Client story · Conference

Ciena's 1,200-person kickoff ran five charity builds at once in Las Vegas

Sensory kits, toys, wheelchairs, bears and a ton of Thanksgiving food, built side by side in one afternoon.

Charity builds, one afternoon: 5
Bins of toys: 84
Pounds of Thanksgiving food: 2,000+

The challenge

Ciena's sales and marketing kickoff brought 1,200 people to Las Vegas on the weekend of the Formula 1 race. The organizers wanted the closing afternoon, branded Ciena Cares, to make the largest charitable dent possible and to give people of different temperaments a build they would enjoy. Planning started in July.

What we ran

Five programs side by side in the same hotel, each sized for about 250 people: Autism Sensory Donation, Bears and Blankets, Operation Toy Donation, a Thanksgiving food build from Donation Nation, and a wheelchair and rollator build. Each had its own facilitator, its own staff and its own receiving charity.

Event day

Sixty sensory kits, 84 bins of toys, 24 wheelchairs, 48 rollators, 360 bears and blankets and more than 2,000 pounds of Thanksgiving food went to Family Promise of Las Vegas, Race to Erase 22, Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth, FEAT of Southern Nevada and Three Square Food Bank.

The result

The organizers were pleased with how smoothly five simultaneous builds ran. Their one note, which we now pass on to every conference planner: put the give-back early in the agenda. Ciena Cares closed the conference, and some attendees had already left for the airport.

In this story

The programs they ran

Autism Awareness Sensory Donation

Our Autism Sensory Donation program not only brings your group together to assemble wonderful sensory support kits for donation to autism therapy programs and non-profit organizations, but also enhances awareness of the effects, behaviors, and challenges of the disorder through engaging sensory activities. Your group will leave this program with a greater understanding of what autism is, and how to support the people in their lives with an autism spectrum disorder.

Bears and Blankets

Bears and Blankets is a heartwarming charity event where your teams will build items to comfort younger children in distress through various charitable organizations.

Operation Toy Donation

Operation Toy Donation is a wonderfully meaningful program designed to benefit disadvantaged children. The program includes fun icebreakers and revolves around the assembling of children’s toys and necessities, which are packaged and festively wrapped. It’s the perfect charity team building event if your group wants to make a difference in the lives of children in need!

Donation Nation Care Packs

Donation Nation Care Packs is a meaningful team building experience that brings your group together to assemble care packages for community organizations that support people in need.Through a series of fun and interactive challenges, your group earns the materials used to create thoughtful packages that benefit homeless shelters, food banks, hospices, veterans’ groups, animal shelters, and many other community-focused agencies.

Build-A-Rollator

In Build-A-Rollator, your group takes part in a build-a-rolling-walkers charity initiative, assembling high-quality Rollators that are donated to those in need through a selected nonprofit.

Other teams, other rooms

Lowe's built 1,048 bikes for Nevada kids with 3,500 managers in one afternoon

Lowe's · Las Vegas, NV · 3,500 managers

The largest Bike Build Donation ever run, on the floor of Lowe's national sales meeting at the Sands Expo.

Merck packed 400 care packages for St. Jude in one evening of its global summit

Merck · 400 attendees, 40 teams

A custom care-package build that became a standing BEST program for children's hospitals.

ePlus turned a week of sales sessions into a 300-person game show at the Hilton Chicago

ePlus Technology · Chicago, IL · 300 sales attendees, teams of 10

Best Corporate Feud with the questions written by the client, so the closing session doubled as the week's exam.

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