Planning FAQs for Corporate Team Events

Pricing flexes with group size, format, and customization. Each tier has a per-person rate and a minimum:

• Classic: $30 per person, 20-player minimum ($600).
• Premier: $50 per person, 20-player minimum ($1,000).
• Gold: $75 per person with a $3,750 minimum.
• Amazing Race: $150 per person, $20,000 minimum.

Smaller groups usually fit Classic or Premier. Larger or more produced events fit Gold or Amazing Race. Custom builds sit on top of the tier cost. For example, a custom Who Kidnapped YOUR Boss game for 50 people runs around $3,700. The cleanest path to a real number is sharing your event details. If you have a fixed budget, share the range and Social Scavenger will work to fit it. Events have ranged from $600 to $100,000+.

Per-person tier pricing applies to most events. For groups of 200+, flat-rate pricing options become available, since the per-person math stops scaling proportionally. The discovery call works out the right structure.

It depends on group size, event date, and location. The discovery call surfaces the real number. As a rule of thumb, onsite hosts make sense when the event budget already includes Premier or Gold tier and the format benefits from the added in-person layer. Adding an onsite host to a Classic-tier event is usually budget-mismatched.

Classic tier games (Onsite Poster Games, Great Scott!, Choose Wisely) at $30/person with a $600 minimum. For a group of 20, that's $600 total. For a group of 30, $900. For a group of 40, $1,200. Pricing scales per-head above the minimum.

The full app (posters, scoring, leaderboards, real-time judging, AI twists, instant slideshow), the briefing video customizable to your group, and the digital assets needed to run the game. No in-person host. No custom build. No white-label app. The standard game, run well.

The $600 minimum covers up to 20 players. Below 20 players, the cost stays at $600 (you're not paying per-person; you're paying the minimum). If your group is smaller than 20 and the $600 still doesn't fit, the conversation moves to whether a different format works or whether the team activity is something to plan when the budget grows. Worth raising during the discovery call.

Nonprofit and charity groups face the same Classic tier pricing. The discovery call sometimes surfaces flexibility on group-size minimums or specific tier features. Worth raising directly.

Around $20,000 on average for a ground-up build. The biggest cost drivers are production complexity (number of custom assets, video work, multi-location logistics) and group size. Past Social Scavenger customs have ranged from low-five-figures for lighter builds to mid-six-figures for elaborate multi-country productions tied to year-long strategic themes. Smaller groups with smaller budgets can still get something custom for less, since group size moves the math significantly. The discovery call is where the real number takes shape.

The sooner the better. Earlier booking keeps every option on the table. A classic city game with basic setup can be ready in days. Custom games (a branded Who Kidnapped YOUR Boss with a custom AI intro video, for example) typically need 4-6 weeks for build, asset production, and review. Full Amazing Race events or fully custom stories need more lead time, so it's worth reaching out as soon as you know an event is happening.

Six weeks minimum. Most builds run in the six-to-twelve-week range. Elaborate productions (multi-day arcs, multi-city logistics, heavy video production, white-label app design) can push to three or more months. If your event is sooner than six weeks, the better path is customizing an existing game rather than running a ground-up build under pressure.

Three steps. One, share your event details with Social Scavenger (date, group size, location, format preference, budget). Two, Social Scavenger sends back a recommended game, a quote, and a contract. Three, sign the contract and pay the invoice to lock the date. From there, the game production team takes over.

Credit card is the primary payment method. Wire transfer is another standard option. Other methods (check, PO terms) are available on exception. Final payment is due before the game runs. For larger events or longer lead times, Social Scavenger can split payment into a deposit plus a balance closer to the event date.

Rebooking is normally no problem and usually carries no cost. The exception is when production work tied to the original date has to be redone or rebooked. Travel and hotel commitments, onsite hosts already scheduled, and custom production work in progress can carry rescheduling charges. Anything along those lines will be spelled out in your contract so there are no surprises.

Most formats run cleanly from 20 to 500+ people. Smaller groups can play, though the energy is best with at least 4-5 competing teams. Past 500 people, logistics start mattering more (splitting into zones, parallel games, multi-leaderboard setups), so for large events the right call is a quick conversation. There's no upper limit; Social Scavenger has run 2,500+ person events.

Past events have run for groups of 1,000 to 5,000+ players. The largest was a Hyundai corporate-wide program that ran across multiple offices and brought roughly 5,000 employees into one game. Format scales as needed. Discovery call sizes the production to the group.

For large groups, team sizes of 8 to 10 work better than smaller teams. Larger teams carry themselves with their own internal energy, are easier to score and manage, and reduce the total number of teams to track. For very large groups (500+), team sizes of 10 are standard.

The sweet spot for an indoor game is 90 minutes, long enough to build energy and competition while still fitting between sessions or before dinner. Indoor games run from 45 minutes (tight, and not every game fits this window) to 60-90 minutes (most common) up to a full half-day for multi-station experiences. Outdoor city games tend to run 120 minutes, since walking distance changes the math.

It depends on the format. Some games have essentially no setup. Teams join through the app and play. Poster-based games need posters hung in advance and removed after, usually under 15 minutes for teardown. Amazing Race-style multi-station events have Social Scavenger facilitators on the ground for the duration. Whatever the format, the team coordinates with your venue ahead of time so logistics aren't your job.

Social Scavenger provides the digital wrap-up: a real-time winners announcement, a results slideshow, a custom highlight video (Premier and higher), and team highlight reels (Gold). Physical prizes (trophies, gift cards, swag, bragging-rights mugs) are normally provided by the client. Most groups have something simple ready, often a small gift card or a goofy trophy that gets passed around. The wrap-up moment usually matters more than the prize itself.

Yes. Social Scavenger has run games in French (Canadian and European markets), Spanish, Mandarin, and other languages. Bilingual games where the content runs in two languages side-by-side also work. Tell Social Scavenger the language needs during the briefing call, since fully translated games add production time. Lead time should be longer for any non-English language work.

Yes. Some Social Scavenger formats are designed for multi-day arcs. A classic setup is a kickoff challenge on day one, distributed challenges or check-ins through the agenda, and a curated reveal moment on the final day. The Plex Swiss Alps build (featured on the Custom Conference Games page) ran across an opening night dinner reveal and a full game day. Multi-day formats need more lead time and usually require Premier or higher.

All photo and video content from your game goes to you. Wrap-up materials include a real-time results slideshow, a leaderboard archive, a custom highlight video (Premier and higher), team highlight reels (Gold), and access to the full raw content. Most clients use the content in internal newsletters, recap emails, intranet posts, and on internal social.

You do. Social Scavenger can recommend team sizes (4 to 6 per team is the standard, larger for big-group events) and can suggest mixing departments or seniority levels if connection is the goal. But team assignments are the client's call since you know the group dynamics. Most planners send team assignments to Social Scavenger before the event so the briefing materials and any custom assets can reference them.

Yes, Social Scavenger has its own app that runs the game. One person per team is normally the "tech captain" who runs the app for the group. Some teams want more than one person on the app, but the focus is on the experience, not the tech. The goal is heads up, not heads buried.

No, downloading is not required. Social Scavenger knows app downloads can be an issue inside some corporate environments, so a browser version of the game is also available. If one person per team can download the app, that's the best version of the experience. The browser version is the fallback when downloads aren't possible.

Social Scavenger can provide devices but doesn't recommend it. The devices get rented and the cost gets passed along to you. Most groups already have everything they need (one phone per team), so the device add-on is an expense that usually isn't necessary.

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Split-group setups work when the event has multiple breakout spaces or natural cohort lines (different departments, different regions, different functions). Single-group setups work when the venue is big enough and the agenda is unified. Either way, the format scales to the configuration.

Yes. Multi-city setups run regional cohorts simultaneously in different cities, with results rolling into a single combined leaderboard and one shared wrap-up video. Common for distributed sales teams or large companies with regional offices.

Social Scavenger is the strategic fun layer, not the retreat planner. The travel, hotels, meals, transport, accommodations, and overall agenda design all stay with whoever is doing the broader planning (in-house events team, external agency, retreat coordinator). Social Scavenger plugs in as the activity. Design and build happen during the lead-up; onsite execution is handled by either the event team or by Social Scavenger team members depending on production complexity.

No. Social Scavenger doesn't book travel, hotels, food, transport, or accommodations. The team activity is what Social Scavenger handles, designed, built, and delivered to integrate with whatever the planner and event company are already doing.

Indoor formats are rain-or-shine. They don't depend on weather. For outdoor city games, you have three options: add rain insurance (low cost, full coverage), build an indoor backup format ahead of time (designed alongside the main game), or reschedule if your event allows for it.

Three options. One, reschedule for another date. Two, play through. Some of the best games have happened in less-than-perfect weather, and most groups push on. Three, book rain insurance up front. That swaps a wet-weather day to one of the indoor Social Scavenger games (poster-based or app-based) at the same venue. Social Scavenger handles the call with you on the day.

Yes. Accessibility is built into the design process. Most formats accommodate mobility limits, knee issues, walking limits, and other physical considerations. Indoor and onsite formats remove transport and walking-distance concerns entirely. For city games, accessible routes can be planned ahead of time, and any team member who needs an alternate role (timekeeper, photo curator, decision-maker) can play without movement-heavy challenges.

The game has more challenges than any team can finish, so teams are already being strategic about which to attempt. Teams with mobility limits keep their exploration to a tighter area and lean on do-anywhere challenges. Social Scavenger games are built for office workers, not athletes. The pace is comfortable.

Yes. Beyond a tighter game zone, Social Scavenger can build players into the game itself rather than asking them to walk through it. That can mean a player at the start or end point running a challenge for other teams, an in-game role, or a custom challenge that brings teams to them. This is a conversation per-event since every group's situation is different, so flag accessibility needs early and Social Scavenger will work it out with you.

Probably not. About 90% of Social Scavenger events run with the virtual host (briefing video) and the virtual game day team. The setup works cleanly for most conference, retreat, and offsite events. Onsite hosts are an add-on that makes sense for specific scenarios (large groups, executive events, custom productions) rather than a default.

They monitor the event live as it runs. They handle judging questions, validate creative submissions, manage the live leaderboard, and intervene if anything technical needs help. They're working in the background while the players experience the game.

Three scenarios. (1) Large groups (300+) where physical production scale benefits from in-person leadership. (2) Executive and leadership events where the polish of a real host in the room matters. (3) Custom productions where the host is part of the show: a costumed character, a themed actor, a live emcee tying into the event narrative. Outside those, virtual usually delivers the same experience.

Runs the in-person briefing, sets the energy at the kickoff, handles in-room questions, runs the wrap-up reveal in person, and serves as the visible Social Scavenger representative throughout. For Multi-Station Amazing Race events, facilitators run individual stations (not the same role as the lead onsite host).

For some formats, yes. Multi-Station Amazing Race events often use client-side facilitators (the company's own leaders or trainers) at each station. This works when the client wants their leadership team involved in the day. The Social Scavenger lead still provides specs, training materials, and remote support, but the in-person facilitation comes from the client.

Classic ($30/person, $600 min) covers the core game with self-hosted execution. Premier ($50/person, $1,000 min) adds the virtual game day team, surprise reveals, curated souvenir highlight reel, and the optional onsite host add-on. Gold ($75/person, $3,750 min) adds Gold Star challenges, custom videos, and an expanded finale with more production. The core gameplay is the same across all three. The differences are the production layers wrapped around it.

Three different ways to play. Poster games (Great Scott!, Who Kidnapped YOUR Boss?) use physical posters with QR codes around the venue. Choose Wisely is app-only with no posters, useful for spaces where you can't hang anything. Multi-station Amazing Race events have live facilitators at each station and a longer runtime. Same Social Scavenger backbone, different surface complexity.

Tier games (Classic, Premier, Gold) can have light or moderate customization added: a few company-specific challenges, themed content references, branding throughout, content tied to your event purpose. The underlying game stays the same. Great Scott! stays Great Scott!. Who Kidnapped YOUR Boss? stays Who Kidnapped YOUR Boss?.

Ground-up custom is different. The game itself is designed from a blank page for your event. The Paric construction-metaphor build, the Plex Swiss Alps James Bond hunt, the Coca-Cola London secret-formula chase. None of those are tier games with extras added. They're games that exist because of the client's specific event.

If you want some custom feel without the ground-up price tag and timeline, customize an existing game.

Highly customizable across three levels. Light customization adds a few custom challenges or branded touches to a tier game. Moderate customization layers themed content around your event purpose. Ground-up custom builds the game from scratch around your story, industry, or destination. The right level depends on your timeline, budget, and how important it is that the game feels built FOR your event.

Yes. Past customs have done all of these: a custom city hunt around the client's own office locations and properties, an executive game built around the client's history and real characters, a hunt themed around a client's product launch, a game that wove a client's industry concepts into the mechanics. The discovery call is where the build figures out which threads to pull on for your specific event.

Ground-up custom builds are designed from a blank page. The Paric construction-metaphor game wouldn't make sense for any other client. The Plex Swiss Alps James Bond build wouldn't make sense for another company. That's the bar a ground-up build meets. If you want branding on a great existing game, that's a tier game with branding added (and that route is real, it's just not this page).

No. Social Scavenger's production studio handles all writing, design, and asset creation. What helps from the client side: clear input on the event's purpose, brand assets (logo, colors, fonts), any context that informs the theme (company history, product details, industry concepts), and timely review feedback. The deeper the client input on context, the richer the final build.

Yes to all three. The Plex Swiss Alps build ran across three ancient Swiss towns. Past customs have included international destinations and multi-city productions. And some ground-up builds (like Paric's) get repurposed by the client afterward, in Paric's case as a potential training tool for cross-department onboarding. If the game has shelf life beyond the event, that's worth raising during the discovery call.

Yes. Most Social Scavenger games can carry light or moderate theming on top of an existing format. Custom challenges that match the event theme (Earth Day, holiday, anniversary, industry-specific), custom branding, and light narrative tweaks all sit in the Premier and Gold tiers. That's a fast path to a themed feel without the lead time and budget of a ground-up custom build. Ground-up custom (Custom Conference Games) is reserved for events where the theme IS the game (a James Bond mission, a missing secret formula chase, an industry concept translated into game mechanics). For most planners asking about a themed twist, light or moderate customization on a tier game is the right answer.

No. Branding is the visual identity layer (logo, colors, custom poster designs, branded video intros, custom app design or white-label production). It is a feature available on every tier and every level of customization, including light builds. A tier game can carry full branding without being a ground-up custom. A ground-up custom can be heavily branded or kept visually neutral. The two combine in any mix.

Yes, and this is increasingly common. Distributed companies often pick a destination specifically because the team rarely meets in person. The retreat activity has to do extra work: bonding people who barely know each other face-to-face, and showing them the place they've traveled to. The custom-themed game model handles both. For the "remote team finally meeting" emotional angle specifically, see also Remote Team Meeting In Person.

Most Social Scavenger formats are designed to bring all personality types in, not just extroverts. Challenges include solo reflection moments, small-team puzzle work, photo and video contributions, and trivia, not just performative tasks. Introverts often do well in teams of 4-6 because they're contributing without being on the spot. Social Scavenger takes pride in this. The format isn't an extrovert show, and that's by design.

Common situation. The Social Scavenger format isn't a generic scavenger hunt. It includes photo and video missions, AI challenges, head-to-head VS challenges, custom themes, mystery games, and live leaderboard mechanics that most older hunts don't have. If your team has been around the block, ask about Great Scott! (decade-themed), Who Kidnapped YOUR Boss? (custom mystery), or a fully bespoke build.