Corporate events are all about building team feeling. They are about pushing boundaries and getting your employees to let their hair down – to show themselves in a true and revealing light. To do that properly, they need to be fun, challenging and something that everyone can get involved in. So how about flying? Real, actual, unaided human flight in the total safety of an inverted wind tunnel?
It is called indoor skydiving, and it is the latest sensation to sweep the company days market in the United Kingdom. It is quite literally the ultimate in adrenalin fuelled awesomeness – and yet at the same time so safe that even the most timid post boy or shy and retiring colleague will take to it like a duck to water. A UK based company named Airkix has introduced vertical skydiving or indoor skydiving for corporate events. It gives companies a chance to take as many as 40 employees into the unknown and let them fly, alone and unaided, for real!
How does it work? Quite simply, actually. The whole thing turns on the idea of the wind tunnel. Take a wind tunnel and stand it on its end, so the wind goes up from floor to ceiling. Then jump into it wearing protective clothing – and either inside a big safety ball or just as you are. The air coming up the “tunnel” (it ought to be called a tunnel, really, as it is vertical rather than horizontal) stops you from falling. And there you are – really, genuinely, actually flying.
The corporate events offered by the company that runs the Airkix centres currently operational in the UK (one in Manchester & Milton Keynes and one just outside London) include refreshments and multiple flights for all guests. This makes a corporate package absolutely perfect for a company day out, a staff party, a leaving do or even a jolly whose purpose is to entertain other clients and customers. The whole thing is so safe that even kids can do it, it is wildly exhilarating and costs a tiny fraction of the price of an actual skydiving session.
In many ways the corporate events made possible by this indoor “skydiving” actually offer more fun and more exhilaration than a jump out of a plane. For one, there is no danger (which means everyone can get involved); and for two, the sensation itself is closer to real flying. A person in the funnel of the skydiving “tube” can steer, can rise, can fall – and can see everyone watching him or her while he or she does it, which makes the whole thing even more fun. After all, what is the point in having fun if there is no one around to see you do it?
Corporate events are going to be pretty big this year, as companies try to keep morale up through Britain’s toughest financial times in decades. Maybe flying in a tunnel is the best way to do just that. It is guaranteed exhilaration, and cost effective to boot – could be just the thing to keep those team spirits up through the next 12 months.