De Gouden Kooi may call itself the winner of the first Mechelen Award, an award for the city’s best tailor-made teambuilding activity, with ‘De Nekker Escape Walk Experience’.
Late last year, Meet in Mechelen, the city of Mechelen’s congress bureau, launched a team-building competition. Agencies were encouraged to develop an activity that totally suits Mechelen. Candidates had to use elements that typify the city, such as heritage, distinctive buildings, stories or legends. Cooperation with local partners also earned extra points. After an initial jury selection, five projects were chosen in March and have been fully booked and implemented in recent months: The Nekker Escape Walk Experience (De Gouden Kooi), Build’In Mechelen (Perfect +), Mechelen Unboxed (Geoteam), Build the city (EventMosaic) and Operation Kabas (Event Masters).
“All these activities bring people together playfully and strengthen the bond between colleagues. It’s good promotion for Mechelen and that’s a good thing for our hospitality and other tourism partners,” explained Tourism Alderman Björn Siffer.
What was remarkable about this competition was that customers could also help judge the projects. After all, they were able to experience the team building from the front row. On Wednesday 8 November, the expert jury met. Their points were combined with those of the customers and in the process, De Gouden Kooi with ‘De Nekker Escape Walk Experience’ came out on top. They are the winner of the Mechelen Award 2023. The initiators will receive an interview in the trade magazine Experience Magazine as well as a wildcard for the BEAs (Belgian Event Awards) on Wednesday 15 November, giving them a chance to win an award in the Business-to-Enterprise category.
Jan Geyle of De Gouden Kooi is already very proud of this award: “It is great that our escape walk experience can contribute to putting Mechelen on the map as a teambuilding city.”
De Gouden Kooi shows that escape rooms can also continue in the city by fully integrating game elements along the route. So you don’t have to go out with pen and paper, tablet or phone and can fully immerse yourself in the game and the city,” said alderman Siffer. “In recent years, Mechelen has put itself strongly on the map as an attractive destination for business tourists. We owe this in part to our central location and good accessibility, but also to our conference and event facilities and wide range of recreational and cultural activities. Meet in Mechelen advises companies and puts them on the road with corporate events in our city. We also see great potential in Mechelen for teambuildings. I look forward to welcoming even more inspiring and unique teambuilding initiatives to Mechelen in the future.”
