Reconnecting Your Team at Kiawah Island Golf Resort

As organizations begin to regain a sense of normalcy, the time to reconnect your colleagues in an inspirational setting has come. The event services professionals at Kiawah Island Golf Resort recommend adding a team-building component to bolster collaboration, restrengthen bonds and enhance personal well-being among your meeting attendees.

The options for team-building experiences are as endless as the distant horizon viewed from our award-winning beach on Kiawah Island. To give a sense of the variety available at the Resort, we’re sharing details of signature year-round offerings under three categories that are certain to excite and engage your team.

Back to Nature

“Getting out on the water—and out of your element—facilitates building bonds between team members through a unique, shared experience,” assures Jake Feary, Assistant Director of Outdoor Programs.

Kiawah Island’s nutrient-rich estuaries provide prime conditions for viewing Atlantic bottlenose dolphins exhibiting instinctive behavior in their native environment. “Because the local pod is non-migratory, our Dolphin Encounters tours frequently include sightings of these marine mammals breaching, mating, playing and feeding,” says Feary.

Kiawah Island Golf Resort is proud to work hand-in-hand with the Lowcountry Marine Mammal Network to expand education on these dolphins and observe them in a sustainable and responsible manner. For a corporate social responsibility enhancement, groups can “adopt a dolphin” or upgrade their tour to include real-time insights by the Director of the Lowcountry Marine Mammal Network to support this worthwhile organization.

As for the response from groups, Feary says, “Participants are in awe of the dynamic character of our Lowcountry estuaries and enjoy the calm tidal waters we explore on our Dolphin Encounters.”

Outdoor Adventure

Where a Dolphin Encounters tour focuses on a wondrous shared experience, The Amazing Nature Race is designed to ignite friendly competition, driving teams toward shared achievement.

“This is no run-of-the-mill scavenger hunt,” Feary explains. “Small teams hop on our rental bikes, following clues around the island to stations where they participate in challenges to earn points. These challenges encourage competitors to recall something they’ve learned in their training session or tackle an exciting new skill, such as spear throwing or archery.”

Inspired by the season, as well as type of organization and purpose for gathering, the Kiawah Island Golf Resort team can customize the race—ensuring no two experiences are exactly alike. The core emphasis, however, lies in our “Challenge by Choice” philosophy, which states, “Your personal safety is at the forefront. All activities occur in a safe and supportive atmosphere. Our trained facilitators encourage you to move beyond your perceived limitations while respecting your decision on how far you want to move outside your comfort zones. Cooperation and mutual support, rather than physical prowess, are emphasized.”

Engaging Experiences

The Chopped Culinary Challenge provides your attendees with the opportunity to flex their creative muscles as they collaborate, conceive and concoct a one-of-a-kind cocktail—or mocktail—with their teammates. With the winning drink served to the entire group at an event later in the day and bragging rights on the line, competitors are extremely motivated to roll up their sleeves and immediately dive into the challenge.

“Because this activity has teams exploring craft cocktails rather than cuisine, we’re not tied to a kitchen,” says Kevin Braitsch, Director of Villa Banquets. “The Chopped Culinary Challenge can be held in any event venue at the Resort. It’s especially popular in our outdoor spaces.”

Given access to a chef-stocked pantry and armed with a basket of multiple “mystery ingredient” options, teams embark on this high-energy mixology competition with the goal of impressing the panel of Kiawah Island Golf Resort Culinary Elite who judge entries based on presentation, creativity and taste.

“We recently hosted a group at the Resort engaged in workplace wellness training,” explains Braitsch. “Our team coordinated with the presenter to understand the material and then sourced ingredients from our vendors that would provide wellness benefits, so the challenge was designed to reinforce the content of their training session.”

Each of these team-building activities—along with several dozen more—are conducted in our unspoiled barrier island environment, which you can experience virtually through our Engaging Meetings at Kiawah Island Golf Resort video.

Our sales team is pleased to work with you to develop a customized plan, which can include team-building, event venues, accommodations and event catering.