With a boom in the Meetings, Incentives, Conference and Events (MICE) space, offbeat MICE has become the newest trend. Corporates are now looking out for offbeat experiences, particularly when it comes to team building activities. While adventure sports like white water rafting and rappling have been popular experiential activities for some time now, sailing is emerging as the newfangled team building option.
Many multinational organisations as well as Indian companies are going the unconventional way.
Companies which manage such MICE activities are now experimenting with niche products to cater to this increasing demand. One such company which focuses mainly on catering to the MICE segment is Aquasail, a sailing company based out of Mumbai. Sailing, which is a team sport, usually requires a group of people to control the sail boat. Keeping this as their main strategy, Aquasail organises team building events for the corporates, wherein first the team members are trained to sail, then the group is divided into different teams and compete against each other in a sailing competition. Aquasail organises meetings and conferences on yachts, this trend is however still to catch on.
Shakeel Kudrolli, founder and managing director, said, ?We have done across 200 programmes for the MICE segment. We have clients across every field like consultancy agencies, advertising, pharma companies, media organisations, etc, both multinationals and Indian companies. We have specialised in understanding the needs of the corporates and delivering it to them through customisations. Usually, the corporates want to do group activities and we have the right products for everybody’s requirements.
We cater to big as well as small groups, right from a small group of 12 to a huge group of 400.?
Aquasail has around 80 boats under eight different categories spread across three destinations. The company operates from Mumbai, Mandwa in Alibaug and has recently added Goa to its portfolio. The company is also planing to launch kite-surfing in Goa this October. Kite-surfing is a surface water sport combining aspects of windsurfing and gymnastics. A large power kite is attached to the surfboard which wind propels the surfboard.
Zia Hajeebhoy, director, Aquasail, said, ?Goa is a great destination for water sports, in Goa we are launching kitesurfing in October which is unfamiliar sports for Indians. Also, Goa is growing as a huge
MICE destination in India, so along with the leisure travellers we can also expect visitors from the MICE segment.?
