A Corporate Event in a Candy Shop is a Sweet Idea!

If your destination corporate meeting attendees have sweet tooths, we have found a meeting and event venue in Harlem that will deliver because, well, it's a candy store!
 
This is where Willy Wonka would shop for candy if he lived in New York City, and it's an ideal option for a daytime meeting or small lunch event where your corporate group can collaborate in an incredibly festive and delicious private room.

This is a bright and colorful candy shop that really throws one into nostalgia-land with a pretty extensive assortment of candy items. Some are a real blast from the past. Your attendees can enjoy a mix of today's candies and sweets that include chocolates, gummy bears, sodas, ice creams, hard candies, and gumballs. But the retro candies are what we like the best. This includes Candy Cigarettes, Abba Zabba, Double Bubble, Tootsie Rolls, and Peanut Clusters.

Cheeky, Sexy Burlesque Event Ideas in New York City

Burlesque shows have become so popular as an event idea that the inventory can make choosing one a little tricky. The good news: we are always looking too, and have found a great venue in the Lower East Side.

Quality of burlesque is ridiculously good, which include wonderful costuming, exceptional theatrics, beautiful dancers of great skill and grace, with top showmanship, fabulous storytelling (there is Tinkerbell having a sexual hissy fit at Peter Pan and his interest in Wendy) and energy.

It gets weird and and quirky without going over the top.  For example, it features two men who do the Top Gun outfits/music and simulated making love/courtship via aerial gymnastics; it's fun, cheeky, sexy, and without being skeezy.

Want to get in the act? We have found burlesque classes that are awesome team-building ideas!

The World's Most Top-Secret Workout Class Comes to New York

As destination corporate meeting attendees are continually looking for ways to find more options for fitness and healthy activities while on the road, New York City's hotels and luxury gyms are rolling out unique new programs to meet the demand.

One of the hottest, and most secret workouts has been instructed by Russell Bateman, whose clients include some of the world's top models and acting talents. Although many of his super-intense classes have been invite-only, Bateman is is introducing his concepts to gyms in Manhattan.

Some of the key workout moves your attendees will learn are the crab walk, inverted call climb, partner leg bicycle, and delayed push-ups.

Spies, Pink Drinks, Jazz, and a Secret Room: 4 Trends in NYC Destination Meetings

Soccer Team-Building in Manhattan with a Unique Twist

International corporate groups attending destination meetings in New York City already know how big futbol (soccer) is in their own countries, and even without a World Cup this year, it has also become bigger than ever here in the US.

As more of the world's top talent plays here, experts who teach and train them are coming here as well. These experts can help provide your meeting attendees with a unique team-building idea at one of New York's fields. One of the most unique venues is located on the Hudson River near Houston Street. With two outdoor regulation fields located in the middle of a parking garage, your attendees can refine their skills on the soft turf with an amazing backdrop of the World Trade Center in the background!

Sip the South Bronx at a Hip New York Brewery

If your destination corporate meeting group is looking for a new kind of tasting experience, try heading north to the Bronx Brewery. It's a really cool venue located in an industrial area of the South Bronx. One could imagine it's exactly what Williamsburg used to look like before gentrification.

We recommend a flight  (5 tastings each) plus a growler to get your event rolling. The Belgium beer is great, but our favorite is a more unusual brew infused with sage. The bartenders are detailed in describing each type of beer, and although it is usually reserved for Saturdays, we might be able to help you add a tequila tasting as well!

Play Ball and Eat Well!

After a week at home for the New York Yankees, the city's other team, The Mets are playing their home-opener today in spectacular Spring weather, and experiencing a day or evening at the ballpark is a fan favorite of destination corporate meeting attendees.

In 2015, the experience is getting even better, especially when your attendees get hungry.

Citi Field has especially ramped up its game with dining options that include gourmet panini, grilled cheese sandwiches from Pressed by Lure chef Josh Cappon, s'mores-dipped bacon from NYC's Pig Guy, and seafood sliders. However, we're the most excited to try the new Mac and Cheese Frites!  

Shackman Associates New York can help your destination corporate meeting, association convention or incentive travel program group create unique sports experiences at both Yankee Stadium and Citi Field that include cocktail receptions on the field and team-building activities in batting cages.

Experience New York's First Ever Cider Tasting Destination

We recently checked out an exciting new venue in Manhattan's Lower East Side where your destination corporate meeting attendees can enjoy the city's first-ever private cider tasting experience.

How big is cider-tasting getting? One year ago, you could have experiences every single high-end cider that was available. The number of ciders has increased so rapidly that your attendees can be choosy and creatively put a list together that has diversity. We recommend American ciders, especially the Farnum Hill Semi Dry, Spanish ciders from the Basque region of both sides of the Spanish/French border, and Breton ciders from northwestern France. You can also try ciders from Savoie in France, Canada, Germany, the UK, Ireland, and Chile. Even Japan is getting into the act!

If your attendees like beer tasting, they will love some of the beer-inspired ciders blended separately with different yeasts and then aged. Your group will also get an inside look on how ciders are made. Experts will explain how each cider goes through the fermentation process and how they are all different. They will also show how to avoid turning cider into vinegar if your get inspired to try it at home!

It's a really cool experience that is enhanced with a vegetarian food pairing for each cider.

Corporate Team-Building: Laser Tag is Back!

Laser tag is back! The 2015 version of this thrilling concept is a game of  world domination that plays out throughout neighborhoods in the city.

While one army advances from Wall Street, another swoops in from the Brooklyn Bridge, guns drawn.
Your destination meeting attendees can fire their lasers into the skyline and retreat behind the Washington Square Arch while they plan your next move. This is not some post-apocalyptic version of New York, but as the only laser tag venue in Manhattan, it's an intense corporate team-building idea!

The new 3,000-square-foot, NYC-themed indoor complex opened in December with re-created city icons. Competitors are briefed in a room painted like Central Park and then move around the arena under city street signs, a Statue of Liberty mural, the Washington Square Arch and the Brooklyn Bridge.

Team-building: Become a Spy and Rescue Your Kidnapped CEO

Scavenger hunts are hitting a new level in New York City and the item to be found is your "kidnapped" CEO!

Even if it is someone besides an executive in your destination corporate meeting group, this person will be the star of up to 4 video clues delivered to your teams via their mobile devices. The clues outline a sinister plot against your company, and your group is on a race against time as spies to find secret information (which can be physical items hidden in public or beacons) that rescues your colleague and saves the company!

If you remember the wild goose chase around New York City in the movie "Die Hard with a Vengeance", then you will love this team-building challenge!

Make Your Corporate Meeting a Lifesaver for Innocent Dogs

Your CSR program can do more than just give back. It can give new leases on life to rescue dogs.

That is exactly what is going on in New York City, and your destination corporate meeting attendees can be a part of one of the most rewarding experiences in their lives. We have developed relationships with some really incredible people and accredited non-profits who are rescuing dogs from kill shelters all over the US, fostering them here in NYC, and finding new homes for them locally and with one program, in France.

Your meeting doesn't necessarily have worry about physically fostering dogs because the process is so complex that it really takes an entire team of people to help with crates, food, doggie sweaters, walks, veterinary paperwork, and coordinating adoptions on Facebook. The process can last just a few days or can continue when your attendees return home.

One person in our office recently participated in a rescue that included short-notice coordination with international flight attendants at JFK. While transporting 3 chihuahuas to adoptive homes near Paris, it got wild when shrink-wrapped crates had to be assembled within 5 minutes to get the dogs on the plane. And it obviously takes more than one person to keep them calm when the TSA makes you take the all the crates apart minutes after you get the dogs settled in them.

Worth every second of chaos!

Put Down the NYC Rooftop Cocktail and Pick up a Spear Instead

Most business travelers and corporate meeting attendees tell us that they specifically look for hotels with gyms that fit their lifestyles. But what if your lifestyle is trending a little Spartan?

We found a workout and potential team-building venue that is training people of all shapes and sizes for Spartan races. The sport exploded in 2012, and is expected to attract one million competitors in 2015. The challenge, of course, is being able to practice any of the extreme race requirements in a major city.

Now you can. We bet that at least one of your millennial destination meeting attendees has either competed in an extreme race or is thinking about it.

The workout includes circuit training, squats, burpees, and amazingly, spear-throwing on the rooftop. Not something you can say someone can do everyday on a rooftop in NYC!

A Corporate Teambuilding and Cocktail Party Idea to Get Stoked About!

Whether it is "sick", "rad", "gnar", or just really fun to do or watch, skateboarding is getter bigger than ever in New York, even after we first blogged about it last year.

If you are wondering how anyone could possibly skate anywhere when it is 21 degrees outside with occasional chance of snow, we have found the answer at a new event venue in Brooklyn that pushes the envelope with an indoor skating park.

If your destination meeting group is full of millennials, they now have an awesome team-building and after-hours idea where the season if irrelevant.  If your attendees simply want a cocktail party idea where they can be wowed, skaters from all over New York drop in every day and pull off some really amazing tricks.

You'll be stoked!

Heat Up Meeting Breaks and Menus with Micro-Souperies

Are you into cleansing? A lot of people are, but it's not always easy during a business trip or destination corporate meeting.

Until now.

While juicing venues are everywhere in New York, it doesn't always incorporate the entire vegetable, especially the fiber. We might not be experts on the science, but we do know that this process can leave your attendees hungry and angry, better known as "hangry!"

Soup-makers here are providing a very delicious solution, and these homemade products are making their way into corporate meeting breaks. Often vegan and gluten-free, "micro-souperies" are a hot food idea.  They are even becoming venues themselves!

Jean-Georges' Daughter Launches a Unique Dining Experience in NYC

We blogged yesterday about how exciting it will be to see a new Hotel featuring world-renown chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten. Meanwhile, his daughter Louise, has launched one of the most creative dining venues in New York.

She has developed an incredible concept that brings in visiting master chefs to a "studio" kitchen environment where they try out crazy new plates on those who are lucky enough to taste them. That's where we come in. They like groups, and from what we can tell, your attendees could potentially have an opportunity to taste and cook.

And it obviously helps when your master-chef and entrepreneurial father can drop in as a guest in the studio.

The Shots You Should be Drinking at Corporate Meetings

An argument could occasionally be made for downing a few shots after a morning of lengthy presentations and breakout sessions at your destination corporate meeting, and we can help you make that happen.

Not those shots! Instead, we recommend something your body will thank you for later on.

With healthy juicing more popular than ever, offer your attendees delicious energy-driving shooters of superfoods and organic spices during meeting breaks that will turn coffee and orange juice into yesterday's news. Top hotels have rolled out items like C-Boost and Wheat Grass shooters that feature agave, pomegranate, celery root, and (obviously) wheat grass itself.  For meetings at the more evocative venues we have previously blogged out, healthy shooters can get even more creative!

Make Pizzas with a "Real Housewife"

One of the stars from "The Real Housewives of New York" recently opened a new dining and event venue in Tribeca and it's part of a "bigger is actually better" trend we are seeing in this area of Manhattan.

With a wood-fire brick oven, it also offers a fun pizza-making class as a very delicious team-building idea. At a reasonable 2-hours where your group can add some competitive fun with pizza-making in teams of two, the folks here are quite particular about the tomatoes in their sauce. They are kind of obsessed with finding the right canned crushed tomatoes, especially "with added puree. They also say they will change your mind about diced tomatoes, pureed tomatoes, whole tomatoes and crushed tomatoes with herbs.

You'll just have to find out for yourself!

Not a pizza fanatic? You can hold corporate event or group dinner with a menu that adds its own gastropub twist to a sports-centric menu. The venue can accommodate up to 150 guests seated, 250 guests cocktail style or 50 in our private dining room.

4 Very Diverse NYC Unique Rooftop Experiences; Yes, More of Them!

You have probably been hearing people like us talk about New York City's rooftop experiences to the point of wondering whether we're finally going to run out of ideas.

But rooftops are the gift that keeps giving and here are 4 more highly diverse ways for your destination corporate meeting group to experience them.

1. Cultural rooftop. While we have already blogged about the one at The Met, other museums have found ways to offer this experience in all seasons. For example, one museum provides an art-hipster experience with 2,000 square-feet of event space. It's a photographer's dream and offers spectacular views of Downtown Manhattan and the Bowery.

2. Stargazer Rooftop. Columbia University has one of the best stargazing venues in America with student-experts right by your side to answer questions from your group. Great for an unusual private event or team-building idea, and if your destination meeting attendees want a moment to reset their necks, they can look out at one of the best views of the George Washington Bridge in New York.

3. A Quiet and Cozy Rooftop. It's not easy to find an all-season rooftop experience in New York. It's even harder to find one without a view-killing plastic tarp in the winter or loud 20-somethings in warm weather. We recommend a venue in Soho that creates an intimate vibe for corporate executives seeking a place to brainstorm after-hours. It's also a welcome cocktail hour idea for small incentive program groups. Did we mention there is an amazing fireplace?

4. The "Divine" Rooftop. Those red buses roll by there too, but how many tourists are climbing 124 stairs to a heavenly experience? Regardless of your faith, the world's 4th largest free-standing Christian church provides a unique fitness and cultural rooftop team-building experience. Its buttresses offer city-wide views with a touch of historic, heavenly architecture.

A Pop-up Holiday Give-back Idea from NYC's Queen of Fashion

While many destination corporate meeting and incentive travel program attendees in New York have shopped for the latest in fashion by Donna Karan, the legendary designer's other brainchild, Urban Zen Holiday Market, is our favorite CSR give-back idea for the 2014 holidays.

Open until January 4, 2015, Urban Zen is a non-profit market that features handcrafted pieces from around the world.  Every penny goes directly to artisans in countries that include Haiti, Tibet, Bali and Thailand. Urban Zen's broader mission is to advance integrative medicine around the world, encourage emotional, physical and spiritual growth of children, and help cultures maintain their unique values in a highly globalized society.

While pop-up "holiday village shopping" has become more popular and diverse than ever in New York, Urban Zen's convenient Greenwich Village location makes it an after-hours no-brainer to get in the holiday spirit.

A Winter Wonderland of Corporate Teambuilding at South Street Seaport

Ice skating might be one of the best excuses imaginable to hold a winter destination meeting or corporate incentive program in New York City. But as you could probably guess, ice time and space to skate are not exactly easy at Rockefeller Center. Or Central Park. Or even in Brooklyn.

What if we told you that the South Street Seaport rink is so quiet and cozy, that your meeting attendees will feel like they have entire venue to themselves? Did we mention that your group can learn the Olympic sport of curling too?

And for groups with diverse tastes in music, the rink provides headphones so you can listen to your favorite playlist. Your attendees can enjoy a silent disco on ice.

We are not kidding. It's the best kept cold-weather secret in Manhattan.

Overall, the entire Seaport area is in the middle of a major renaissance. The Howard Hughes Corp. has  plans to transform the exterior of the now-vacant Fulton Market Building into a two-story, square-block-wide structure that features a multiplex theater and retail complex.