What do you do when your company experiences rapid growth and change? How do you create high performing teams when remote working is the new normal and many colleagues have never met? MURAL decided to press pause and ‘take’ all 450+ employees (and growing) on a virtual retreat to mark their Renaissance 2021.

MURAL is an online collaboration tool – a virtual whiteboard that brings remote collaboration to life, enabling teams to think and collaborate visually. Following a year of rapid growth and change, MURAL needed a whole company get-together. They wanted to connect all the MURAListas (that’s the people of MURAL) so that they could get to know each other, form new bonds and, ultimately, create high performing teams. The retreat was a moment to ignite a new mindset and embed new behaviours to take the company forward.

Come with us on a virtual journey, enter The Maze…

We wanted to create a new type of digital event – a virtual space where people could meet, explore and collaborate while exercising different learning styles. To achieve this, we experimented and conceived a virtual maze – a magical labyrinth offering an immersive journey of discovery.

To satisfy all the needs, Abracademy’s wild and wonderfully eclectic team conjured up a variety of virtual activities: online workshops, talks, places to gather and learn, VR spaces to play in, and a host of other sessions and curious entertainment to enjoy. It was an experiential journey designed to connect MURAListas as people and as colleagues.  Harnessing our skills in team dynamics, neuroscience, event and learning design, facilitation and magic – we conceived and delivered the whole experience.

Over 450 MURAListas from around the world ‘entered’ the maze and, over three days, explored the magical digital world created for them. They got lost together and found each other.

Days 1 and 2 of the retreat were dedicated to exploration and play. Among the other activities, MURAListas attended Abracademy workshops: Unleash Imagination and The Power of Perception. For two days, people were encouraged to discover new activities, and each other.

On the third and final day, every MURAL team experienced the same workshop, The Magic of Teams. In one day, we delivered to 17 teams all over the world, in many different time zones, from midday to midnight!

“The highlight for me was the Magic of Teams workshop. How we handle hard work together is critical. It’s so important to take a moment, listen to each other, be vulnerable and think about how to improve to be a high performing team” — Peter Herbert, CMO

The whole experience was carefully designed with certain outcomes in mind based on how the leadership team wanted MURAListas to think, feel and behave following the retreat. Coaching was offered next to cooking and cabaret. There was magic and mixology, reflection and tutting (look it up!), a guided walk and a tea ceremony, dancing and dynamic breathwork. MURAListas learned magic, to be more productive, to facilitate more confidently, to do yoga at their desks. In fact, they could learn How to learn anything — a session offered by our own Creator of Curiosity, Julie Bogaerts!