With its focus on outdoor adventure and cultural enrichment, Oahu and Kauai are both rife with team-building opportunities for events.
Island Partners Hawaii (www.islandpartnershawaii.com), a local DMC, aims to incorporate cultural aspects into its team-building eventss.
"We like to share the culture to give groups a sense of place," says Kimo Jenkins, director of product development and implementation for the company as well as a cultural guide. "Most popular are outrigger canoe regattas. Other team-building events include a driving safari with four people in a Jeep or convertible. That is very popular on Kauai, going from Poipu to Princeville or to Waimea Canyon."
On the Jeep safaris, participants are instructed to take pictures and ask locals questions about Hawaii, encouraging them to get out and meet the island residents.
The company also offers an Amazing Race event, with a variety of team challenges, such as an outrigger canoe race, stringing together a flower lei and learning hula. Though the company offers other basic options like beach olympics, it also emphasizes the deeper meaning behind some of the popular local traditions.
"The theory behind it is people get educated and learn about our culture correctly while having a good time," Jenkins says. "It's very simple to sew a lei, but the how is not as important as the why. We work with kupuna, Hawaiian elders, who explain to the group the purpose of creating a lei, wearing a lei and sharing a lei. The kupuna talk about the flowers singing, whispering—certain flowers talking to you."
Similarly, the DMC organizes ipu gourd activities with the elders. The process entails taking a dirty gourd—washing, cleaning and transforming it from its natural state into a bowl, musical instrument or water container. Elders teach groups about the gourds as well.
"We have the gourds lying on the ground when they first arrive," Jenkins explains. "They usually want to grab one, but they are not allowed to. They have to sit and listen first before they do. Once they pick an ipu, or an ipu is calling to them, the first thing they have to do is name it, taking possession of it. Sometimes people who have lost a grandparent or dear friend name it after them. Then there is a special connection—an almost spiritual level really hits."
Island Partners also fuses team building with CSR. An example is lei making, in which participants sew leis and take them to a local hospital, handing them out to hospital workers and patients.
CSR is popular with MC&A (www.mcahawaii.com), another local DMC.
"These days it seems that the vast majority of the team-building events are actually community service projects," says Michael Dolan, vice president of sales for MC&A Inc., A Global Events Partner. "I would estimate that close to 50 percent of our clients would prefer to allocate the time and monies allotted for a group activity toward a project that helps the community they are visiting. There is a tremendous amount of satisfaction for individual attendees in knowing that they were able to visit one of our beautiful Hawaiian islands and leave it in a condition better than when they arrived. Schools, community centers and social service facilities always have needs that their normal upkeep budgets don't cover."
The company also offers team building events with a local flavor, such as a build your own surfboard challenge, sand castle-building contests and island cocktail-making competitions.
