Pickleball has gained in popularity in recent years. Photo courtesy of frimufilms

Jeff Welger, director of corporate meetings and events for Arch Insurance Group Inc., recalls the surprised reaction from attendees when logistics prevented the company from offering golf as a group activity. Rather than disappointment, participants expressed relief.

For years, golf and spa treatments have been staples at insurance and financial company events. While both activities have their virtues, Welger has found that in this era of experiential events, teambuilding is an area in which activities are ready for something new. He has found that a tweak to a winning formula can be just as, if not more, effective than overhauling an event’s agenda.

Generally speaking, sports are going to naturally remain an inspiration for meeting planners looking to build camaraderie. Games simultaneously encourage cooperation and competition, bringing out a healthy dose of exercise and fun. First and foremost, the activities are meant to be fun, but the ultimate goal is to lay the groundwork for improved teamwork and productivity back in the office.

Attendees unlikely to catch a professional game on TV jump at the interactive quality of sports-themed teambuilding moments during events. Welger has found gamification of teambuilding resonates, transcending gender and age gaps that otherwise could drive a wedge among associates.

Fit City offers many teambuilding events, including a fun run.

Play Time

Angela Minardi, founder & chief experience officer of Fit City Adventures, which facilitates 30-50 teambuilding activities per month across the United States, says the importance of learning through play emerges in childhood and remains through our adult lives.

“Play is really what’s at the heart of connection,” says Minardi, whose San Diego-based company regularly works with large financial and insurance institutions. “So, when we’re playing soccer, it’s a way for engineers to connect with salespeople.”

Fit City offers a variety of athletics-based teambuilding events, including company pickleball, beach volleyball, dodgeball, e-biking, mountain hiking and field days, among other options. Even its more traditional teambuilding activities, like building skateboards, have a sports tie-in.

As Fit City has grown, it has built upon its foundation to incorporate additional experiential elements like picnics and stargazing. It now operates in 50 U.S. cities, many of which are top destinations like Boston, Las Vegas and Washington D.C. Minardi has become a leading wellness expert, presenting health trends at IMEX America 2025.

The competition and teamwork are only part of the boost corporations gain from taking a few pages from sports playbooks. Off-the-field activities athletes use for training are also valuable for meeting attendees, notes Minardi. That’s why breathing exercises, sound baths and yoga are part of the Fit City routine.

“Your brain needs oxygen to function,” says Minardi. “I think conferences are really focused on pumping out cookies and coffee when really doing a breathwork class can give you the energy that you need to get through the day.”

Some companies seeking a real jolt have added ice plunges, which tackle lingering aches and pains from traveling, as well as help attendees sleep better at night.

Notes Minardi: “These things give you a natural energy boost, and that’s what conferences need because people who are happy and healthy want to be there. They want to network and be engaged.”

House Rules in Scottsdale, AZ, offers different competitions for groups, including duckpin bowling.

If You Build It, They Will Come

Destinations are proactively creating new experiences that tie in a local sports team with a corporate event in town.

Hallowed venues like the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (home of the Indy 500) and Churchill Downs in Louisville (site of the Kentucky Derby) are common teambuilding and reception sites for insurance and financial event planners.

A relatively more recent trend is for professional stadiums to host corporate receptions, galas, meetings and more. These experiences, made popular at San Diego’s Petco Park in the early 2000s, often include exclusive moments like private tours of locker rooms and on-field meals.

There are multiple benefits to using local stadiums and arenas.

•  In many cases, the professional sports are built into a city’s identity, such as with Boston (Bruins, Celtics, Patriots and Red Sox) and Chicago (Bears, Blackhawks, Bulls, Cubs and White Sox).
• Pro football teams only use their stadiums a limited number of times per year, depending on preseason and playoff games, so corporate events add valuable revenue to the venue and host city.
• Large sports venues are commonly surrounded by an entertainment district. For instance, insurance and financial groups meeting at Truist Park just outside of Atlanta can also venture into the nearby Battery Atlanta, home to concert halls, retail and restaurants.

The power of sports extends regionally, meaning planners looking to harness the fame of the Dallas Cowboys, for example, can expand their site selection to suburbs like Arlington, Grapevine, Frisco and Plano, TX.

“To paraphrase Nelson Mandela, sports unifies things like little else can,” says Josh Dill, assistant executive director of Visit Frisco, the Dallas suburb that bills itself as “Sports City USA.”

Frisco’s moniker applies to more than on-field action, as the power of sports has turned the burgeoning destination into a corporate destination.

The city successfully wooed the Cowboys to build their new headquarters, which took the form of a 91-acre mixed-use development called The Star. Aside from the Cowboys’ offices, the site includes an Omni hotel; the Cowboys Club, a private social club and restaurant; and Ford Center, a multipurpose, 12,000-seat indoor stadium.

The PGA of America moved its headquarters to Frisco in 2023. The project included another Omni hotel, which has an onsite golf course available for championship and corporate events, as well as several restaurant and retail options.

The National Soccer Hall of Fame, located within Toyota Stadium (home to FC Dallas, a Major League Soccer club), is one of several sports-themed museums around the country that financial and insurance groups can rent for private functions and teambuilding experiences. Other such facilities include the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, NC, the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta, GA, and the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, RI.

Churchill Downs in Louisville, KY, is often used as a site for teambuilding and receptions.

It’s Go-Time

The beauty of teambuilding is that the activities can cover a wide range of competitive levels.

FIRST, a global brand experience agency that organizes events for financial and insurance companies, and other clients, leans into a win-first mentality with a Partner Ice Hockey Game held at a major arena like the Chicago Blackhawks’ Fifth Third Arena. Participants are so invested in the outcome that they rise early, often after a late-night gala, to play the game before business functions take place that day.

The venue raises the stakes for the game, and is a key component of the teambuilding objective, notes Christine Cullity, FIRST’s senior marketing director. Playing on a professional ice rink ups the ante for executing complex logistics, which the client has to do on a daily professional basis.

Minardi says, in her experience, financial and insurance executives and salespersons tend to be the most competitive, while product development professionals enjoy strategy games.

On another extreme from FIRST’s ice hockey, Arch Insurance has fun at House Rules (formerly Lane Alley) in Scottsdale, AZ. The venue features three types of competitions, including axe throwing, duckpin bowling and curling, which is played on a slick floor rather than traditional ice. Such a variety plays to both introverts and extroverts, Welger says.

Somewhere in the middle of competitive ice hockey and sweeping a curling stone is pickleball. Predicts Welger: “Pickleball is probably the next golf tournament charity event.”

For now, Arch Insurance Group starts with pickleball pros offering lessons regardless of the attendees’ experience level. The groups then naturally tend to divide based on regular players and novices.

Swingers, which has several locations, is a high-end mini-golf chain that offers adult beverages served on the fairways — perfect for group events. Photo courtesy of Paul Winch-Furness

Grand Slam Experiences

As attendees seek interactive experiences, activities and events often saved for internal teambuilding are transferring over from client meetings.

For instance, FIRST, on behalf of a hospitality client, recently crafted the NBA China Games Retail District, an immersive public experience featuring basketball-inspired installations, an official pop-up store and partner retail booths. The activation, which drew thousands of visitors, was designed as an immersive and engaging environment that captured the true spirit of the NBA, according to Cullity.

Look for similarly high-profile moments in 2026 as part of the FIFA World Cup. Eleven of the event’s 16 host cities are in the U.S. Miami, already a hotbed for corporate events, is sure to capitalize on its connection to Argentinian star Lionel Messi, who plays for Inter Miami FC.

Miami’s sports venues available for private events include Hard Rock Stadium; Kaseya Center; LoanDepot Park; Homestead Miami Speedway; Trump National Doral Miami, a golf resort; and others in the area.

Dallas and its surrounding neighbors have the bonus of hosting the World Cup’s international media headquarters. Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center will be the media base, but Frisco’s soccer hall of fame will be the backdrop of many video shoots.

Welger has seen Arch Insurance Group’s clients bond over unique experiences, such as group seats to the Super Bowl, tickets to the WM Phoenix Open or renting a suite at a baseball game. “There’s a wow factor providing them an experience they otherwise might not have,” he says.

One activity popular with Arch Insurance Group’s customers and associates is offering experiences at an Arabian horse farm in Scottsdale. “You literally transcend yourself back to a different era,” Welger says.

Attendees can ride the horses (with a trainer guiding the animals) and enjoy a show. Because there are event spaces onsite, the teambuilding can lead into an evening reception.

Another way to dazzle is to bring the stars to the attendees, as FIRST has done. For an immersive sports zone, it designed a large-scale, interactive reception featuring sporting activations, including baseball pitching cages, golf simulators and dance challenges. Each activity was paired with sporting celebrity talent (e.g., former Hall of Fame athletes or Peloton instructors) to offer tips and compete with attendees.

Changing the Games

With the variety of opportunities available to planners, it’s easy to see why a day on the links has grown a bit stale to Arch Insurance Group’s associates. That said, variations on sports are popping up around the country to meet varying tastes.

Fun Fit City twists on the norm include puppy yoga, aqua boxing and aqua trampoline.

Classic recreational games are also getting a makeover.

Topgolf, which mixes driving ranges (and mini-golf in some locations) with a sports bar atmosphere, was among the first to capitalize on the hybrid sports and entertainment night out. It now has more than 80 venues in most major U.S. destinations and is a go-to for many corporations seeking a night out. Yet, as Topgolf has exploded, it, too, can feel a bit familiar to attendees, Welger notes.

New to the game is Swingers, a high-end mini-golf chain that comes complete with adult beverages that are served on the fairways. Locations are now open in Las Vegas, NV; Washington, D.C.; Boston, MA; New York, NY; Dubai, UAE and London, England.

PopStroke takes mini-golf to a new level. The experiential golf and casual dining concept that features two 18-hole putting courses built entirely with synthetic turf, incorporating fairways, bunkers and rough. Headquartered in Jupiter, FL, and partnered with Tiger Woods and TaylorMade, PopStroke has locations in Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Nevada, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.

Pickleball’s popularity is also fusing with hospitality concepts. Chicken N Pickle has locations in the central U.S. from St. Louis, MI to Denver, CO and several in Texas.

Competitive Social Venture is also trying to hit an ace with the growing market with Pickle and Social, which has locations open in Scottsdale, as well as Gwinnett County, GA. It has plans for another location in Alpharetta, GA.

Welger isn’t surprised by the mix of sports and entertainment, which is how teambuilding is trending. “Often when we’re doing these activities, they’re evening-based and they are 100% a combination of a reception or gathering with the activity,” he says.

Whether its a night on the links or a day of pickleball, no matter the sport, attendees are sure to strengthen their relationships while enjoying their love of the game. I&FMM