Forget the usual sit-down company activities. For our latest team building day, the Light Up 7 team swapped laptops and project timelines for dance challenges, teh tarik, supermarket races and a very competitive morning in the kitchen. We headed to a training centre in Malaysia for a MasterChef-inspired team building programme, where everyone was split into groups of four to six and put through a series of challenges before facing the main event: a Mystery Box cooking competition!
There were riddles to solve, ingredients to hunt down and dishes to prepare against the clock. But before any of that happened, everyone had to survive the icebreaker. And somehow, that involved K-pop dancing while pulling teh tarik.
Breaking The Ice With A Dance And Teh Tarik Challenge
The programme kicked off at 9.00am with guest arrival, coffee and tea before everyone was split into groups. We started with a dance challenge where each group had to follow the moves and dance along together. Everyone was surprisingly sporting, so any initial awkwardness disappeared pretty quickly. Then came the Teh Tarik Challenge. The challenge was simple in theory: pull teh tarik while moving along to the beat. In reality, things got much more entertaining.
Some of our team members started breaking out into hilarious dance moves while simultaneously trying to keep their teh tarik under control. At that point, everyone was laughing, cheering each other on and fully committed to the challenge. It was messy, slightly chaotic and easily one of the funniest parts of the morning. With everyone properly warmed up, we moved on to the programme briefing and things started getting a little more competitive.
Challenge One: The Supermarket Race
Next up was the Supermarket Race.
Each team received a riddle that would reveal the protein they needed for the upcoming cooking challenge. But figuring out the answer was only the beginning. Once we cracked the clues, teams had to make their way to the nearby Jaya Grocer, find the correct ingredients, purchase what they needed and take a group photo before posting it in the designated WhatsApp group. What should have been a normal supermarket trip quickly turned into people rushing through the aisles, debating ingredients and trying to beat the other teams back. And all of that effort was for the challenge we had been waiting for.
The Main Event: Mystery Box Challenge
Then it was time to cook!
The Mystery Box Challenge was where the whole morning started to feel like our own version of a Gordon Ramsay kitchen competition. Each group had to figure out what to make with the ingredients available, divide the work and get everything ready before time ran out. Very quickly, everyone found their role. Someone was chopping. Someone was cooking. Someone was plating. Someone was watching the clock. And, of course, there was always someone giving very passionate opinions about what the dish needed. The kitchen was busy, loud and competitive, but that was exactly what made it fun. Everyone was incredibly sporting throughout the challenge. Even when things did not go quite according to plan, nobody took it too seriously. We were there to compete, have fun and see which Light Up 7 team could survive the kitchen.
Time To Face The Judges
Once the clock ran out, utensils went down and it was time to see what everyone had managed to create. Each group presented its final dish to the judges and explained what they had made. After all the rushing, cooking and last-minute plating, we finally got to sit down for lunch while waiting for the results. Finally, the winning team was announced, followed by photos and a short closing session.
And just like that, our MasterChef adventure was over.
A Different Kind Of Day For The Light Up 7 Team
For a team that normally spends its days working across brand activations, events, creative projects, production and campaigns, it was nice to step away from our usual roles and do something completely different together.
No client briefs. No production timelines. No event setup.
Just a bunch of Light Up 7 people getting overly competitive about cooking.
The activities gave us a chance to mix with colleagues outside our usual working groups, laugh at each other's questionable dance moves and see some unexpected kitchen skills come out along the way. Most importantly, everyone was sporting enough to actually get involved, which made the whole experience much more memorable.
We went in for a team building day.
We came out knowing who could cook, who could dance, who took supermarket races far too seriously and who probably shouldn't be trusted with teh tarik.
We'd call that a pretty successful day.
