Corporate Rock Stars Team Building Live Music

Mangement Secrets of the Grateful Dead

2010-02-12T17:46:00.002-06:00

Management secrets of the Grateful Dead
Seeing the story of the grateful dead's bequeathing its' archives to the University of Santa Cruz made the smile muscles move. Go Banana Slugs! The Grateful Dead led the great American journey/myth/enterprise down the golden road of unlimited devotion, or something like that. As business entrepreneurs the dead proved masterminds with superior customer service and value added services such as direct mail order for tickets, 800 toll-free number for tour schedules, and free reign to tape, record and distribute their shows paving the way for what some would say was an ultimate "lifestyle enclave" and social network for the free of mind and time. This lifestyle enclave stimulates sociologists, philosophers, ethnomusicologists and entrepreurs to examine the culture and learn from the best traits of this well oiled machine. Thanks to the Atlantic for publishing the piece.
Management secrets of the Grateful Dead

Groove Labs attends Dallas SHRM Tradeshow

2008-11-12T16:59:00.001-06:00

The Groove Labs crew recently returned from the Dallas Society of Human Resource Management Tradeshow held in downtown Fort Worth. We went to the show to showcase our Corporate Rock Star Team Building Program and Play with the Pros.

We had a great number of people stop by and check us out. We saw some former clients and hopefully will make some new. People always give us a big thumbs up on the cool and fun factor. Being know as the fun company with a cool factor makes us happy. We have some core beliefs when it comes to doing what we do:

1) Follow the fun to freedom

Nice use of alliteration right? Sometimes (actually most of the time) it's the short but sweet sayings that are on the mark. While many people try and over intellectualize the team event, we believe that people are looking for experiences that are unique and different. Rock band team building (not the video game people, but actual LIVE music with real people that play instruments) is here to stay. It's fun, it's robust, it's full of creativity and raw excitement. It's something that provides a lasting memory and brings people together.

2) As Plato says, "You will learn more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversations." Think about that one for a minute. When we engage in playful activity we tend to act more directly from the heart of the matter. Rather than thinking too much, we just do. It's true, play comes naturally as a child, but as we grow older, we develop rules and regulations about our behavior, especially around co-workers. By engaging in play, we actually help to recreate and refresh ourselves. People recognize when others are having fun and feed off that positive energy. You know how it feels to sit in the audience and watch a speaker who is nervous. Doesn't it make you feel nervous too? Having fun with your co-workers is a positive experience that pays dividends.

3) Get outside of the box. In fact take a box cutter to the box and crush it. If you have not noticed, and chances are you have, America has lost some of it's economic power on the global scale. We all hear about the rise of China, India and South America. That's great news for us actually. All we have to do is get back onto the innovation train and create goods and services that these growing economies desire. The chance for opportunity is as high as it's ever been. Push yourself to innovate and create for the experiential economy. That's what we've done with our products and services. Our programs our licensed around the world. American culture especially our music gets lots of eyeballs, respect and money from our largest trading partners. Don't be afraid to become a market maker. Being a market maker is a pretty swell gig if you make it happen.

4) It's never too late to do what you love.

I said that 6 years ago when I started groove labs. It continues to this day. We continue to produce for our clients and they keep producing for us in terms of referrals and repeat assignments. We are a classic American small business. No need to grow too fast, borrow other people's money, or work too hard. Just keep delighting your client base and give them more than they expect. Watch the dividends grow. Reinvest in people and rock out from there.

Want to learn more about groove labs, corporate rock stars, or play with the pros? Then call us at 888-Gruvlabs or click here: http://www.groovelabs.net.

Keep it in tune.

Craig

Building Teams with Rock 'n Roll

2007-11-20T13:36:00.002-06:00

Okay, so five years ago that was a pioneering concept. Why is rock band team building relevant? Let me count the ways:

1) Playing live music creates happiness and shareholder value.

Really, have you ever played live music with someone? Any genre: classical, rock, jazz, avant guard. Does not matter how good or bad you are, the feeling that comes with playing live is indescribable. Perhaps the greatest testament is all the starving musicians out there who have given up any semblance of a balanced life to chase the live vibe dragon.

2) People identify with live music. Music is free of judgement and partiality.

Everyone connects with music. It's hard not to connect with music as there is no right or wrong way to feel or respond to music. Ah, we can all rest in the subjectivity of our emotions. What works for me does not have to work for you and vice versa

3) All the copycats. (We gauge our success by the number of imitators)

Okay, that's my thought for the day. Make your team Rock! If you have the budget call Groove Labs and ask for Corporate Rock Stars. We want you to play music together and rock your way to the top!

Peace,
Craig

Corporate Rockstars® Team Building

2007-07-13T11:38:00.000-05:00

"You can discover more about a person in one hour of play than in a lifetime of conversation." -Plato

http://www.groovelabs.net

Corporate Rock Stars® Team Building from Groove Labs. (3-4 hours of play)
Play with the Pros Music from Groove Labs

Groove Labs® attends the Society of Human Resource Management Tradeshow (June 2007)

The groove labs team (Bonnie, Rich, Aaron and Craig) went to Las Vegas to attend the Society of Human Resource Management Tradeshow (the SHRM). The show proved a great hit for us. If we had a dollar for every person that called us "brilliant" or "genius", I'd still be writing this because, well, have you seen the price of gas lately? Also, let's be clear, being called a genius and brilliant does not pay the rent. Being a genius is actually monetizing a great idea: taking it from ideation to actualization to commericialization. Wow, did I just say that, I mean I was thinking that, but geez, I'm sounding like a management insultant, I mean, consultant (sorry McKinsey). How many ping pong balls will fit inside a 747 airliner?

What was our magic at SHRM? Boils down to a few key things. If you're smart enough to find yourself here, let me give you some tradeshow secrets.

1) Make the booth FUN.

We brought the video game Guitar Hero and had two guitar controllers so that people could play together. The number of people that stopped at our booth and said, "Wow, my kids have that game, they love it." Talk about opening the door. If people talk about their pets or kids, (sorry, spouses don't make the cut) you've got a great opportunity to sell your wares. We offered branded mini-maracas too. Geez, even the security guards asked if they could have some. Whatever, we want people to groove, so come one come all...

Emotional connections are where the human experience live. Yet, still people think that coffee mugs and ROI graphs represent what the tradeshow attendee wants. I don't get it, chalk it up to the path of dumbest resistance.

2) Give your marketing collateral away on a flash drive. DUH!!

We had our promo video and all of our marketing collateral available on a groove labs branded jump drive. Again, out of 750 exhibitors we were the only one to do that. C'mon, in the day and age of the world wide interweb , Crackberrys and technodom, who doesn't want to have a 128 MB flash drive on their key chain. At $9 a pop at branders.com, go and get 'em. I can't wait to see how many booths next year are offering branded jump drives. It would not surprise me to see about 20% of the booths doing that in 2008 in Chicago.

3) Clear message for your products.

Corporate Rock Stars- Rock band team building.

Play with the Pros Music- Play and Sing with a Live Band.

Any questions, please call 888.Gruvlabs

4) Great people. Gente Grande. Grandes Personnes. большие люди

That's mucho dinero in any language. (What ever happened to Robin Leach, ah, who cares really...)

Okay, so that's the rub of our tradeshow happenings in Las Vegas. Guess, it's probably worth saying that not only was our Groove Labs booth hot at the tradeshow, BUT also, the craps tables behaved nicely too. I doubled my money at Steve Wynn's elegant new casino: I won at Wynn.

Stay tuned.

Craig Nadel
www.groovelabs.net
Founder/Artist/Everyday Dood

Corporate Rock Stars
Play with the Pros Music