'Office Outings' and 'Team Building' ideas in the Seattle area.

June 4, 2008 7:25 AM

'Office Outings' and 'Team Building' ideas in the Seattle area.

I work with a fun, young company on the Eastside. We are brainstorming for fun, interactive 'team building' events.

THIS DOES NOT entail trust falls, ropes courses, or get-to-know-you games. We're talking about fun, adult, hang-out time.

What we're looking for...
- Something that can be done between the hours of 3PM-10PM (doesn't have to fill up the entire block of time) on Mon-Fri of any week.

Things you should know...
- This is for a group of 10-12 individuals.
- Average age: 28
- All but 3 are either engaged or married.
- My company has a very large (but not unlimited) budget.
- Alcohol is always served at other company events and placed on the company tab.

posted by anonymous to work & money (11 comments total)

We had fun going to whirly ball as a work group. They have beer and pizza. I thought the pizza was only so-so, and would recommend trying to bring in food, but the game itself was a lot of fun.
posted by nomisxid at 8:24 AM on June 4, 2008

Are there any fun, outdoor sporting events in your area? Our office really enjoyed tailgating with beer and a grill before taking in a minor league baseball game. None of us really cared much about the teams or who won, but it was a nice way to hang out in the sunshine with drinks and food for a long afternoon.
posted by vytae at 8:26 AM on June 4, 2008

We recently did a climbing-gym day, but had the gym treat us like a bunch of new climbers rather than as a team-building exercise. It was a blast, and about half of us have since taken up climbing.

Climbing gyms sound like team-building exercises, but it's easy to turn that explicit team-building part off, yet somehow you're still all helping each other out and counting on each other to avoid injury. And it lends itself to going out for pizza and beer afterwards.
posted by mendel at 8:38 AM on June 4, 2008

Come to a Seattle Storm WNBA game!
posted by Carol Anne at 8:39 AM on June 4, 2008

Go Karting.
posted by jeffamaphone at 8:46 AM on June 4, 2008

My husband's at Microsoft in Redmond. They did go-karting and whitewater rafting. They loved both, but the go-karting was especially a hoot because the top three got giant goofy trophies which they display in their offices (he came in second).

What about Jillian's or Gameworks? An Argosy cruise?
posted by GaelFC at 9:28 AM on June 4, 2008

Laser Tag.

Goodness, that's fun with a bunch of adults running around zapping each other. Truly, it's wasted on kids.

I'm not a Seattleite, but I'm sure you can Google up a place near you.
posted by SlyBevel at 9:48 AM on June 4, 2008

+1 on WhirlyBall. Only challenge is that it's in Edmonds, and you'll need to rally over from the Eastside. Tons of fun though, and it levels the playing field for athletic/non-athletic types.

Also would recommend a team bowling event. Tech City Bowl in Redmond is a great choice - they are well set up for groups, and what goes better with beer than bowling?!
posted by noahv at 11:48 AM on June 4, 2008

Not an outing, but a cool addition to a company party sometime--get Jim Barker to come read palms. The guy's amazing.
posted by Sublimity at 1:05 PM on June 4, 2008

-booze cruise (Argosy cruise)
-cooking school http://www.surlatable.com/ or http://www.lisaduparcatering.com/ or http://www.kaspars.com/ or http://www.blueribboncooking.com/ -wine bottling at Silver Lake winery
-tillicum village http://www.tillicumvillage.com/
-indoor rock climbing http://www.verticalworld.com/group.htm or http://www.cascadecrags.com/
-curling http://www.curlingseattle.org/rentals/index.html
posted by crazycanuck at 2:08 PM on June 4, 2008

I'm not from Seattle (or even America) but we've had a few team building events, and by far the most popular was go karting. A quick google shows http://www.k1speed.com/ in Redmond. At ours, we had a BBQ and beer afterwards and then kicked on to a pub, everyone chatting about who got the best lap time, who overtook who when etc.

Thee trophies from both still get pride of place on the lucky recipients desks.
posted by Admira at 6:45 PM on June 4, 2008