ICL’s Murder on the Venice Simplon  on the Orient-Express

Brief:
100 of ICL's top Sales Managers were being rewarded with a trip to Venice on the Orient-Express, culminating in an awards ceremony at the Excelsior Hotel. The Sales Managers would be travelling with their partners, who also had to be included in, and made to feel a part of, all activities. Team-building was an important objective of the brief but there was concern not to intrude on each couple's enjoyment of the journey. The client wanted to arrange for an exclusive murder on the Orient-Express.

Solution: From Murder On The Menu's point of view the most important part of a whodunnit event is the beginning. It is essential to get an audience involved right from the start - which explains why a singing and tap-dancing bell-hop was seen delivering a large parcel to the waiting Orient-Express.

The suspicious characters in this bespoke mystery were movie stars and gangsters from the golden age of Hollywood. Rarely has a railway platform looked so glamorous. Cameras and videos were working overtime - and the trip hadn't started yet!

In this instance it had been decided to construct a script around the murder of the "client" - a character who answered to the initials ICL. In the week prior to the trip's commencement the ICL character sent a series of memoranda to key personnel. If ever a character was doomed to a horrible death it was ICL. He died on the platform in the middle of an inspirational speech. The assembled ICL Sales Managers and partners cheered and applauded as his body was dragged away the strains of a jazz band murdering "Happy Birthday".

A parallel team-building game was running for the delegates from each country. Team captains had been nominated in advance and given a dubious secret to protect (hence the "ICL" memoranda). The team captains all wore orchids for identification. Their objective was to motivate their teams to meet everyone else on the train as a means to discovering each opposing team's secret. As the competition hotted up the conversation in the bar was extraordinary! ICL's team spirit was very much alive. We still have fond memories of a Belgian member of the party resolutely ignoring the passing Alps in his quest to solve unravel the murder plot.

Meanwhile some sales managers were arriving in Venice by plane and had to be included in the mystery…

Murder On The Menu created and facilitated both the whodunnit and the secrets game. The mystery characters also became a part of a treasure hunt round the streets of Venice, as well as hosting the ICL sales awards ceremony. The Murder On The Menu cabaret received a standing ovation.

Result:
A unanimous response that the annual sales event had been the best ever. The client felt that the company had totally achieved all of its objectives.