Michael Whytcross, Head of Finance and Commercial at Melbourne Airport, has been around enough corporate team building events to have calibrated expectations. When he needed to organise something for his team, he wasn’t looking for the usual.
“Honestly, we just Googled it. We wanted to do something engaging and active in Melbourne — and Urban Quest came up.”
What followed exceeded what he expected. His verdict at the end of the day, from someone who doesn’t hand out praise lightly:
“I’ve done a lot of team building in the past. This is one of the best I’ve done.”
That assessment — from a senior finance leader with genuine experience of what corporate team building typically looks like — is the clearest possible signal of what Urban Quest’s Melbourne CBD experience actually delivers.
What Melbourne Airport Was Looking For
Michael’s brief was specific and honest about the problem he was trying to solve:
“It was really about trying to work together as a team and getting people that don’t normally work together to do a bit of team building and one-on-one — really just build some relationships across the team.”
Finance and commercial teams operate under constant performance pressure. Days can feel repetitive. Even well-functioning teams develop a social flatness over time — people know their colleagues professionally but not personally, and the informal connections that make workplaces genuinely enjoyable to be in can quietly erode.
The goal wasn’t entertainment for its own sake. It was rebuilding the social layer that makes collaboration easier and work more energising.
Apprehensive Going In — Impressed Coming Out
Michael’s honesty about his expectations before the event is worth noting:
“I was a little apprehensive, not really knowing what to expect.”
That apprehension is common among senior leaders who’ve experienced enough team building events to know that the gap between what an activity promises and what it delivers can be significant. Urban Quest closed that gap:
“It really exceeded my expectations. It was a really fantastic experience.”
The specific thing that stood out wasn’t the technology or the CBD setting — it was what the format revealed about his team:
“It really tapped into different people’s skill sets. That was probably the one thing that came out the most — it gave a really good opportunity to let different people within the team shine at different times.”
That observation — leadership rotating naturally through the team, different people stepping up at different moments — is what well-designed team building produces structurally rather than by chance. Urban Quest’s challenge sequence is built so that no single skill set wins the game. The navigator, the lateral thinker, the detail reader, the fast runner — each has their moment. A team that has seen each other in those moments carries a different understanding of each other back to the office.
The Energy on the Day
Michael’s description of how the event felt is the kind of testimony that no amount of marketing copy can replicate:
“You can hear it in my voice — it was a lot of fun and a lot of happiness. It was a really great day.”
That energy matters practically, not just emotionally. A shared experience of genuine competition and laughter creates the kind of positive memory that people reference for months afterwards. A dinner produces a pleasant evening. Urban Quest produces a story — one that teams are still telling each other the following week.
What Transfers Back to the Office
Michael was direct about the lasting value:
“I think it’s the relationships and fun that you can build. When you’re in a corporate environment like we are, it can get a little stale from time to time. Throwing a bit of fun and energy behind it — that’ll transfer back over into the office for sure.”
The mechanism is straightforward. Colleagues who have seen each other be competitive, be stuck, be creative, and be genuinely happy together carry that knowledge into every subsequent interaction. The finance team member who discovered that his quieter IT colleague is exceptional at decoding cryptic clues will approach future collaboration with a different understanding of what that person is capable of.
Michael’s Recommendation
From a senior leader who has been through enough team activities to be a credible judge:
“Definitely do it. I’d highly recommend it.”
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Michael Whytcross is Head of Finance and Commercial at Melbourne Airport. Urban Quest has delivered team building events for Melbourne Airport across multiple cohorts.
