Cocktail challenge on Lake Maggiore: team building with purpose

To that end, we designed an activity suited to spontaneous interaction, naturally fitting the relaxed atmosphere of an evening on Lake Maggiore.

Why cocktail creation worked

Cocktail team building works by taking collaboration out of its usual formal framework and placing it into a more hands-on, less mediated setting. People end up working side by side on a concrete shared task, and the usual workplace dynamics tend to loosen, sometimes in unexpected ways, as interactions become more direct and less constrained by formal roles.

No previous bartending experience was required. More introverted participants could focus on technique and balance, while outgoing personalities gravitated towards presentation and performance. Learning mixology together fostered a sense of shared accomplishment, without the pressure typically associated with more structured corporate activities.

The concept also adapts easily to different group sizes and locations. In this case, though, the lakeside garden setting added something difficult to replicate elsewhere.

The challenge: invent the company’s signature cocktail

The Cocktail Challenge took place outdoors, guided by professional mixologists who introduced the basics before leaving space for creativity. Teams were asked to invent an original cocktail, but there was an additional element that changed the dynamic entirely: the winning drink would become the company’s official signature cocktail and appear on the dinner menu later that evening.

The winning cocktail combined vodka and pomegranate juice, a clear reference to the pomegranate trees in the founder’s garden: a symbol of the connection between the company’s identity and history and the everyday collaboration of its staff members.

The role of the location

Lake Maggiore contributed more than scenery. The garden setting transformed the event from a conventional corporate exercise into something closer to a private social gathering. Teams moved through the activity with far less rigidity than would typically be the case in a more conventional setting.

Timing mattered as well. Late Sunday afternoon rarely suits demanding activities, but it does favour lighter formats that encourage conversation without exhausting participants further. The cocktail challenge matched that rhythm closely: engaging enough to maintain attention, relaxed enough not to feel like additional work.

What emerged beyond the activity

Organisers described the level of participation as unusually high, largely because the activity dissolved formal hierarchies that normally remain present during conventions and networking sessions.

Cocktail-making ability, after all, has little to do with corporate seniority, and it happened that junior employees occasionally took the lead, whereas managers stepped back.

The decision to serve the winning cocktail during dinner was also particularly effective, because it extended the experience into the evening programme and gave the activity a tangible outcome rather than leaving it as an isolated moment.