In the Footsteps of Leonardo da Vinci
It took almost nine months to prepare the Visual Communication Group’s employee conference, which traditionally took place in January and was attended by around 200 employees. This time, however, it was a little different. This year was in the spirit of teamwork, involvement, innovation and new trends. And in the spirit of innovation, we decided to create a scenario for the conference and adapt the choice of venue accordingly.
Every year we try to impress our colleagues with something new, something unique. This year, we set ourselves the task of coming up with an innovation that would excite and appeal to our colleagues. When creating the topic and script, we worked with an emotional curve that had three peaks, and we wanted to fulfil them. We believe we have succeeded…
From the first idea to implementation
Where was the first idea for the conference born?
Even though it has been more than 9 months, it is still fresh in our memories. Originally, we wanted to continue the theme of last year’s Voyage beyond the Horizon and move it a little further. We were looking for a person who would portray timeless ideas and innovation. We first considered Jules Verne, but in the end the character of Leonardo da Vinci appealed to us the most.
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And why Leonardo?
We were looking for a versatile personality who inspired the next generation. Someone who was able to make full use of his abilities and did not hesitate to pass them on. Someone who had a desire to discover new things, who was proud of his abilities. And that is exactly what Leonardo da Vinci was. Sigmund Freud said of him that he had been a man who had awoken to darkness while others had been still asleep.
Space = half the success
It was already clear to us during the creation of the project plan that this topic deserved a special place. And so we looked for industrial premises that met our requirements. Spaces that are totally different from the modern conference halls that we used for our conferences before that. We wanted to use the moment of surprise, which is why we only revealed the location of the conference itself a week before it took place. We finally chose the Old Waste Water Treatment Plant in Bubeneč, including its underground, for the event. And the result was stunning.
“Maybe the best conference ever. More such unusual locations in the years to come”
”No doubt the best conference in recent years. Original place, great organization, amazing game…”
”The environment was interesting and I liked to look at such a place…”
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Codename "Boyard”
We wanted to create tension and anticipation among our colleagues, so we shrouded the entire conference in secrecy. We decided to gradually reveal Leonardo’s personality and the related topic of the conference in a competition on the Yammer social network, with the help of tasks and clues, in the 13 weeks before the conference.
Modern and dynamic form of presentation
The big challenge for us was to replace long frontal presentations with a dynamic form. Finally, we decided to prepare a special, modern thematic television studio for the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci. The dominant feature of our studio was an LED wall with dimensions of 7.5 x 4 m (upper LED wall) and 8 x 2.5 m (lower LED wall). To keep listeners engaged, we alternated between posts and “live” video inputs with in-studio guests. The preparation of contributions and the own script of the entire study started several weeks in advance. The result was a brisk 90-minute summary of the most important things that happened in our country in the past year.
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Involvement and helping others
Everyone had the conference application downloaded to their mobile phone, in which they could see not only the agenda that was waiting for them, but also the current status of their points balance. Points were already added during the competition on Yammer, in which colleagues could participate. During the studio broadcast, we involved our colleagues several times using voting, which was also placed within the conference application. In addition, we had the opportunity to influence a charity project financially supported by the company with our voting. Out of the five nominated projects, the Good Angel Foundation won.
In the Footsteps of Leonardo da Vinci – a team game
The goal of the game was to awaken team spirit, arouse emotions and, with the help of our technological solutions, present interesting educational content associated with the personality of Leonardo da Vinci. We knew we needed to divide the 180 employees into teams so that they could enjoy the game and each of them could participate and not get bored. Based on our experience, the ideal number of people in a team was set at ten. So we designed eighteen stations, which we placed in all areas, including the underground, adding to the attractiveness of the game. Since the underground is very cold during winter months, the teams had to be equipped for the trip. Everyone received a backpack with a blanket and a thermos mug, which they could fill with a hot drink during the game. Each team started at a different station and proceeded clockwise so as not to miss any of them. All participants of the game gathered in the main hall, where the game was started by Leonardo himself, who introduced the rules of the game to the teams. Before the participants dispersed to their individual stations, we blindfolded them with a scarf to heighten the tension and anticipation. They were led blindfolded to the first station by an underground guard. As we have already written, there were eighteen stations. We have selected some of the most attractive ones for you.
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RAYS
There are many hints that Leonardo designed the largest of the castles on the Loire, Chambord. And it is here that the Master’s revolutionary staircase is located. The joke is that two spiral staircases are suspended from one column so that a person going up cannot meet a person walking down at the same time. Many visitors enjoy this chasing game immensely. However, instead of running between the columns, we prepared something more futuristic – a laser maze. The goal of the game was to pass through the laser maze without touching the beam within a time limit, and all team members had to participate in turn.
MEMORY GAME
The aim of the MEMORY GAME was to remember as many of the sixteen displayed symbols as possible within 15 seconds and then correctly place them in their original position.
TABLE MAPPING
Numbers and symbols were another of Leonardo’s passions. And that inspired us to make another game called TABLE MAPPING. We sat the players around a table. Their task was to notice and remember 10 symbols (Roman numerals) that appeared during the projection on a plate in front of them. The sum of these Roman numerals resulted in the desired date.
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CHIMNEY
Da Vinci was obsessed with esotericism and used it in his work. He left references on paintings using symbols. Even the famous Mona Lisa hides secrets not only in her smile, but in her eyes there are small mysterious numbers and letters. It is even speculated to be a love message. We were considerably more prosaic and hid the code in the chimney of the Old Treatment Plant. The players had the task of finding a code at the entrance to the chimney, which hid a puzzle that the whole team had to solve.
LAST SUPPER
The aim of the LAST SUPPER game was to assign the correct name to each of the 13 characters in Leonardo’s famous painting on the interactive display.
CONNECTION
The task was to establish a video conference connection with Leonardo and answer the question correctly. If the answer was correct, the team could guess more riddles until the time limit expired.
ORIGINAL
Only one can be the right one. But which one? So our contestants had to find out.
BRIDGE
In this game, the players had to engage not only their heads, but also their hands, and above all their team spirit. It must be added that everyone managed to assemble the wooden structure of the self-supporting bridge according to the instructions.
PICTURE ROOM
By projecting onto the stone columns, we presented the players with pictures painted by Leonardo during his life. Among them, however, were paintings by other Renaissance masters. And that was another task for our players.
PLUM
There is no doubt that the trend of today is virtual reality, in which you can experience almost anything. Our participants became a plum for a few moments and experienced its life cycle.
INTERACTIVE FLOOR
Leonardo carried small notebooks on his waist so that he could jot down immediate ideas as he walked. However, his notes are very incomplete and fragmented. So we tried to put them together. The aim of the game was to find the letters hidden on the ground and put them together to form words.
STEAM ENGINE
Steam engines ensured the operation of the entire treatment plant. They drove flood pumps, sludge pumps, sand trap pump; they were connected to a dynamo and also produced electric lighting. They were also connected to, for example, wood splitters, presses, and other equipment of the treatment plant. They served until 1967, until the end of operation, and until the 1920s they were the main source of energy; after that they were only used for flood pumps. Thanks to this, their appearance and functionality have been preserved to this day. And so we also enabled our competitors to listen to this unique history and see it “in action”.
DIFFERENCES
During the Renaissance, it was not unusual for paintings to be produced in multiple versions. The creator could thus capture the different atmosphere of the place, the mission. The aim of the DIFFERENCES game was to find and mark as many of the 20 differences hidden in two seemingly identical drawings as possible.
MAZE
Leonardo da Vinci was the most interesting, the most widely mentioned and the most prominent left-hander in history. He wrote with his left hand using mirror writing, thus writing down his notes and sketches any time and anywhere in a notebook that he carried with him at all times. The aim of the MAZE game was to use a mouse to drive through a flawlessly prepared track, while collecting the largest number of tokens within a time limit of 4 minutes.
There was also evening entertainment available. During the planning, we focused on every detail. In the evening, we distributed prizes to the winners of individual games and team games. The winner of the individual game won a trip for two to Florence, with a visit to the Leonardo da Vinci Museum, and the team won a virtual reality flight tunnel visit.
A great event for corporate team building
Although our primary goal was to engage our employees, the game created such a response among them that we decided to offer the concept of In the Footsteps of Leonardo da Vinci to corporate customers, event agencies, in short, to anyone looking for interesting and unconventional team building. The game is designed in such a way that it can be variably adapted to the client’s requirements. You can adjust the number of competitors, stations and the proportional duration of the game. Likewise, the TV studio can function independently.
Come with us in the footsteps of Leonardo da Vinci…
