Putting together the schedule for a corporate event can often involve making tricky trade-offs when time is tight. Activity programmes that can simultaneously tick some boxes, such as those designed and run by Seoul-based immersive experience company Rokstar, are therefore increasingly gaining prominence and popularity on the city’s event radar.
“We’ve created this as a solution to the quintessential problem that corporate groups seem to have here. When they need to do something fun and on-brand they always try to shoehorn in a cultural experience as well as a teambuilding experience,” says Alex Paik, cofounder of Rokstar.
“There is no way they can do that in the one free afternoon they often have, so we focused on how to hit all those points in one. That was our main goal. People can get their cultural teambuilding component in one short, snappy programme.”
Putting those points into programme resulted in Rokstar developing a range of action-packed games, from their original themed Escape Room puzzles to creating team relay workshops, a Running Man-style indoor competition and the hugely popular Urban Quest teambuilding urban challenge. The Urban Quest programme is fully fused with the fabric of the city’s cultural picks, designed to engage all sizes and mixes of groups and getting actors and locals involved too.
“I knew straight away that Urban Quest was going to be a great teambuilding event and there was also nothing like it in Korea,” says Alex Paik. “We start in a big room where I get everyone fired up, and they get their mission. We give organisers the option to set their teams. Otherwise, we mix up the countries, the ages and the genders, so there is a right balance, which is usually what they want, that’s the whole point.
“The games are designed to take you throughout traditional markets and local alleyways. You get to meet authentic Koreans who don’t speak much English, and you have to interact with them,” says Steve Kim, cofounder. “We add a little bit of culture to everything they do. We’ll always have a mix of traditional sites along with modern cityscapes. The game offers a glimpse of the real Seoul, which is something that people might not otherwise get.
“When we designed the programme, we mostly focused on creating an immersive experience, creating actors and making it interesting with the story,” says Alex Paik. “After they finish, we do a debriefing session and then cap off with an awards ceremony, sharing some of the photos and giving out some fun awards.”
Galvanising groups through tasks such as a photo challenge along the way wearing custom-branded t-shirts or taking a group karaoke video, the programme can also build in specific corporate core values on request. With an initial hour of briefing and socialising, an hour of the game in the city and a further hour of debrief and awards, the teambuilding culture programme ticks all of the boxes and can be arranged with as little as two weeks notice. And with clients such as Delta Airlines, Prudential and Swiss Re, Rokstar is already building a solid client base.
“We’ve been doing these games over the past couple of years, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive,” says Steve Kim.
