What fun summer event in Chicago can we have with all this money?

March 25, 2008 12:19 PM

A group of us at our company have volunteered to organize our summer event. Our office is in Chicago, and in the past we have done several things such as going to a cooking class together, sporting events, bars, bowling, cruise, etc. So now we want to do something even more fun and outrageous if possible! Any good ideas for a corporate event in Chicago?

Here are some more details:
- The group is about 60 people
- We have about 6K at our disposal
- It is a summer event
- Youngish, professional group
- Need to stay in the downtown area
- Out of this world ideas are acceptable
- Volunteering is an option

All suggestions welcome!

posted by sargento29 to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (9 answers total)

Attend a Chicago Sky (WNBA) team and you are likely to get your group's name up in lights!
posted by Carol Anne at 12:21 PM on March 25, 2008

Whirlyball is awesome. I did it in Detroit, so I assume ten times better in Chicago.

Bumper Cars + Beer + Lacrosse = Awesome.

It's pretty cheap ($180 per hour) so you could go nuts on open bar and food.
posted by sandmanwv at 1:47 PM on March 25, 2008

Rent a couple buses and take the group to Devon Avenue. Rent out a restaurant for Indian buffet. You could evem set up a large screen to show a Bollywood movie during the meal. Then leave a little time for shopping before departing. Then give each person a bag of Indian snacks to take home.
posted by kdern at 1:47 PM on March 25, 2008

City-wide scavenger hunt, ending up at a party or dinner somewhere?
posted by kdern at 1:48 PM on March 25, 2008

Our company outing last summer was an architectural boat tour down the Chicago River. I think everyone generally enjoyed it (20-30s age graphic designers), afterwards was dinner and drinks at the beer garden at navy pier, which wasn't super awesome, wasn't terrible though.

I'd recommend the first part, not the second.
posted by Sreiny at 2:30 PM on March 25, 2008

I second the scavenger hunt. My downtown Chicago office did this a few years ago, and it was tons (TONS) of fun, and most of the people were, well, older AND we did it in February and still had fun. One of the clues ended up with my team getting our picture taken standing in the (empty) Buckingham Fountain.

Our office was only maybe 30 people, but you do the thing in teams, so it should still be doable with 60. We ended at a bar and drank to celebrate. There are companies that arrange these things, and I wish I could remember the name of the one for us, but it was five years ago and I don't work at that office anymore. If you want me to try to find it, MeMail me and I'll ask around. Should be able to do a Google search, though.
posted by bibbit at 3:09 PM on March 25, 2008

http://www.scaventures.com/hunts_and_locations/cities/chicago.html

I have no connection with, nor have I ever used them...just remembered seeing an ad in a party planning mag :)

(I wanna come play too!!!)
posted by legotech at 6:54 PM on March 25, 2008

Seconding Whirlyball. I actually organized a corporate party at the Fullerton location in Chicago and it went over incredibly well... There were about 30 of us and we did a package with a meeting room, continental breakfast, and then for lunch/fun: food, open bar, and a couple hours of Whirlyball plus 1 hour of Laser Tag and the cost was pretty reasonable... I believe our budget was around $3k... so it's proportional to what you're looking at, but we actually had a half-day meeting before the party and paid for that time/food...

Our group was made up of a good number of youngsh professionals, but lots of 40's and 50's too... The day was met with unanimous approval...
posted by twiggy at 12:07 AM on March 26, 2008

Response by poster: Wow - Great ideas!! Thanks for all your responses! I had not heard of Whirlyball, but it sounds like fun.
posted by sargento29 at 10:11 AM on March 26, 2008