A memorable incentive trip to the Tuscan coast for Bip Coe
Sometimes the best business decisions happen nowhere near a boardroom. Bip Coe's Cyber Security department understood this when they reached out with an unusual request: get 230 employees out of their respective Milan and Rome offices and onto the Tuscan coastline.
Not for leisure, exactly. Not strictly for work, either. Something in between—that elusive sweet spot where professional development meets actual human connection. The pandemic had done its number on workplace relationships. Video calls work brilliantly for quarterly reviews and project updates, but less so for building the sort of trust that makes teams genuinely function. Bip Coe needed their people to meet properly, shake hands, share meals and generally enjoy all the perks of incentive travel, with some elements of well-managed team building.
Finding the right spot on the map: the perfect incentive destination
Tuscany made sense for reasons beyond the obvious aesthetic appeal (though let's not pretend that didn't factor in). Geography played a major role: roughly equidistant from both offices, easily accessible, blessed with that Mediterranean climate that makes October feel like summer's encore performance.
The chosen resort ticked every necessary box: four stars, private beach, meeting rooms equipped for serious corporate thinking. Expansive green areas that could accommodate 230 people doing things beyond PowerPoint presentations. The venue understood that modern corporate events aren't just about conference halls and coffee breaks anymore.
Day one followed a rhythm that organisations often get wrong, but Bip Coe got it right. Morning workshops for strategic discussions, then a proper lunch (not the sad sandwich variety: we don't do that in Italy), followed by afternoon sessions designed around genuine idea exchange rather than death-by-presentation. Throughout it all, space for conversation of the unstructured kind that actually matters.
After all, research from the Incentive Research Foundation suggests incentive programmes boost productivity by 44%, but statistics rarely capture what happens when colleagues stop being "that person from the Rome office" and become actual individuals with personalities, quirks, weekend plans.
Beyond team building, with our corporate Olympic games
Enter the "Olympic Team" challenge, staged across those aforementioned green spaces with the sort of competitive energy that brings out people's true colours. Physical tests met logical puzzles, athletic types discovered their teammates possessed strategic brilliance, while puzzle enthusiasts learned they could run faster than expected when motivated.
As prizes, we provided a carefully curated selection of exclusive Smartbox gift sets, which added just enough competitive edge without tipping into aggressive territory.
This wasn't corporate team building as checkbox exercise: studies on team dynamics consistently show that shared physical experiences forge stronger bonds than purely intellectual activities. Something about sweating together, celebrating small victories, commiserating over near-misses. The body remembers what the mind forgets.
Leisure time: incentive travel needs entertainment!
The evening brought transformation. The pool area, previously just a nice feature in the brochure, became the night's centrepiece. With a classy and engaging DJ set and proper lighting, the space was transformed into something between sophisticated and slightly magical. And the buffet, of course. honoured Tuscan culinary traditions whilst acknowledging that hungry, happy people eat enthusiastically.
The usual corporate hierarchies, those invisible but deeply felt structures, temporarily dissolved in chlorinated water and good music. Incentive travel data suggests events mixing leisure with professional development achieve 22% higher engagement scores than purely business-focused gatherings and Bip Coe's approach validated this spectacularly, though no statistic captures the value of real human experiences unfolding in a beautiful setting.
Leadership without the usual barriers
The final day introduced a clever twist. Senior managers led outdoor stations, with interactive workshops where conversation flowed freely and hierarchy mattered less than contribution. Ideas bounced around and the usual corporate caution evaporated under October sunshine. Leadership became accessible in ways conference rooms rarely achieve.
A leisurely buffet lunch closed proceedings. No rush. People lingered, exchanged contact details (the personal kind, not just business cards), made plans to actually stay connected. They'd arrived as colleagues scattered across two cities. They departed as something resembling community.
What lingers after the luggage is unpacked
Most corporate events fade quickly. Attendees return to desks, resume usual patterns, maybe reference "that team building thing" occasionally before it disappears entirely from collective memory. Bip Coe's Tuscan adventure embedded itself differently.
Months later, those three October days still surfaced in conversations. Inside jokes persisted and working relationships deepened because people actually knew each other now, not just job titles and email signatures, but personalities, strengths, and authentic moments of connection.