Mysterious and exciting audience engagement at TEDxCOLOMBO 2017

TEDx is an independently organised TED event that brings people together to enhance connections, community and conversations around ideas worth spreading.

Beyond Boundaries Global, a Sri Lankan company specialised in team experience design, was commissioned to make TEDxColombo 2017 more interactive and to this end, an event was organised at Nelum Pokuna Theatre recently, attracting nearly 1,200 participants. 

Together with the organisers, Beyond Boundaries designed a TEDx Mystery called “Missing Traveller”. The participants found instructions for this in their giveaway bag and rushed to look for mysterious tasks and collect perplexing evidence across the venue. 

“Our challenge was to come up with an engaging game that allows for a huge number of people to try it out yet, it has to be hard enough so that only a small percentage of participants emerge victorious,” said Tomi Astikainen, the Lead Designer from Beyond Boundaries. 

In the end only 14 teams figured out the entire mystery but hundreds of people took part in it – before, during and right after the talks. Winner of the TEDx Mystery Hudha Ibham rejoices: “I am really excited to experience this… surprised to know we have this kind of adventure in Sri Lanka.”  Beyond Boundaries awarded the winner a free holiday in Ahaspokuna – the first-ever Bush Walk Camp in Sri Lanka. 

“Some of the speakers at the event called for developing a curious mind,” Chief Experience Officer Anuruddha Bandara added. “This is what our mystery games are all about. They challenge people to activate dormant parts of the brain and challenges the team to work together in ways that closely resemble successful teamwork at the office.” 

The TEDx goers were very interested in the latest team building innovation from Beyond Boundaries – an intense real-life mystery game that truly pushes your boundaries. This is called “The Mystery Bar” and can be attended, by appointment only, at a unique property in Colombo 7. Groups of up to 20 people can attend simultaneously and the price is fixed at Rs. 40,000 for “just for fun” games and at Rs. 65,000 for more serious company training and team building. Bandara further stated: “Mystery team bonding is ideal if you wish to test your people’s ability to navigate uncertainty, to meet deadlines, to come up with creative solutions, to communicate and work closely as a team. This could be used for assessment and recruitment purposes as well.”

Further details can be accessed at www.mystery.lk.