The competitive spirit is alive and well at MMC!

For our annual summer outing this year, the HR team designed an Eastside Scavenger Hunt for the MMC staff. The “hunt” was to be followed by a delicious picnic-themed dinner; but before the chicken, salads, sangria and make-your-own sundae bar could be enjoyed, MMC’ers had an action packed 90 minutes ahead of them.

Our entire staff participated, from interns to Practice Group leaders, racing around the city snapping pictures and gathering “hunt” items to bring back. We knew that MMC’ers would put their PR skills to use but the resourcefulness, strategy, execution and creativity that we saw was inspiring!

Here are some of the winning strategies:

1. Plan, plan, plan: when the “hunt” guide went out at 3 pm, there was a mad dash by staffers to get their hands on it! With only 90 minutes to execute, teams had to make efficient use of their time and coordinate their efforts in a way that allowed them to gather the most points.

2. A picture is worth…..a lot of points if you do it right: while teams could only submit 10 photos, those that strategized to put multiple scenes in one picture were able to capitalize (think, entire team in yoga poses plus a bike messenger– in one shot!)

3. Masters of negotiation: with only a $10 budget and dozens of items to potentially bring back, most of our teams proudly gave the judges change! Apparently if you ask nicely enough, you don’t actually have to go for a cab ride to get a taxi receipt.

4. “Buttering up” goes a long way: make sure you know your audience! Teams could “bribe” the judges with “treats” – that translated into Australian chocolates for Maree, chicken wings from the Buffalo bar for Kate and beer (even if it wasn’t Irish) for MaryBeth!

5. Extra credit adds up: many teams went above and beyond to gain extra points and had a ball doing it. Team 1 stopped the Big Apple tour bus to get the picture. Team 2 flirted shamelessly with a firefighter – one member even wearing his hat and jacket!

We are delighted to applaud the winning team – who racked up points by bringing back multiples of every single item on the “hunt” list! Congratulations Patrick DeLisser, Joanna Garland, Sara Horowitz, Jackie Widrow, Robert Ricci, Annette Evans and Erica Nadboy (pictured above)!

Check out the rest of our teams in action, as well as highlights from the picnic!