3 Fun Team Building Ideas in Detroit

One way to rev up corporate team meetings in Detroit is to play upon its legendary status as the icon of the auto industry. While industries in healthcare, defense, aerospace, IT and logistics have a strong presence in the city, many meetings in Detroit still focus on a theme that draws a parallel to the famed Motor City that changed the world.

Photo: Courtesy VENTURE UP Team Building, Detroit

As for meeting planners in Detroit? Hmmm, is it me, or do they have motors on the mind? Below are just some of the meeting themes at recent events here.

Detroit Conference Themes

• Accelerating Growth
• All Drive – High Octane
• The Driving Force
• Driving to Excellence 2016
• Fueling Power
• Performance Driven

But not all team building programs align with a Motor City theme. In fact, Magna Power recently convened with Venture Up Team Building in Detroit 
to reinforce its corporate social responsibility efforts. During the 4-hour program, team members assembled 3D printed hands to send to kids overseas who were born with symbrachydactyly, a condition in which hands are not fully formed. For more information, please see the video below:

Whatever the case, Venture Up, who has worked with meeting planners in Motor City since 1983, agrees that the “auto theme” for Detroit corporate meetings is here to stay. “Anyone meeting in Detroit has an affinity for wheels,” says David Lengyel, the company's co-founder.

"Nearly all of our programs here involve vehicles in motion, including our social responsibility events," he says. Curiously, none of them involve motors. Here are some programs popular with meeting attendees:

Human Propelled Cars

Life-size human-propelled cars are a big hit with meetings in Detroit. Why use metal when cardboard will do? This program involves a team of 12 or less devoted to create a race car using such basic materials as cardboard boxes, pvc pipe, ropes, tape, minimal hardware, flashy decorations and a set of wheels. Teams are challenged to design an efficient man-powered racing machine to safely race across the finish line in record time. 

Mini Car 500

If you’re thinking about the Indianapolis 500, it’s the furthest cry from the Mini Car 500 in Detroit. This race requires teams to build a car from a 4-ounce piece of pine wood to create a lean, mean, speed-racing machine. Teams receive all they could possibly need, includng a block of pine wood, plastic wheels, nails to create axles, decals and decor. Powered only by gravity, the miniature cars race on a 40-foot flexible track, proving engines don’t matter in this Motor City mini race.

Perhaps a more sophisticated method of mini car racing in Detroit may soon be coming down the tube. Slot cars made from 3-D Printing recently raced in Detroit, an event sponsored in part by Materialise, 3-D software company.

Building Bikes for Charity

Another motor-free team event involves corporate teams building bikes for Detroit’s children in need. Corporate teams meet for a series of strategic games and then team up in separate groups of about 10 to build a bike for a local young achiever, often a member of the area’s Boys & Girls Club. In many cases, the children receive the bikes in person at the meeting. Executives can see in a matter of minutes that they can change the life of a child with a thoughtful gift they will enjoy for years to come.

Many execs find bike building personally enriching, as well as a powerful team experience. Corporate social responsibility not only enriches team relationships, it strengthens corporate culture and the firm’s connection to the community.

Many corporations in Detroit and throughout Michigan are involved with the Grantsmanship Center in organized corporate giving programs serving local communities and families in need.