, this tour company offers a really unique choice of tours around the Chicago area, each with their own charm. Everything from the Lake Michigan Shore Wine Trail to Urban Craft Beer Trails in Chicago. These events are a great opportunity for team members to share a glass of wine, learn about the industry, and visit more of the city they call home. All in the name of bonding, and a good time.
6955 S. Harlem Ave, Bedford Park
IL 60638
(708) 594-5278
Website
High octane action, with an opportunity to see who is faster than the boss – what more could your team ask for? Unlike many karting facilities that offer basic corporate events, and catering, Chicago Race Factory offers a specialist team building event which combines the race experience with games and interaction, to keep your team occupied and bonding throughout the event.
To suggest a listing e-mail our editors on editor@whyteambuilding.com and we’ll review your business for inclusion. Any amendments, requests for removal, for example if the business has closed will also be processed promptly.
This year saw some great initiatives from around the ‘windy city’ being covered by our news team. When you’re struggling to find inspiration for your own event, some of these innovative ways of supporting the community, at the same time as boosting morale within your own office might be just the help you need.
We’re always looking for stories about great events taking place in Chicago. If your business has done something worth a mention, why not drop a quick e-mail to the editor – editor@whyteambuilding.com. Not only could you be featured in the news here, but you’d be doing your part to iinspire other businesses when they’re looking to do something great for Chicago and their team.
We all know Microsoft is a corporate giant in the software world, founded in 1975 and employing over 90,000 people worldwide. Most recently they held a conference for 100 of their workforce in Chicago, and aside from the normal meetings and presentations that occur in...
The “Windy City” is a perfect location for your company to take their employees out and embark on a day of team-building in order to create a fun and motivating experience for everyone. Recently, pharmaceutical company Abbvie decided to host a charity team building...
There are always great opportunities to grow your team’s morale at the same time as supporting your local community. Here are some of the regular charity events in Boston, MA which you may wish to pop in your calendar and support.
An annual fun run in support of Cubs charities, typically running in April, and in 2017 supporting Advocate Children’s hospital. A great event for the Cubs and running fans on your team to take part in, supporting good causes, and having a fun day out. Early registrants each year get the opportunity to receive a signed baseball from a current Chicago Cubs player (awards may vary year to year so do check the site for more information).
A fantastic two-day event which is held in the spring, and has raised over four million dollars since it’s inception fifteen years ago. With everything from live music to the expected golf, it’s a great day for company teams to participate in, while raising funds for the great causes supported each year which improve the lives of people across the country.
To suggest a listing e-mail our editors on editor@whyteambuilding.com and we’ll review your business for inclusion. Any amendments, requests for removal, for example if the business has closed will also be processed promptly.
One of the most important things to bear in mind when planning your next team or corporate event is the inclusiveness of the chosen activity. It’s not just the obvious preferences you need to take into account, but members of your team may have different capabilities when it comes to team activities, which have not been relevant to their work, and therefore may not even be known to your human resources department or management team. The whole point of the event, after all, is to foster inclusiveness and bonding, so making sure everyone can take part is essential.
Aside from the obvious seasonal considerations – I’m sure none of you want to send your team out to freeze in blinding rain in the middle of winter, after all – you’ll want to consider the objectives of the event when deciding whether something indoors or outdoors will suit your team better.
While it’s never a good idea to use sweeping generalizations when planning your event, you will notice that younger teams tend to be more open to ‘trying crazy new things’ so hitting the great outdoors may be more appealing to some mixes of personnel than others. The best way to proceed is usually to analyze this through surveys and other information which will help you plan the most appropriate event for your goals. There’s little point planning a little reward for the team if 30% of the team found it horrific, ok maybe not horrific but unpleastant at least.
The purpose of your event can be blurred in many cases, because people do enjoy being challenged, learning and exploring, as well as feeling they have achieved something of value. This kind of blurred purpose definitely occurs most with charity-based team building events as they give the greatest opportunity for a genuine sense of satisfaction to arise, even though the company objectives of bonding and perhaps even monitoring performance to identify future rising stars, have been met.
However that kind of balance can also be struck in almost any team event you plan. Especially possible now because of the range of innovative events which are on offer from providers, many of which, such as the escape room events, are so popular with partygoers they could almost be seen as mainstream, rather than a purely corporate event.
Some of your events will be purely bonding in nature, perhaps because they are intended as a reward to the team, or because simply bonding a new team, or disparate departments that rarely work together is an essential step to boosting your corporate performance. In this case it’s important to ensure you leave the notebook and structure at home, and instead put the work into ensuring the event delivers the maximum exposure between staff who don’t mingle generally in a relaxed, fun environment.
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