Agencies and DMCs: A Team Treasure Hunt in Marrakech

A seminar in Marrakech often hinges on a delicate balance: busy working days, carefully planned evenings, and in between, a moment meant to bring teams closer without anyone feeling on show. A treasure hunt, a trail game or an orienteering race meet this need well, provided they are organised rigorously.

For an event agency or a DMC, the challenge is twofold: offer an activity that enhances the client's programme, and deliver it without improvising on the ground. This is exactly what TeamLab by QuestRides is for, a game engine designed in Marrakech to run collective experiences. Here is how to integrate it into your seminars.

Why a treasure hunt works at a seminar

A treasure hunt brings together colleagues who don't work together day to day, gives them a shared goal and gets them moving through an unfamiliar setting. The Medina of Marrakech, with its alleyways, souks and atmosphere, offers a backdrop that instantly takes people out of their routine, without the need for long transfers.

For the HR managers and office managers who commission the activity, the benefit is tangible: everyone takes part, roles are shared out, and the evening's conversation is about what happened during the game rather than ongoing projects.

What TeamLab brings to agencies and DMCs

TeamLab turns a treasure hunt, a trail game or an orienteering race into a managed collective experience. The engine stays the same, but the route is designed for each format and together with the client. You are therefore not reselling a standard scenario: you build with your client a route tailored to their objectives.

Agencies and DMCs can integrate TeamLab into their seminars. If access is granted, the client can even run its own quest independently.

Before the big day: teams and preparation

  • Creation and composition of teams, with team names.
  • A captain and roles suited to the group size.
  • Remote registration, with the briefing and road book sent in advance.

This preparation lightens your logistics on the day itself: participants arrive already knowing their team and the rules.

During the game: a fully mobile route

The game is played on a smartphone, with no paper map. On the participant side, it is available in French, English, Arabic and Darija, which matters for international or mixed groups. Steps are validated automatically by photo, so there is no need for facilitators at every point along the route.

The real-time control room: staying in control without monitoring individuals

This is the point that reassures organisers most. From the control room, you can see each team's progress, how long it has been since its position changed, and which teams are paused or offline.

An important point for your clients, particularly on the HR side: the position is unique to each team, transmitted by the team's team lead phone. There is never any individual tracking.

Six possible interventions

If the running order requires it, the control room can act in six ways:

  • activate a reserve step;
  • launch a timed surprise mission;
  • freeze a team;
  • slow a team down;
  • pause the game;
  • resume the game.

Before each intervention, the control room announces its target, its effect and its duration. No intervention is applied while a team is on the move. The game remains clear and fair, which avoids frustration.

To spice up the competition, talismans between teams (Givre, Sablier, Mirage, Égide) are available as an option.

Who runs it?

The organiser can run it themselves, without a technician. The set-up includes five staff roles, including safety and observer: you share out the tasks according to the size and constraints of the event.

Privacy: a selling point for your clients

Participants register with a first name, with no email or phone number. TeamLab produces no individual scores, no psychological profiles and no ranking of individuals. The experience remains collective: teams are celebrated, not individual performances.

This is a useful message to share in advance with HR managers, who sometimes worry that a cohesion activity might turn into a disguised assessment.

Fitting the treasure hunt into a complete seminar

An agency or DMC thinks in sequences: welcome, work, transfers, meals, evening. The treasure hunt can become the highlight of a day, as long as it is placed well.

The final ceremony, in a dedicated venue

TeamLab includes trophies, awards presented by the jury and a final ceremony. This ceremony takes place in a dedicated venue, never at the finish point of the hunt. In practical terms, this lets you plan a proper awards moment in a polished setting, and follow it with a meal or an evening event.

The debrief

The event log and timeline serve as a basis for the debrief. You can go back over the game's highlights with the teams, the choices they made and how they organised themselves.

Scoping the project online

Every seminar is different. The online scoping covers the points that shape your proposal:

  1. the seminar's objectives;
  2. the participants;
  3. the format: treasure hunt, trail game or orienteering race;
  4. transfers;
  5. meals;
  6. the ceremony;
  7. the full stay;
  8. the budget.

It leads to a tailored proposal, in the form of a bespoke quote. For an agency, it is a good way to start from precise information rather than a scattering of messages.

And outside Marrakech?

TeamLab was designed in Marrakech, where it is available today. Agadir is in preparation. Elsewhere, deployment involves an adaptation, with a local partner, a site survey and validation of the terrain. If your client is considering another location, it is best to mention it at the scoping stage.

Conclusion

Offering a team treasure hunt to your seminar clients means providing a structured, mobile and clear collective experience while keeping control of the organisation. With the real-time control room, each team's progress, the team lead phone as the only source of position and a ceremony in a dedicated venue, you have what you need to build an activity that fits in with the rest of the programme. To discover the format from the general public's side, you can also take a look at our treasure hunt in Marrakech.

Planning a seminar in Marrakech? Start the online scoping to receive a tailored proposal, or first explore the TeamLab page.