Spoonvivor: Little Spoon’s Global Team-Building Challenge

On April 30, 2025, the team from Little Spoon gathered on the beach in the Rivera Maya for an afternoon that felt deliberately different from the rest of their company retreat.

This was their annual kickoff. Around 100 team members had travelled in, roughly half from across the United States and nearly half from Tel Aviv. During a normal workweek, they share only a small window of overlapping hours, and had never met before in person. Here, they had time. Space. Sunlight. And no screens between them.

The goal was to bring people together in a way that felt active, collaborative, and natural. Making real connections within a team that usually spanned across different continents.

How Spoonvivor Unfolded

Our team-building event ‘Exile Island‘ draws inspiration from the format of Survivor, but without anyone being “voted off.” The structure encourages competition while keeping the focus firmly on teamwork. For Little Spoon, we even custom-branded it as ‘Spoonvivor’.

The afternoon began with a group introduction and reveal of the activity. Teams were formed on the sand and handed their starting kits, which included bandanas, a survival-style challenge booklet, and materials to create a team flag before setting off. Even that small ritual of designing a flag gave each group a sense of identity before the first challenge had begun.

From there, the beach transformed into a series of color-coded stations, each representing a different type of task. Teams moved at their own pace, choosing which challenges to tackle and strategizing how to earn the most points within the time limit.

Some challenges required the entire team to coordinate physically, like crossing a “river” together while navigating obstacles. Others leaned into logic and problem-solving, such as solving clues to unlock a buried treasure box. There were survival scenarios where teams debated which items would give them the best chance at sea. There were target-based activities that demanded timing and trust. Memory tests. Blindfolded coordination games. Even a station dedicated to mastering survival knots.

Because teams could approach the stations in any order, the experience felt fluid rather than linear. Groups quickly began to recognise each other’s strengths. Someone who might normally stay quiet in a meeting stepped forward during a physical challenge. Someone analytical took charge of deciphering codes. Someone calm under pressure guided teammates through blindfolded tasks.

The Dynamic Between Continents

The mix of U.S. employees and Tel Aviv team created an interesting energy from the start. The Tel Aviv participants, many having completed military service, were clearly comfortable with fast-paced physical coordination. The U.S. team members, accustomed to remote collaboration, demonstrated quick communication and thoughtful delegation.

What became noticeable was how quickly those differences stopped mattering. Teams were crouched together in the sand, adjusting strategy and encouraging each other through the harder stations. There was competitiveness, certainly, but it felt generous. People wanted to win, but they also wanted their teammates to succeed.

The sun, the setting, and the shared movement did a quiet kind of work. Conversations that might have felt formal in a conference room unfolded casually between stations. Inside jokes formed mid-challenge. Small wins were celebrated loudly.

At the end of the session, teams gathered for recognition and celebration. Medals were awarded to the top performers, but the applause extended well beyond the winners Exile Island. The sense of shared accomplishment was visible.

What Stayed With the Team

Following the event, feedback described the team building as one of the highlights of the entire retreat. Comments like that tend to reflect something truly ‘felt’ rather than something measured.

For a distributed company, an afternoon like this creates reference points. The memory of solving a puzzle together in the sand. The image of a colleague sprinting toward a challenge station. The laughter when a plan had to be reworked mid-task. Those shared experiences quietly strengthen how people collaborate later.

For Little Spoon, Exile Island became more than a beach activity. It marked the beginning of a new year with energy, familiarity, and a stronger sense of togetherness.

Planning a Team Retreat in Riviera Maya?

Bringing a team to Mexico is an investment. Time away from the office, travel across continents, coordinating schedules across time zones — it all carries weight. What you choose to do with that time matters.

At Grupo Events, every program is designed especially for the people in front of us. We consider group dynamics, company culture, physical energy levels, business objectives, and the kind of experience that will feel authentic to that specific team.

From beach-based competitive programs like Exile Island to customized activities aligned with your brand and goals, our role is to create something that feels seamless on the day and meaningful long after it ends.

If you are planning a global kickoff, incentive trip or leadership retreat in Riviera Maya, we would love to help you design an experience that brings your team together in a way that feels natural, engaging and genuinely memorable.

Because at Grupo, we build great teams!