AbstractsBusiness Management & Administration

The objective of this thesis was to study the market of recreational and team building activities for HUONE, a finish company based in Helsinki. This involved interviewing experts who gave recommendations on how to integrate team building or recreational activities into meetings. Afterwards the commissioners’ clients were asked for their preferences in said sectors. The goal was to enable the commissioner to decide which products and services to implement into their portfolio. The paper consists therefore of two research types; a qualitative study and a quantitative survey. The theoretical framework of the paper introduces business meetings and some of their challenges. The challenges occurring inside the meeting created by the participants are focused on. Next to that team building and recreational activities (e.g. yoga, meditation and mindfulness) are presented. The results of the expert interviews showed that the activities are best integrated into meeting breaks. This way the break can contribute to the effectiveness of the meeting. Efficient breaks are known as active breaks. Cooperation exercises, chair yoga, laughter yoga or meditation were found to be the easiest to integrate. The clients clearly prefer chair yoga. Laughter yoga, aijä-yoga and business meditation are of lower interest. Professional massages are welcome and preferred over instructed pair massages. Special private units are more welcome than services running all day. The clients are interested in whole and half days of team building. They are preferred over short integrated units of team building. The most preferred products are healthy snacks. Visual tools such as the LEGO SERIOUS edition bricks are preferred over construction packages and visual brainstorming tools. The recommendation for the commissioner is to take chair yoga, professional massages and whole or half days of team building into the portfolio. Healthy snacks and visual tools should be offered as well. Yoga instructions are of medium interest to the clients but easy to be integrated, so should be considered.