Most of Urban Quest’s content features clients — HR managers, team leaders, and employees sharing what the experience produced for their teams. This article is different.
Lane Harrison spent two and a half years as Urban Quest’s Business Development Manager. In that time he participated in Urban Quest events himself — three of them, across three different formats — going from someone who had never done it to someone who had experienced the online version, the Docklands format, and the flagship CBD route with augmented reality. He also spent those two and a half years talking to clients and prospective customers about what Urban Quest delivers and why it works.
This is his account of what he observed from both positions — participant and insider.
What Urban Quest Actually Is
Lane’s description of the experience is the clearest single-sentence summary we’ve heard from anyone who has done it:
“Urban Quest is a race — not a physical race, but a race of the mind. What it really focuses on is teamwork and being able to work as a team and communicate to get the best and fastest result possible.”
The mental race framing matters because it immediately distinguishes the format from activities that require physical fitness, coordination, or comfort with public performance. The competitive pressure is real — the leaderboard, the time limit, the awareness of other teams running the same course — but the skills it rewards are cognitive and communicative rather than physical.
For Melbourne teams looking for team building ideas that go beyond the predictable, Urban Quest’s format stands out specifically because the competitive pressure is real — not manufactured
Three Events, Three Formats, Three Different Experiences
The Online Event — Bonds With Strangers
Lane’s first Urban Quest experience was the virtual format. He joined a team he had never met:
“I didn’t know any of the people in that group. But by the end of that game, I felt like I had built some bonds already with that group that I had no previous connection with.”
That observation — connection built with strangers inside two hours through a structured competitive challenge — is the core promise of Urban Quest’s Mission Impossible online format. Lane experienced it himself before he ever explained it to a client.
The Docklands Event — Competitive Energy and Post-Game Bonding
The second event was Questbusters at Docklands. Lane describes a dynamic that most Urban Quest participants recognise:
“I’m quite competitive, so it really got my competitive juices flowing. Our team felt like we were kind of in the lead, or at least near the front — so we were really motivated by that, and it drove us to work better as a group.”
“Again, I had no previous connection with my group. By the end of it we were having a drink at the post debrief and really having a laugh together.”
The progression he describes — strangers at the start, competitive teammates during, social group at the end — is the consistent arc Urban Quest events produce. The competitive format creates shared experience; the shared experience creates connection; the connection carries into the post-event social.
The CBD Route — Technology and the All-Time Leaderboard
The third event was the flagship Ocean’s Eleven CBD experience, which includes Urban Quest’s augmented reality technology:
“This also included our technology element, which I think increased the level of engagement of all the groups — using augmented reality on their smartphones to unlock some of the clues in the game.”
Lane also identified the leaderboard as one of Urban Quest’s most underappreciated differentiators:
“A lot of participants want to know where their group sits historically. They don’t just want to win against their own company — they want to know how they compare against the best of all time. That’s something that’s really unique and drives a lot of engagement.”
That insight — that competitive people quickly shift from wanting to beat their colleagues to wanting to beat every team Urban Quest has ever run — is something Lane discovered as a participant before he started using it in conversations with clients.
What Happens at the End — the Part Most People Don’t Anticipate
Lane’s most unexpected observation from his three events wasn’t about the game itself. It was about what happened when all the teams came back together for the results:
“At the end is where I really found the benefit. You come together as a whole group, the results are read out, everyone has a laugh at certain aspects, and everyone’s asking ‘what question did you get stuck on?’ or ‘how did you work out this one?’ There’s a lot of cross-pollination in that group setting at the end — which is where I think the real team building and culture benefits come from. Not just the actual experience in the game itself.”
That cross-pollination moment — competing teams comparing notes, laughing at the same puzzles, discovering how different groups approached the same challenge — is something Urban Quest’s post-event ceremony is specifically designed to produce. Lane’s observation from the inside confirms what clients consistently report: the debrief after the event is often where the most memorable interactions happen.
The Products Beyond the Standard Event
Urban Quest’s Strategic Debrief uses the event’s performance data to give teams actionable insights about how they interact and problem-solve — useful for organisations that want to connect the team building experience to specific development outcomes.
The Team Activator is designed for groups with a high proportion of new or unfamiliar team members — a 15-minute structured warm-up before the main event that accelerates the connection-building process before competition begins.
The Dull Breaker is the conference format — a one- to two-hour in-room experience that requires only a projector and a microphone, designed specifically for groups that can’t leave a conference venue but want something more engaging than another session.
Black Friday is the all-weather indoor version of the CBD experience — the same format, same technology, running through Melbourne Central and Emporium rather than the laneways outside.
The Teams That Benefit Most
Lane’s framework for who Urban Quest suits best is direct and based on two and a half years of conversations:
“Teams with an influx of new people who want to spark that connection and team building. Teams that want to lift their level of performance in terms of teamwork, problem solving, and communication skills. And groups that have hit a milestone, worked really hard towards a goal, and just want to celebrate — they can still enjoy the team building benefits but have a great time in the process.”
The communication observation is specific and worth repeating:
“The teams that end up winning our events are the teams that learn how to communicate effectively — how they need to listen, how they need to ask questions, how they need to be clear. This is really transportable to your company and your corporate environment.”
Explore Urban Quest’s corporate team building formats →
Read how the Strategic Debrief works →
Read about the Dull Breaker conference format →
Lane Harrison was Business Development Manager at Urban Quest for two and a half years. The full interview — covering all Urban Quest formats, products, and Lane’s personal event experiences — is available in the video above.
