New Orleans MBA Teams Help Build Local Businesses

Loyola University paves the way for MBA students to team up with major companies to support local startups. This is just one of the ways business teams are building relationships in New Orleans and fulfilling corporate social responsibility (CSR) goals.

Google, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, TPG Capital, IBERIABANK, and Jones Walker are among the heavy-hitters providing expert advice to facilitate small business success. “When top tier companies help new companies get ahead, and involve business students in the process, CSR is reinforced on many levels,” says David Lengyel of Venture Up, who has been running corporate team training programs in New Orleans for more than three decades.

Teamwork is the name of the game for IDEAcorps, a partnership program with Loyola and The Idea Village that initiated the event. These business innovators match MBA student teams from across the nation with local startups for an intensive 4-day consulting competition during New Orleans Entrepreneur Week (NOEW). The program also involves leaders at the big firms.

Business experts, corporate executives, investors and nonprofit professionals work with NOEW leaders to give students an experiential learning program in business consulting. Students can see how their efforts can provide real-life results impacting new business growth in New Orleans.

The program welcomes local participation, with these requirements:

-- A team of six, including a passionate leader and five entrepreneurial friends or associates. Diversity, as in all teams, is an asset.

-- A shared passion and competitive spirit to assist new businesses and help them grow.

-- A commitment to deadlines, as in the program dates of March 10-13, 2016.

-- A faculty advisor from their locale, whose presence is recommended but not required.

The learning  begins when team members act as the startup’s founding team  to see how far they can strategically develop the company in four days. Teams compete for a cash price and the seasoned pros judge their work. The judges consider such factors as each team’s ability to provide solutions and produce results in a limited amount of time, similar to the model for Venture Up’s corporate team building programs in New Orleans and across the nation.

How a little survey made a big difference for a Raleigh team building event

When a healthcare facility in North Carolina hired Venture Up to facilitate a training program on conflict management, four managers had three months to plan the 2-day event. The managers met weekly before convening in Raleigh for the team building part of the program. But it wasn’t until the final days before the event that the managers gained focus on the core issues their teams face.

During a conference call a week before the training, managers gave input from three points of view -- their own. “When I asked what the core issues were, the leaders couldn’t agree,” said David Lengyel, of Venture Up, who led the program. “The only information they could provide was from their leadership perspective, not from within the team.

Venture Up provided a pre-program survey tailored to health care providers and designed to elicit honest feedback, free of consequences. Company leaders are always free to edit the survey, but Venture Up recommends that the survey be “anonymous, with plenty of space for written comments.” Venture Up also suggests an old fashioned method: Allow staff the option to submit their survey to a locked suggestion box vs. online. They need to provide input without fear of consequence, and some people are simply more comfortable with old-style methods of communication with sensitive information.

To the leaders’ surprise, nearly half of the respondents used the old-fashioned box. The hand-submitted surveys also had more extensive written comments, whereas the electronic submissions had fewer.

How often do any of us take a survey with cookie-cutter questions that appear irrelevant to what we, the survey-taker, want to convey? How many surveys even provide a “written comments” section? While many big data researchers say that multiple choice is the way to go, they generally are referring to the masses. We were dealing with 100 staff and the comments provided cut right to the needs of the team. On this small scale, comments are manageable and provide insights only the inner team can share.

The managers tallied the answers, typed up the written comments, and provided Venture Up with the results. “When we have such valuable feedback, we are able to optimize the learning experience,” says Lengyel. “It is important that our facilitators use the same language as did the respondents in the survey when covering the respective topic.” When the outsourced provider is involved in handling the survey results, it unifies the program elements and the team.

When managers care about the staff’s feedback, the staff notices. They became more engaged with each other as Venture Up facilitators guided them through each team building activity. The method of involving employee feedback in the program itself sends a clear message that management values and supports the team. Hence, the team feels empowered, and views managers less as authority figures and more a part of their team,” Lengyel says. It’s a good way to allay the “us and them” divide, he says.

This prepared approach also shows staff that the outsourced leaders for the team building session are in tune with them, and ready for staff development, not just to entertain or play games.

The managers originally planned to hold the entire training program inside, but Venture Up talked them into offering an outdoor option. Raleigh weather is often favorable, as it was on the day for team building activities. Grassy grounds and shady trees provide a farm more relaxing environment for teams than being in a closed box under fluorescent lights in the every day workplace.

When planning any event, many of us come up with the best ideas as we near the deadline. (Oh, the magic of the eleventh hour!) Sometimes when we have so much time to plan we find ourselves going in circles and losing focus.

The ideal team building event involves feedback either directly from the team or the team leader. The outside provider can henceforth incorporate this valuable knowledge into a program that tells the team what their leaders are saying: “We understand you. We need your input. We take you seriously. We need every one of you for our total success.”

Corporate Meetings, Team Events, Trade Shows are Building a Better Miami

Visitors from across the globe are taking in the sun and sea, and getting down to business, whether visiting Miami for trade shows, corporate training programs or just stepping off a cruise ship at Port Miami for a shopping expedition.

The Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau reports a 5.4 percent increase in corporate and leisure travel over the last 12 months. The 15.1 million visitors brought $25.1 billion to the Miami economy and give plenty of reason for local hospitality groups to develop resources to serve a growing need.

Miami is a natural breeding ground for homegrown conferences too.

Hispanicize, a Miami-based annual event for Hispanic trendsetters in music and film, is a leader in the local movement to attract international attention to the region. The Miami Herald credits Hispanicize with bringing corporate sponsors to Miami, including speakers from Facebook, the White House, Google, and Toyota, according to a recent article in the Miami Herald, titled: “In Miami, homegrown conferences are heating up.” 

 

Venture Up of Miami agrees that the city is heating up. Since 1983, the firm has provided corporate team development programs throughout Florida. “Recent years have shown an upshot for team building venues in Miami,” says Mike Donnelly, Venture Up Program Director, who also leads training programs at local corporations.

Many of the Venture Up’s training eventss take place indoors at resorts and at corporate headquarters in Miami, especially in summer when humidity is high, Donnelly says. “In the past, Orlando was a top spot for our team building events,” he says. “Now Miami is the hot spot.”

In terms of serving the trade show and convention industry, a $615 million renovation project is underway at the Miami Beach Convention Center. An 800-room headquarters-hotel is slated to open in March 2019.

“We are breaking record upon record across industry indicators and are only beginning to realize the full potential and incremental economic impact,” says GMCVB President & CEO William Talbert, III in a recent article published by the South Florida Business Journal.

Miami International Airport expects a record 43 million passengers by 2016, according to the article by staff writer Emon Reiser. Port Miami expects to surpass its 4.8 million multiday cruise passenger record, reinforcing its name as of the “Cruise Capital of the World.”

There’s much good news for locals too. The influx has created 4.6 percent more jobs in Miami-Dade than last year, bringing the total to more than 134,300 positions in leisure and hospitality. Miami tourism has hit a wave of growth, and the local economy keeps smiling.

Southwest Airlines Corporate Team is Building Revenue with Houston & Las Vegas Hubs

The Southwest Airlines corporate team in Dallas reports $.5 billion in 3Q profits, showing the mighty airline isn’t slowing down anytime soon. Southwest is king of the airport in the City of Lights. The city’s busiest commercial carrier brings record numbers of pleasure-seeking leisure travelers and executive teams to Las Vegas for team building, meetings, corporate training, trade shows and fun. 

 

While Las Vegas is going strong, “This is the year of Houston,” says Gary Kelly, Southwest CEO in a recent article in Fortune magazine.

Southwest’s new international building at Houston’s Hobby airport opened in October, with daily service to Mexico, Belize and Costa Rica. Plans for the $146 million, five-gate terminal call for adding news destinations in 2016, including Cuba, although Kelly would not specify.

VIDEO: Venture Up -- Las Vegas Team Building

Leisure travelers may account for the bulk of Southwest’s international business via Houston, but the future is bright for Texas-bound corporate travel and global executives coming to Houston for corporate training and events.

Houston was the likely site to establish an international gateway. An original hub for Southwest during its humble beginnings, Houston now serves Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico City, Cancun, Belize City, Montego Bay, Nassau, San Juan, Punta Cana; and Liberia and San Jose, Costa Rica.

While Southwest is saving on fuel, it’s also offering customers lower fares. Jet fuel prices decreased $300 million for the third quarter, saving Southwest $1.3 billion on fuel alone this year, according to a recent article in the Las Vegas Business Journal. Southwest shares more of the love with customers as it plans to build new larger and lighter-weight seats for passenger comfort and fuel economy.

Atlanta Team Managers Focus On Building Employee Engagement

Recently, a middle-sized company in Atlanta hired Venture Up for a corporate training program for 125 managers seeking to foster employee engagement. The good news is that the managers were a diverse group, knew each other well, and got along, so the team building portion of the training was easy.

The tough part was how the managers differed in style and approach when we discussed how to engage the employees they lead, who were not present at the event. Some mentioned weekly pizza parties, another suggested getting them involved with the company’s social media, others suggested a team building event. 

 

These are fine ideas, although not specific. What information do they have about how their employees think and feel? What do they really know about each individual on the team? What are their core needs? They knew what we were getting at. They needed to come up with a survey – the kind people are actually willing to take.

Discussing their differences and the pros and cons of certain approaches, the managers agreed with a series of questions to be considered for a survey to give the employees. It may sound obvious, but it is critically important that managers understand that how an employee acts does not show what he or she is feeling inside.

That is why, to this day, Venture Up encourages the use of the old-fashioned suggestion box, where hard copy anonymous surveys or comments about life at work can be submitted without the fear of being tracked. While this method may not be favored by larger techie firms who avoid pens, mid-range and small businesses can benefit from this personalized method for feedback.

We also prodded the managers so they would include an area for comments. One of the main reasons people fail to fill our surveys or do so half-heartedly is because they feel like a number; that their opinion doesn’t matter. By eliciting written comments management shows employees that the individual message matters and will be taken into consideration.

The managers came up with the following list, which may help other managers design their own surveys to stimulate employee engagement.

1. Are you enthusiastic about your job?
2. Are your manager’s instructions clear?
3. Is your work interesting?
4. What motivates you?
5. Do you feel you are productive?
6. What could management do to make you work more productively?
7. Are you given due credit for your work?
8. Do you prefer working solo?
9. Would you rather work as a team?
10. Do you feel your role supports the department and the company’s mission? Please explain why or why not.
11. Do you feel you are recognized and rewarded for your work?
12. Do you feel you can meet your career goals with the company?
13. Do you believe the company has a strong corporate culture?
14. What would you do to improve the corporate culture?
15. Do you believe your team needs more training? 

16. Would you support a mentoring program if initiated in the company?

17. Would you support cross-training or job sharing?

18. Would you recommend this company as a good place to work?

Reading surveys, especially the written comments, can be an eye-opener. The next step is to type up the individual comments, with management’s response.

Comments give the core message vs. a simple yes or no answer. That is where the passion and emotion lie that can motivate employee engagement in the long run.

Once the process is complete, the team managers can design a meeting involving all who took the survey and discuss the results. Managers must also have an action plan, which, if successful, will foster employee engagement.

San Diego Brings Corporate Execs Outside for Team Events

Whether gathering at poolside, meeting new staff at cocktail hour, or engaged in training sessions, meeting attendees often look forward to breaking free for outdoor team building activities in San Diego. Many meeting planners consider interactive team building events the highlight of their conference, and sunny destinations help make it a success.

Oh, the sun! Humans are naturally drawn to the sun and sea and research has long shown the influence of weather on human behavior. So it’s no surprise that corporations seeking to build team relationship choose meetings in mild climates, such as San Diego, Phoenix, or Miami for team building activities and events.

VIDEO: San Diego Team Building

Or maybe they just want to golf. Either way, good weather brightens moods and cultivates receptivity better than a tornado in Waco or a snowstorm in Duluth.

Language can be clumsy when it comes to defining the reality of life. The Oxford Dictionary is no different when defining team building as:

 “The action or process of causing a group of people to work together effectively as a team, especially by means of activities and events designed to increase motivation and promote cooperation.”

That’s a mouthful, and the definition is open to anyone’s interpretation. Without getting the lawyers involved, let’s say team building simply means building relationships.

Since 1983, Venture Up has been providing indoor and outdoor team activities in San Diego, from the harbor, to the grassy parks at Mission Bay, to the shores of Del Mar. World class hotels are standard fare in San Diego, and the convention center and visitors bureau is second to none.

Team relationships often evolve serendipitously long before teams arrive in San Diego. At the mere mention of San Diego as the next conference destination, teams engage early on with colleagues at their location and remote offices. Team synergy naturally develops for the big event ahead.

Arriving in San Diego visitors easily mesh with the casual beach town vibe. Corporate meetings are easier when minds are nourished and receptive to new ideas and creating solutions.

Venture Up plays its part by injecting the fun into corporate training sessions, or creating events to drive home meeting objectives. The activities are non-threatening and involve everyone’s brainpower, whether or not staff are able or willing to participate physically.

While Venture Up facilitators often cite research and anecdotes from Harvard Business Review, MIT and Stanford, we emphasize the value of spontaneous creativity in teamwork and problem solving.

Venture Up clients staying in the eclectic Gaslamp Quarter of San Diego often choose Strategic Games or the Amazing Race team building experience. Several versions of the race are available, taking in the historic seafaring history of the region, and including company-specific elements. Other teams take to grassy Mission Bay grounds, with affordable conference hotels nearby, while others indulge in luxury golf resorts in North County. 

The list below gives a quick look at some of the popular hotels and resorts catering to conferences involved in corporate training and team building events:

NORTH San Diego Team Building Sites

Fairmont Grand Del Mar

Meetings

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Nestled in Los Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve, the Fairmont Grand del Mar offers a taste of Tuscan luxury on the north San Diego coast. A palatial marble lobby welcomes guests to this grand estate hotel, 20 miles north of the airport. The world class enclave is known for its spacious rooms, a sprawling 21,000 square-foot health spa, four swimming pools, and the Tom Fazio-designed golf course. Even the locals gather here to relax and take in fine dining by the sea.

The Lodge at Torrey Pines

Meetings

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The lofty Lodge at Torrey Pines offers jaw-dropping views of the Cliffside coast and lush park surroundings. A woodsy, rustic ambiance sets it apart from other Tuscan inspired resorts that share world class status in San Diego. Spacious rooms with hard wood furnishings and luxury amenities indulge guests. Many rooms have sweeping views of the beach or Torrey Pines Golf Course. Crackling fireplaces bring warmth to the resort’s common areas. Fitness amenities include an outdoor pool and hot tub as well as full service fitness center, with all it takes for a homey beach getaway -- a library, pool table, big screen television, and old-fashioned board games.

L'Auberge Del Mar

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L'Auberge Del Mar is the centerpiece of this north shore village, offering a world of luxury steps from the beach, on the historic grounds where old-time celebrities found solace. Lucy and Desi Arnez, Bing Crosby, and Clark Gable graced the 5.2-acre grounds of the original hotel, which was later torn down and replaced with a 120-room beach landmark. L’Auberge recently underwent a $26 million renovation and offers guests luxury and comfort in Hollywood Regency style. Conference planners favor this hotel for impeccable service and intimate meeting space.

La Valencia Hotel

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Looming above La Jolla Cove over the vast Pacific, La Valencia Hotel is the “Pink Lady of La Jolla”, named for its rose-colored stucco exterior. The Mediterranean-style hotel has 112 guest rooms, each decorated in its own style.  All rooms have high tech amenities for

The Grande Colonial Hotel, La Jolla

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The Grande Colonial was built in 1913 and its historic charm brings guests back year after year. The oldest hotel in La Jolla, the Grande is a luxury property with down bedding, an outdoor pool, and the on-site restaurant with award-winning farm-to-table cuisine.

GASLAMP District Team Building Sites

Hotel Solamar, A Kimpton Hotel

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Hotel Solamar in San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter attracts business travelers with its style and location, just three blocks from the convention center and a block from Petco Park. Guest rooms at Hotel Solamar include dark mahogany furnishings, plush bedding, Gilchrist & Soames bath products.  All are fully-equipped for tech business and entertainment needs. Pet guests have their own luxury bedding.  A sun deck and pool offer a welcome break from meetings, and the best beaches are a short drive away.

The US GRANT

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A $500 million renovation restored the US Grant to its Old World splendor. The son of General Ulysses S. Grant opened the hotel in 1910 when it catered to socialites. Today it bridges Old World charm with modern necessities, including high tech needs for business and entertainment, a fitness center and California cuisine. Some of the city’s main attractions are nearby, but the beach requires a 15 minute drive. The hotel’s elegance and seclusion make it a good choice for corporate leaders planning training meetings and getting down to business before breaking out for a day in the sun.

Hard Rock Hotel San Diego

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The Hard Rock Hotel is king of the Gaslamp Quarter, overlooking the dazzling San Diego Bay, and across the street from PetCo Park. It’s easy to feel uncool around the hip rock ‘n’ roll set, but staff is welcoming to everyone, even if you’re over age 30, which most guests are. Rooms have excellent stereo systems (Quelle surprise!), with great sound in the bathroom so there’s no need to sing in the shower. The halo-illumination beds are befitting a rock star. The hotel is dark, with a sprawling bottom floor that is more like a rock ‘n’ roll museum. Visitors who take a day in the sun, return for their brand of relaxation – a night in the club where locals and visitors mix beyond the midnight hour.

Orlando & Las Vegas CVB Teams Rival for Corporate Meetings

Orlando and Las Vegas have long been rivals for attracting corporate business meetings. The cities hold the top two slots in North America for having the most hotel rooms. Orlando has 145,000 rooms compared to 150,000 in Vegas. 

VIDEO -- Las Vegas Team Building

Both cities have mild weather on their side, a big selling point. But if meeting planners are seeking a large outdoor team building programs, Orlando wins over the Vegas Strip. Orlando is more spread out, with open space, and theme parks relatively free of congestion.

Venture Up has been running programs in Orlando and Las Vegas for three decades. Most of our Vegas clients stay at hotels on the Strip and we host their corporate team events in ballrooms. Corporate meetings in Vegas are not all about fun and games.

These days, most of our team events involve social responsibility, for example a bike-building event to benefit the Boys & Girls Club, or large check donations for a social service organization.

Other corporate groups spend grueling days in training sessions, leaving the nights free for the casino and shows. “When Venture Up arrives on site to break up a daytime classroom meetings, the executives couldn’t be happier,” says Mike Donnelly, a Venture Up team leader for more than 25 years.

When it comes to outdoor team building in Las Vegas, the Amazing Race gets high marks. Its fast, fun, competitive and chaotic, usually held on the flashiest street in America, the Strip. Other outdoor events take place at sprawling resorts beyond the Neon city.

Orlando is no slouch when it comes to fun events. It tops the scales with its theme parks, and a big one is coming soon. Disney just announced a project to build a Star Wars Theme Park in Orlando and Anaheim. Each will span a 14-acre spread and have two signature attractions. Visitors can take to the controls of the Millennium Falcon on a custom secret mission. The Star Warsadventure ride will propel guests in the center of a galactic battle.

“We are creating a jaw-dropping new world,” said Disney CEO Bob Iger in a recent USA Today article. “We’re bringing Star Wars to life in a big way … These new lands … will transport guests to a whole new Star Wars planet.” No time frame was given for the completion of the parks.