Imagine a room full of people, split into teams – some work side-by-side every day, but some don’t. Several don’t even want to even be there. A few are excited, others aren’t bothered either way. A few sense a challenge waiting to be had, while others simply look forward to the next coffee break.

And then the teams are informed that they are participating in a dynamic team building event and each has about 2.5 hours to create and make a new chocolate product, design rough packaging ideas for it, draft a sales and marketing plan and then present their ‘grand idea’. Sounds easy? It’s not and only one team will win the pitch, so the pressure is on from the get-go. In a digestible nutshell, this is the famous and original Ministry of Chocolate Chocolate Challenge.

This highly creative, competitive and fun corporate team building event will engage your staff across a wide area of chocolate-making activities from initial product development, to a sales and marketing plan, through to a final presentation where the teams need to ‘sell’ their ideas hard! A relatively safe harbour for those capable and wanting to show their true capabilities and ambitions, and a fool’s stage for anyone who only thinks they’ve got what it takes to make amazing chocolates!

Our Chocolate Challenge is fun, dynamic, competitive and fast paced and it has business value. It delivers more than just a good afternoon, and here’s why…

Business Benefits

A successful team is like a recipe – it’s made up of a mix of individual ingredients, all great individually, but much better when carefully blended together:

• Communication
• Trust
• Leadership
• Motivation
• Creativity
• Fulfilment
• Tangible results

Our corporate team building Chocolate Challenge event is designed and structured to tease out some of these traits allowing individuals to naturally find and develop their role in the working business environment.

These are just a few of the benefits you can expect running our Chocolate Challenge:

• Build and grow inter departmental relationships (break down those business silos)
• Encourage communication and trust among staff
• Create a sense of camaraderie
• Improve morale and individual confidence
• Provide a bit of fun, excitement and laughter

Not a bad outcome when you consider it, but then again, that’s the power of chocolate for you!

How it works and what’s involved

Working in teams of 5-8, these groups will:

• Be briefed on the ‘challenge’ they face with a hard copy. The theme that the teams follow when creating their unique chocolate creation can be linked to the values of the business or another important business matter e.g. business strengths, issues, opportunities or threats

• Spend about 1 hour 15 minutes formulating a plan, organising themselves into an effective group, making their chocolate creation, plus a further 30 minutes to finalise things and refine their sales pitch
• Have access to vats full of delicious melted dark, milk and white Belgian chocolate along with chocolate moulds, packaging materials, a huge variety of different ingredients for inclusions and toppings, natural colourants, edible sprays and icing pens for detailed work
• Present their ‘grand plan’ to a group of judges, with the winners receiving a company branded quirky ‘CHOCOLATE CHALLENGE WINNER’ certificate

Throughout the session we’re advising, guiding, assisting and preparing everything and anything that’s needed by the teams, even if this is sometimes at the limits of our creative ability!

We bring all that’s required to run this indoor team building event. Although it doesn’t quite include the kitchen sink, it’s not far off as we have portable cooling equipment to hand to set the teams’ chocolates.

A very small selection of the many of ideas that have surfaced when running the Chocolate Challenge with our corporate clients over the years. Every single one of these chocolate creations had a rationale behind its design and the teams who made them presented their idea! Part of the written brief given to teams is that the creation they make shouldn’t be commercially viable, however, it must reflect a business value(s), objective, issue or opportunity or another business construct. The ‘theme’ e.g. business values, is agreed in advance with the client and the groups are informed via short verbal and written brief.