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By Michal Jeziorski
Motivation is one of the key elements of modern management. Milestone events, team-building programs and training courses have become an inseparable element of corporate culture these days. All this contributes to increased efficiency and employee loyalty.
Building an efficient and satisfied team is as important as building a company brand. Employees are the most important asset of the company, so they are worth investing in. Even the best of the best need incentives for action. This is the essence of motivation. Huge amounts of money are earmarked for incentive travel, which is supposed to motivate employees, because business managers understand that this an effective way of influencing their staff-often better than other components of the company's reward system. Companies also have another problem-they find it more and more difficult to keep their best and most efficient employees. Employers increasingly prefer incentive travel to other methods of rewarding employees. Under the Polish conditions, the financial factor also plays a major role. Incentive travel is often combined with training, which makes it possible to classify these programs among revenue-generating costs.
Over the past few years, incentive travel has become a fashionable trend in Poland. Such events are strictly linked with conferences, conventions and training courses, but sometimes they are an independent form of business tourism. If something big and exceptional happens in the life of the company, an efficient method is needed to make sure the world learns about it. Congresses, trade fairs and scientific sessions but also cocktail parties and galas are the best methods. Actually, there is an infinite number of opportunities: Carnival, Christmas, Halloween, St. Andrew's Eve, anniversaries, picnics, Midsummer Eve-each can be observed in a unique way. Thanks to them, the company can maintain contact with clients and reward its employees. To make sure that all that is done efficiently, it is worth hiring a specialist.
A training program under the guise of fun, sports and atypical activities makes it possible to overcome standard patterns used at workplaces on an everyday basis. It is designed to improve communication, strengthen and establish new ties in the team, identify potential leaders, develop work skills under the pressure of time and look for nonstandard solutions. Training course scenarios are often prepared in cooperation with psychologists, which makes it possible to extract true emotions and behaviors from people.
Event organizers offer comfortable hotels, their own equipment and attractions, along with a well-tested team of instructors. They handle the implementation of both the entire program and its individual components. Cooperation with a specialized company saves time thanks to an extensive range of opportunities and cost reductions due to regular cooperation and discounts. All that the client has to do is choose the location and type of event.
Companies from the meets & events sector bend over backwards to satisfy their clients and offer something original. Companies specialized in the organization of company events do not forget the youngest participants. Under the watchful eye of actors, instructors and teachers, children spend time in a world of games, entertainment and adventure. The latest hit are environment-friendly, hypoallergenic face paints. Event companies work with many artists from mimes to fortune tellers, caricaturists and bands. Participation of TV celebrities, presenters, actors and cooks will grace every event.
Good infrastructure
One strong point of Poland's business tourism is infrastructure. Several hundred conference centers await clients. These include both smaller facilities and large convention centers (such as Gromada and Expo XXI), new venues (such as the InterContinental and Hilton) and renovated buildings of varied standard: from sports/integration centers to luxury five-star hotels. Many aquaparks have been built, some of them next to hotels as an attractive recreation opportunity for participants of conferences and incentive events. The country's impressive cultural heritage is an excellent basis for attractive incentive programs in Poland. This is confirmed by the popularity of the Old Town districts of Polish cities such as Cracow, Warsaw, Gdańsk and Wrocław among foreign tourists. Many castles and palaces, including Wawel, Malbork, Rydzyna, Sieniawa and Pieskowa Skała, are adapted to host conferences and business receptions. A true treasure-trove of ideas is folk culture with the typical folklore of various regions in Poland-including Podhale, Silesia and Kurpie. Especially attractive are preserved natural areas that are home to European bison, moose and beaver-which can normally be admired only in reserves and national parks. Traditional Polish cuisine-with venison, wild game, mushrooms, pickles, many varieties of kiełbasa and pierogi-awaits participants of such events. Of course, traditional Polish drinks are also available: beer and mead as well as the world-famous Polish vodka.
Fun and entertainment
Companies organizing incentive travel events in Poland outdo one another inventing new attractions to bring clients. Participants can visit a salt, silver or coal mine, stop by a real blacksmith's shop to make a horseshoe with their own hands or try horseback riding. Also popular is canoeing and boating. The best known routes are those down the Krutynia, Czarna Hańcza and Dunajec rivers, Elbl±ski Canal, or underground-through the Black Trout Drift inside an old silver mine. For enthusiasts of the military, an event at an army exercise site is available with rides in a tank, paintball and real army rations. If someone feels like visiting an abandoned Red Army base, this is possible. Another popular form of a company meeting is a visit to a casino, where everyone can try their hand at roulette, Blackjack or poker. Participants can win interesting prizes in the form of entertainment. To beat the harsh weather, events with exotic names such as the Brazilian Garden, Grecian Craze, Hawaiian Ports or Fiesta in Rio are offered. Straw hats, flower garlands around participants' necks and exotic dancers are a familiar sight. There are so many various proposals that it is not easy to choose between them. Asterix and Obelix, The Flintstones, Godfather, Arsen Lupin, The Attack of the Clones, At the Vizier's, Diogenes' Barrel-these are only a few examples of unique event themes.
Sports trips are popular. This is pure adrenaline, a test of character and testing one's possibilities. These trips make it possible to really unwind-physically. Company employees can go skiing and snowboarding, ride scooters, go horseback riding, ride in britzkas and quads, go cycling and drive all-terrain vehicles or tanks. Other options include rock climbing and spelunking, ballooning, gliding and piloting an airplane or helicopter. For those into extreme sports, paragliding, parachuting and bungee jumping is available. Many companies choose strategic games, orienteering and team-building projects. Team building is divided into two categories: picnics and adventure. In both cases, after a few hours of entertainment, participants get to know one another better, smile more often and spontaneously work together in a larger group.
Picnic team building comprises a number of events such as five-person skiing, balancing acts, tug of war, balloon building and many others-held in a large clearing in the form of a picnic. Adventure team building is based on scripts written on order and is held in forests, swamps, in the air, in the city or on the train. Participants are equipped with a compass, map and torchlight and also have an ORV at their disposal. The budgets of such events are usually quite high, guaranteeing long-lasting impressions. Even though, at first glance, some of the attractions prepared for participants seem to be quite a breakneck experience, major accidents rarely occur during such events. Safety is the basic commodity supplied by professional event organizers.
Event companies increasingly use multimedia. Using an overhead projector, a screen, laptop and appropriate service, a unique film-like climate referring to various periods can be created, depending on the script. Scenes from popular films make it possible to quiz participants about a specific film, actor or clip. Another interesting adventure is a multimedia crossword puzzle taking into account the company's profile and some funny and unusual events linked with its activities.
Programmed events
Picnics are the most universal and efficient form of providing entertainment and fun for a large group of participants. For groups of more than 70 this is also the most reasonable proposal from the point of view of costs. All participants, regardless of their age, sex, education and interest, will find something for themselves at such events. For example, clearings are divided into sports, entertainment and children's sectors. A team of professionals specialized in a given discipline and preparing new original attractions every year is responsible for each sector. An inseparable element of the event is a fireworks or laser show at the end.
A separate group of events are those with their own scripts. In this category, knight's tournaments have become a true Polish trademark. Participants wear historic outfits; at first, all of them are squires, who, after passing a knight's exam, will be dubbed knights. Participants are introduced into the climate of the bygone era through a show in which a professional group of stuntmen fight with swords. An important element of each tournament is an archery competition. The structure of the events is usually arranged in such a way so that guests can be both participants and observers of the largest possible number of events at the same time. Another "event with a script" is the Jeep Tour. Participants have all-terrain vehicles at their disposal, provided with equipment necessary for a several-day expedition to wild areas that are difficult to reach and are chosen specially for the needs of this event. Participants must be self-sufficient; the instructors and guides help them only on the first day; each next day is an adventure and a fight against wild nature and one's own weaknesses. For those who want to experience the pleasure of quad rides, special tracks are arranged that offer a semblance of off-road expeditions. In summer, sailing expeditions are organized. This involves voyages in comfortable yachts through the Mazurian Lakes. Participants are divided into watches under the supervision of experienced sailing instructors. Everyone can experience the climate of sailing rivalry. Such a voyage is a proposal for both landlubbers and seasoned sailors.
The character of the event depends on the client's assumptions and objectives. Often such events feature a training course or a conference, combining the pleasant with the useful. Incentive travel possibilities are virtually unlimited. But regardless of the destination, travel with a specialized company is comfortable with convenient connections, and the hotel provides excellent service.
The reward in the form of incentive travel is wholly used by the awarded person, while in the case of a financial prize, the money received is usually spent on various everyday needs, as a result of which the status of the award actually suffers.
Business tourism in Poland, including conferences and other business meetings, is developing dynamically. For several years, about 30 percent of all foreign guests have come to Poland on business, including participation in conferences and exhibitions. Investors recognize the importance of business travelers: 60 percent of modernization projects in Polish hotels and centers have been conducted to upgrade business services.
www.rival.pl
www.ultimate.pl
www.orienteering.com.pl
www.yes.pl
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