The Brief
Guests: 16
Half-Day Event – Norwich, Norfolk
Looking for a team activity that encourages effective communication and collaboration.
The Solution
Afternoon: Taken Kidnap Experience
A bespoke Kidnap Experience! The team needed to devise the most appropriate plan to recover their hostage, Snoop the Dog. They needed to develop ‘special skills’ through analysing various surveillance techniques and harbouring hostage negotiation skills. Candour collaborated with another agency, Made, to take part in this exciting challenge!
We caught up with the kidnap victim Snoop, Candour’s Wellbeing Facilitator, and his team of rescuers on how their day unfolded…
I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what you want. If you are looking for a ransom, I can tell you I don’t have money, but what I do have are a very particular set of skills. Skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you.
This quote was rushing through everyone’s minds as Candour and Made Agency combined forces for a Taken-themed team building event spread throughout Norwich on Friday 17th May, organised by Right Angle Events.
All was calm during a casual lunch between the two agencies, with lots of pizza and beers to go round with plenty of banter to match. What was a pizza party however turned into something more as news came in of Snoop the dog being kidnapped and held somewhere within the winding streets of Norwich.
The hostage video the team received in the briefing.
The agencies arrived at 13:30 at St George’s Works where they had been told they would be briefed about the situation by Steve Gaskin, Ex-Scotland Yard Detective and now Director of Right Angle Events.
The kidnappers had left a ransom note saying the agencies had two hours to pay the $150,000 ransom otherwise Snoop will be taken away (speculation as to which agency did this was fervently discussed).
Candour and Made Agency created an alliance, forming three teams to try and rumble who was behind the kidnapping and get Snoop back safely. After some excellent training from “the Guv” and Sarge supplied by Right Angle about forensics, tracking a suspect, and hostage negotiation, the three teams set out to see who could get Snoop back first.
Three tasks required completion before everyone’s beloved Snoop could be rescued. With some mysterious intel, teams were given leads on where to start.
Traditionally with kidnappings in the UK, ransoms are always paid and for Snoop there was zero hesitation regarding this. The funds were brought forward with each team having to drop the money off at separate time points in mysterious locations. Many suspects were seen in these locations, but were any of them one of the kidnappers? The signs were there but the law requires more evidence.
Some ‘questionable’ methods of tracking were used, from hiding in plain sight to completely losing the suspect and then accidentally bumping into him – the tailing was not leading anywhere.
It was a race against time, which team could figure out where Snoop was being held and separately where the kidnappers were.
The Candour-only team saw triumph, being led by 9-year-old Eliza, decoding the cryptic message about Snoop being held in the Castle Keep and rushing off to go rescue him just in time.
This joint activity between Candour and Made Agency was thoroughly enjoyed by all who participated, and really created a great bond between the two agencies who were later spotted in the pub together enjoying some well-deserved drinks and lots of love for our beloved Snoop.
