Nine of the best team-building event companies in the South East

They're fun, but they have a very real purpose. Team-building exercises have been popular with businesses and organisations for decades. Since their inception, they've helped groups of often disparate individuals understand each other and bond as a team. Ultimately, allowing that team to work better together in the workplace.

Not only does everyone getting together and having fun while completing a challenging task build effective relationships, these sorts of activities have other benefits too. They're useful for defining team roles, demonstrating how to align for reaching goals and sharpening problem-solving skills.

It's possible to put on your own team-building events as an organisation. That comes with its own challenges, however. A much better idea for companies looking to gel a team is to instruct a specialist. Hire a team-building events firm. And the South East has plenty of those.

Here are nine of the best:

1, Hi-5! Corporate Events - Reading

Pingewood-based Hi5! has been conducting team-building activities in the south of England and on the island of Jersey for over 25 years. Their Berkshire locations can accommodate up to 600 people (that's a big team...) for water-based and land-based activities. They not only have well established, successful events, they also deliver customised days that match the unique goals and objectives of their clients.

Archery, boat/raft building, axe throwing, human table football, motorised beer keg racing and many more activities are all available to try out.

2, The Team Building Company - Lymington

With three decades of experience, TBC have positioned themselves as one of the country's leading team-building outfits. Personal and friendly, they collaborate directly with customers to provide the ideal event and create unforgettable experiences for attendees. Their team building activities and events use high quality equipment to provide top-notch fun.

They offer a quite remarkable range of both indoor and outdoor activities, from super physical It's a Knockout-style games to more cerebral puzzles and quizzes. They even offer evening events, virtual activities and special 'icebreaker' tasks.

3, Altitude Events - Felbridge

Altitude Events, based on the Surrey/Sussex border, is a family-run business founded in 2004. They are a mobile activity hire business that offers a variety of thrilling outdoor and indoor activities, as well as fully-fledged team-building event days.

They mostly cover East and West Sussex, Kent, Surrey, Hampshire, Essex, Berkshire, London, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire.

Mobile climbing walls, Segway rentals, laser tag, motorised activities, inflatables, electronic games, crazy golf, rural pursuits and many more activities are all available.

4, Team Tactics - Faversham

Team Tactics has been a major supplier of distinctive corporate team building activities and client events in and around the South East of England for almost three decades. With their significant expertise, they can arrange customised corporate entertainment events for companies seeking something unique.

This Kent company focuses on developing and delivering team building days, exciting business events, staff entertainment, company team exercises, corporate trips and incentive days to reward and educate employees. This frequently entails entertaining days away from the workplace as well as participatory and - sometimes - even quite bizarre (but always fun) team building activities.

Whether it's developing new methods for the team to engage with, promoting innovation, enhancing morale or just a fun-filled day away from the workplace, Team Tactics are dedicated to building teams.

5, Animation Team Building - Margate

An usual entry here. As its name suggests, Animation Team Building offers corporate exercises for teams based around animation.

Their team building toolbox includes three team bonding activities: brick films, claymation, and quick build challenges.

Delegates can conceptualise and create their own stop-motion films during their hands-on activities. Groups learn how to build their own cast and sets using our range of LEGO bricks and Plasticine, which can convert business goals into a fun and engaging creative experience.

They collaborate with customers before the event to develop a brief that might be themed to match an idea or corporate strategy. To top it all off, everyone gets to see and retain a copy of their movie when they're completed.

6, Arena Pursuits - Wadhurst

Arena Pursuits is a major South East outdoor events company that offers a wide range of corporate entertainment, team development and training activities for organisations.

They are a family-run outdoor activities company located over 250 acres overlooking Bewl Water in the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty on the Kent/Sussex border. It's only 45 miles from London, 20 miles from M25 Junction 5 and 20 miles from the South Coast.

Whether customers desire the excitement of helicopter flights, quad bikes, or Honda Pilots, or more sedate rural sports like archery or clay pigeon shooting, Arena can customise an event from a wide choice of activities.

7, Fruitful - South Warnborough

Hampshire's Fruitful offer an intriguing mix of new and unique live and online events. Customers get their own dedicated event manager and access to a bespoke and secure online event-hosting platform.

With a client list including the likes of Google, Amazon, Odeon, Shell, Ralph Lauren, Mercedes, Microsoft and EDF, they're trusted by plenty to provide fun - and slightly different - team-building activities to their customers.

8, Red Cactus Events - Appleford

While primarily a stag and hen do activity company, Oxfordshire's Red Cactus also provide a wide variety of corporate team-building events, activities and days.

Every year, they organise events for hundreds of groups around the country and in Europe, catering to small work groups as well as huge corporate gatherings. They provide something for every occasion with a diverse choice of indoor and outdoor team-building activities.

9, GOTO Events - Poole

With 22 years of experience and now entertaining more than 10,000 delegates a year, GOTO know what they're doing in this space.

All GOTO Events are all entirely mobile. Their staff travels around the UK on a regular basis to a range of indoor and outdoor sites.

Alternatively, customers can benefit from their deep venue expertise and let them recommend the best external solutions. GOTO staff provide absolutely free venue locating services for everything from creative conference space to outdoor summer festival locations.

Lead picture: Creative Commons/Hi5

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