The focus of team building can either be educational and strategic or purely entertaining. The NoCo Easter Keg Hunt organized by Loveland-based Big Deal Company is all about having a good time, dreaming up color-coordinated costumes, solving clues, and quaffing Colorado brews. A Pinterest board is available for costume inspiration.
This wild and crazy scavenger hunt keeps the fun in team building and takes place annually in northern Colorado (NoCo), specifically in downtown Loveland and Old Town Fort Collins. The sellout event can best be described as the creative combination of a road rally and a bar crawl. This year, the Loveland edition happened on April 1, while the Fort Collins version took place a week later on April 8.
The event kicks off at a local watering hole, where teams of up to nine people gather to receive the rules and a bag filled with tools for the scavenger hunt. Teams are encouraged to bring a highlighter, pen, calculator, tape measure, money, smartphones, reasoning skills, and comfortable shoes for the walking expedition.
Once event organizers give the signal, all teams open their first Easter egg and read the first clue. The hints lead teams to participating businesses around town, where they find additional eggs and solve the mysteries over a period of two to four hours. Based on the event’s name, bars and restaurants are naturally along the route, and drinking of alcohol is allowed. Those taking part must sign a code of conduct to keep the fun in team building.
The cost is $40 per person, with beverages and goodies served along the way. In addition, the winning team receives a large keg trophy, and all are invited to stick around at the end for sharing Keg Hunt stories while indulging in food and drink.
Teams are made up of friends, family, and business colleagues. “The whole point is feeling like a kid. We create clues from scratch and plant them around town. They are completely personalized for each team,” shares Christine Forster, president of Big Deal Company.
Although the Easter Keg Hunt is meant to keep the fun in team building and is a for-profit endeavor, an area nonprofit always benefits from Big Deal Company’s signature events. The company is focused on meeting and event planning and marketing. “All we do has community at the core.”
