Our Fearless Team Building Leader
In this series of articles we take five minutes to chat with a member of the TeamBonding team so you can get an idea of the sort of people we are. In this installment we talk to David, our fearless team building leader, about where TeamBonding started, his favorite memories and his greatest fears…
How long have you been with TeamBonding? In the team building industry?
I have been here since the beginning. We launched this TeamBonding website in the year 2000, but before that I launched the business in 1988.
What made you decide to start the company?
TeamBonding was a natural extension of the work I was doing with my corporate entertainment company, Comedy Theater Productions and my adult education/recreation company, Learning Adventure. We were offering scavenger hunts, customized murder mysteries, game shows and many other unique group activities that clients started to request as team building.
We took a step back and created a catalogue of innovative events using the power of play as a learning tool and tapping into the correlation of work and play. We based it around this quote: “You learn more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” – Plato
We named it TeamBonding as the programs that we created and delivered had unique ways of motivating staff in a safe environment, bonding co-workers all with the end result of benefiting our clients.
What has been your most memorable experience at TeamBonding?
I have so many! I love to hear our facilitators talk about the events that they lead. I am inspired hearing about the charitable donations and the recipients. I really enjoy watching an event go from marketing to sales to production to facilitation- the process makes me proud. I do love thinking back to when we started in the basement of my home (kind of like the garage that Steve Jobs started in) and we were getting calls and contracts from Apple and Microsoft, Kodak and Polaroid, Liberty Mutual and Bain (our first client). I really have enjoyed every step from the beginning to just last year when we were named to the Inc. 5000 list for the third time.
What do you do with your spare time?
Spare time?!? The easy answer is spending time with my family and friends. I love the Red Sox and all Boston sports teams, I play poker (but I like the non-poker games) and we have a house on a lake where I love to kayak and listen to my Springsteen music on Spotify. The other answer is you’ll often find me an avid reader and lifelong learner of new ideas, businesses and concepts. I am a big fan of Flipboard.
What is your favorite place in the world to be?
Fenway Park. I have had so many good memories there with my grandfather, my father, my family and friends all starting from an early age to having my son’s Bar Mitzvah there in 2012. It is a truly magical place.
What is the best advice anyone gave you?
“Do something you love and the money will follow.” It is the best advice I can give as well.
Do you have any phobias?
Well, if you ask my family, they would say it was the dark. In Barcelona we went to a true Dining in the Dark event. When they were all seated, I was lead in, my hand on the shoulder of the person in front of my and my daughter’s hand on my shoulder. It was dark, we were in Spain, they were speaking French and it was warm. I had to leave. A little while later, I was brought back in the room and was able to continue, the few beers at the bar didn’t hurt.
What can’t you live without?
My wife Wendy and my children, Samantha, Baylee and Ty would say my iPhone. I would say my wife and my children.
When was the last time you climbed a tree?
Over the holidays in Belize, I climbed up to do a zipline with Sam, Baylee and Ty, does that count?
Describe yourself in three words:
Innovative, Unique and fun-loving
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