Frequently asked questions

The answers below come from the questions our clients ask most often while they’re weighing up an activity. First the information that holds for (almost) every format, then the questions format by format. We run the event from the opening briefing and the division into teams through to the closing debrief, and our trainers are there on the day, normally at least one per team. For the exact cost of any activity the quickest way is always to fill in the quote form: we come back very fast. If you can’t find your question, write to info @ teambuildingincentive.ae.

General information (true for every format)

How much does a team building activity cost?

The cost depends on the activity, the number of participants, the venue and the season, so we’d rather not quote generic figures that risk being misleading. The quickest thing is to click on the quote form: we’re very fast at getting a quotation out, often the same day.

How does payment work?

Settlement can be made by bank transfer or by card, but it always has to be completed within 7 days of the date of the event: payment on the day, on site, isn’t an option. Card payments carry the relevant bank charge.

Are there travel costs if the venue is outside Dubai?

Yes, for every format: the exact detail gets calculated on the actual distance to the venue and stated in the quotation.

Do you organise for individuals too, or only for companies?

We work exclusively with companies, agencies and institutions; we don’t send quotations to private addresses. If you’re writing on behalf of a company or an institution, say so in your request.

Where can I see videos of the activities before choosing?

Every activity has its own video on the page that describes it, and every destination has the video shot there: it’s the quickest way to get a concrete idea before a call. If you’d rather watch everything in one go, there’s also our YouTube channel.

What’s the difference between Team Building and Team Coaching?

Team Building, literally building the team, is the set of activities used to bring a group of people together and improve their ability to work as a team. Through a challenge, an activity or a shared project it makes visible things like communication, collaboration, leadership, trust and the ability to decide together. It can be very short, an hour or an hour and a half, and still carry the stimulus inside it.

Team Coaching, as the word coaching says, is a training. It’s a longer journey, made of steps and appointments, towards a goal the team has set: it invests in the processes and in the final performance, keeping a close eye on the company’s values, vision, mission, climate and communication. For a team to work well that last one has to be fluid, clear and direct.

In short: team building creates an experience that can surface something, team coaching works on what surfaces to turn it into a change that lasts. They can stand alone or become two moments in the same path. And there’s no such thing as a purely playful team building: every format, however light it looks, is an enjoyable way of working on the team.

How long does a team building last?

It depends on what the event is for, and it runs from a few minutes to several days. Fifteen to sixty minutes is a short icebreaker between sessions at a convention. Two to four hours is a training activity inside a convention, to work on how the team functions. One to two days is a corporate event that takes people out of the company’s normal setting to integrate new joiners and work in depth on real problems.

The usual size is a day. When it goes beyond a day we stop calling it a team building and call it a retreat: the rhythm changes, the logistics change and what you can get out of it changes.

Cooking: Pasta Making (our bestseller), Pizza Making and the dinner service

Under the Cooking heading we offer several distinct formats, and some of them get confused with each other. The most requested are Pasta Making and Pizza Making, our bestsellers, and Classic Cooking; on top of that there’s Sushi Making. And there’s the dinner service, which gets added to one or the other. Here’s the difference.

What is Pasta Making and why is it our bestseller?

It’s the activity where the participants make fresh pasta by hand, from the dough to the finished shape, guided by our chefs. It carries the Italian tradition across directly and absorbingly, it’s among the most enjoyable formats there is, and it’s the one that scales furthest: we’ve run cooking events from four people up to three hundred.

What kind of venue does a Pasta Making need for very large groups (200+)?

You need a large space, a warehouse, a big event hall, an industrial space or a loft, with one work table per 8-10 people, access to a kitchen (it doesn’t have to be professional; the basic logistics of water and power for the equipment are enough) and enough room for everyone to sit down and eat together at the end.

And what is Pizza Making?

It’s the activity dedicated specifically to making pizza, with the same team logic but centred on the dough and the topping, baked in the venue’s oven.

How late can a Pizza Making run?

It has to run outside the venue’s meal service. If the activity is organised in a restaurant it has to happen out of meal hours: mornings from 10:00 to 12:30, or afternoons from 15:00 to 19:30. The constraint is on the kitchen and on the oven, which have to go back to the restaurant’s customers.

What is the dinner service?

It’s the dinner itself, added to Pasta Making or Pizza Making: once the activity is over, for a fee, the participants sit down and eat what they made. It isn’t a format in itself: without the cooking activity it’s simply the dinner for the event.

Can the venue and the catering be separated out from the cost of the activity?

Generally no: for Pasta Making, Pizza Making and the mixed formats, the venue and the catering are an integral part of the offer and hard to separate out, because they’re organised together with our partners.

Can it be run in English or in other languages?

Yes. We run events in English as a matter of course, and on request we can organise the activity in other languages.

Lunch and Dinner with Murder (Murder Mystery)

How does a murder lunch or dinner work?

It’s interactive theatre: the participants become the protagonists of a mystery to be solved, while our actors guide the group through the story, interacting between one course and the next. The only difference between the lunch and the dinner is the time of day; the structure of the activity is the same.

What performance formats do you offer?

Two main variants: performances with professional actors playing all the roles, or a host who involves the participants directly and turns them into the characters in the story.

How long does it take and how many people can it involve?

The format adapts well to large groups (50 people and more) and the lunch or dinner usually runs about an hour, inside an event that as a whole can extend over several hours.

Is the dinner included in the cost of the activity?

No, the theatrical activity is separate: the dinner gets organised at a venue of your choice and quoted separately.

Escape Box (our bestseller)

What does Escape Box involve?

It’s a puzzle challenge in teams: each group works on a case full of padlocks and riddles to be solved in a limited time. It’s our most requested format of all, because it works well with almost any kind of group and any venue.

What’s the difference between Escape Box and Escape Room?

They’re two different things. The Escape Box travels: all it takes is a table per team and roughly one case per 10 people, and we bring it wherever you are. A proper Escape Room, meaning a room built for the purpose, would need a site visit, design work and set transport, which usually make no sense for a single event.

What’s the difference between Bomb Race and Escape Together?

In the Bomb Race version the teams compete against each other and whoever defuses it first wins. In Escape Together, towards the end the groups necessarily have to collaborate with each other to reach the answer: a good metaphor for how in a company the result comes from everybody together.

Is there a fake bomb like in the films?

Yes, the more adrenaline-driven version includes a scenic element of that kind with a countdown, which pulls people in further. If you’d rather keep the tone lighter, we can replace it with a simple timer on a screen, with no scenic element.

Movie Making

What does the Movie Making activity involve?

It’s a much-requested and highly creative format: the participants handle the whole process of making a short film themselves, from the idea and the storyboard through to filming and the final edit, with the support of our coaches. It works because it asks for collaboration, creativity and communication at every stage.

Can it be done in any city, or only in specific venues?

We’re flexible about the venue: it can be filmed at the client’s own offices as easily as in a nearby city. The only thing needed is an indoor space for the opening briefing, ideally with a screen or a TV for watching the footage back together.

Roughly what does it cost?

The cost depends on the number of participants and the venue, so the quickest way to find out is to fill in the quote form: we come back very fast with a quotation made to measure.

Social and CSR formats (Eco Paper, Climbing Wall, Social Constructions)

What are the social formats?

They’re activities designed to join team building to a social or environmental objective: the participants build or make something concrete, often destined for a charity or a sustainability project. They’re all gathered on the social formats page.

What is Eco Paper?

It’s creative recycling: the participants turn waste material, paper above all, into new objects, with a strong message about environmental sustainability.

What is the Climbing Wall / Social Wall?

It’s a format that joins a climbing wall to a collective objective: the group works together to complete the wall, often in an artistic or themed version. It sits in a more demanding bracket than the other social formats, alongside the Vertical Gardens: for a precise assessment against your own numbers, the quotation is the quickest route.

What are Social Constructions?

Activities where the group builds concrete objects by hand for a charitable or environmental purpose, such as bird or bat boxes, often in collaboration with non-profit organisations.

Can these formats be paired with a charity the company already works with?

Yes, and it happens often: if you already have an organisation you work with, we can build the activity so that the end result, the products and the objects made, actually gets donated or delivered to them. If you haven’t, we work with local foundations across the emirates and we’ll propose one.

Urban Game and Treasure Hunt

What’s the difference between the various Urban Game formulas?

We offer three levels. With remote support the participants follow the activity through the app with a technical team reachable from a distance. With a supervisor, one of our people is present on site to coordinate the group. With a trainer for each sub-group, every team has a dedicated guide for a more closely handled experience. The level of support is the main variable affecting the final cost, which you’ll find in the quotation.

Which cities can it be run in?

We run it regularly across the Gulf, in Dubai and Abu Dhabi and at resorts in Saudi Arabia and Qatar; if your group is somewhere else, ask us for a proposal made to measure for your area.

What’s the difference between Urban Game and Treasure Hunt?

Urban Game usually means the app version: a treasure hunt through the city where the teams have to reach the best known and the least known places and carry out creative tasks along the way, in competition with each other.

A Treasure Hunt is the one with the map and a chain of enigmatic clues that reveal the route, sometimes hard to reach and sometimes hard to interpret. It takes place where a story is attached to the setting: the old quarters of a city, a fort, an island, a stretch of coast or of desert. And Rescue Team sits between the two with a dose of escape room in it: a mission to accomplish, puzzles scattered across the city, and one chain that only the teams together can get to the end of.

Crazy Car Race and Carton Boat

What space does Crazy Car Race need?

You need a very large meeting room (at least 200 square metres) or an outdoor space big enough, such as a yard or a car park.

Does Carton Boat always need water?

Only if you want to include the final race: in that case you need a pool or a small body of water to sail the boats the teams have built. Without the race in the water, the building activity can happen without that requirement.

Orienteering, Survival and Outdoor Team Building

What happens if the conditions don’t allow it?

For exactly that reason, alongside the orienteering we always propose in the quotation more flexible alternative formats, Survival or a day of Experiential Training, which adapt more easily to the conditions on the day, whether that’s the heat or a physical limitation among the participants.

Where do these activities usually take place?

We work mainly in the desert, and we normally go to the venue you choose, whether that’s your own spaces, a hotel or a resort. If you need us to find the venue we can take that on too, as long as we know well in advance.

How is the timing decided?

It depends on the daylight available and on the heat, especially for fully outdoor activities: it’s one of the first things we ask about when building the programme for the day.

Laughter Yoga and wellbeing activities

What kind of activity is it?

A light, restoring moment designed to bring the tension down and put energy back, often placed inside days themed around wellbeing or health and safety.

How does it work with a very large number of employees?

You have to decide whether to bring everyone together on the same day at the same time, or to run several sessions across different days according to availability: it’s one of the first things we ask in order to size the proposal.

Musical team building (Percussion and Corporate Song)

What do you need to know about the Percussion activity?

The key factor is noise: the venue hosting the event has to be compatible with the decibel levels a group playing percussion together produces. It has to be checked before confirming the location, especially if it’s an office, a hotel or a space shared with other activities.

What does Corporate Song involve?

The participants write and record a real company song together, with the help of our musicians. It goes beyond a moment of entertainment: the track that comes out of the activity can become a genuine internal refrain, to be reused on other company occasions, at events, in videos, in internal campaigns.

Who is this format for?

It can be aimed at employees, or, at family days, at their children: in that case it helps to know the ages of the participants so that the musical activity can be pitched properly.