In 2018, VWV took 650 hard-charging Nando’s restaurant managers (Patraos) to Portugal for a three-day conference that would change their lives. Our challenge was to create the right mix of challenge, leisure, teambuilding, business, and fun.
The Patraos boarded three branded charter aircraft for Lisbon, where we took over two adjoining hotels for the duration. Day one’s plenary session set the scene, framing up the conference theme of ‘Be Part of More’ and challenging the delegates to come up with Nando’s ‘purpose’ beyond profit.
On day two we created an ‘amazing race’ experience called The Chicken Run: the group was divided into forty teams of sixteen Patraos, which were given tablets loaded with clues and maps to find nineteen significant places in the historic old city. At each stop they completed challenges, from busking for money, to getting a picture with Ronaldo, to downing shots of Portugal’s famous Ginjinha liquour. As each task was completed the relevant answers or timing or images and video were received by a central coordinator and scored, which allowed us to dynamically manage the competition.
That afternoon took Patraos back into conference, which had been transformed into forty ‘campfire rings’ complete with the sounds and smells of the African bush, and forty handmade ‘talking sticks’ that would guide the conversation. Here the groups shared their experiences and ideas, all of which input was eventually distilled into a single Purpose Statement.
A mixture of hard work and challenge during the days was balanced by very different evenings of celebration and fun: a formal awards dinner in the historic Patio de Gale, followed by a casual party at the LX Factory market complex.
