1The Challenge
What was the challenge?
ET Brand Equity runs this gathering annually, bringing together an audience at the very top — 35 CXOs and CEOs — and as returning participants, they'd seen a good deal before. An event for a room of chief executives sets the highest bar in the business: it has to feel genuinely premium, effortless, and worth the time of people whose time is scarce, while being relaxed enough that senior leaders actually unwind and connect rather than network stiffly.
The design also had to respect the setting and the audience. This wasn't the place for an intense, learning-heavy team-build; it called for something immersive, tasteful, and social — an experience that used Goa itself as the draw and gave a distinguished group a reason to relax together. And it had to be delivered with a light touch: the client wanted the programme run unbranded, as a seamless part of their own event rather than an outside vendor's activity.
2Our Solution
What solution did we design?
The Goan Local Flavours experience was built to be exactly that kind of premium, immersive welcome. Rather than a conventional activity, it curated five hands-on cultural experiences unique to Goa, letting leaders move between them at a relaxed pace: shell art, drawing on Goa's coastal craft heritage; carnival mask-making, celebrating the state's famous Carnival tradition; feni tasting, sampling Goa's iconic local spirit; and two further curated local experiences completing the set.
For an audience of CXOs and CEOs, the format works precisely because it doesn't demand performance. There's no winning or losing, no exposure, no pressure — just genuinely interesting things to make, taste, and talk over. That's what lets senior people actually relax and connect with one another, which is the real goal of a gathering like this. And because each experience is authentically Goan, the group came away having tasted the place, not just visited it — a fittingly refined, sensory way to spend the first day.
Day Two shifted register with a livelier three-hour block: a themed Movie Making Challenge followed by Drone Around the World, giving the leaders a second day of hands-on fun to balance the cultural immersion of the first.
3How We Did It
How was the programme delivered?
Day One centred on the Goan Local Flavours experience, with participants moving through the five cultural stations at a relaxed, social pace. Day Two ran a tighter three-hour flow — opening with the Movie Making Challenge, in which teams created a short film, then moving into Drone Around the World with four drones in play.
Two facilitators ran both days, delivering the whole programme unbranded, as the client requested, so it felt like a seamless part of ET Brand Equity's own event rather than an external activity. The tone throughout was pitched to the audience: premium, easy, and social on Day One; energetic and fun on Day Two. Gifts were presented to participants as part of the experience, in keeping with the exclusive feel of the gathering.
4Key Outcomes
What were the results?
The Goan Local Flavours experience gave ET Brand Equity's senior leaders a refined, immersive first day — connecting over authentically Goan crafts, tastes, and traditions rather than a conventional team activity. For a room of CXOs and CEOs, it struck exactly the relaxed, premium note the occasion called for.
Across two days in South Goa, the programme balanced cultural immersion with hands-on fun — and gave a distinguished, returning audience a fresh, memorable gathering worth coming back for.