The Great South Bank Scavenger Hunt
In January this year I turned 30 and rather than have a regular party I decided I wanted to do something a little different. So I got together a few helpers and we ran a scavenger hunt in the South Bank Parklands. It was awesome. So much fun that I thought I’d share exactly how we did it.
Conception
For my 30th birthday we decided to run a scavenger hunt. What better way to party then to have all your friends meet at one place, have them leave soon after for a prolonged time while you sit back and look at your phone. The perfect party for introverts!
The inspiration for a scavenger hunt came from the annual University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt (aka Scav Hunt). Scav Hunt is a crazy annual, four-day, team-based scavenger hunt held at the University of Chicago which involves a large list of difficult to obtain items to find (e.g., A real live, breathing elephant worth 500 points).
And so 3 months out from the party date, the plan was set. We’d run our own Scavenger Hunt, although we planned to run a more tamer version compared to Scav Hunt… at least for now.
Key Experiences
We created a google doc in September 2015 with a couple of notes and then left it alone for a few months until December, when we decided we should probably start organising it. We decided early on there were two key experiences we were trying to create for our hunters:
1. That “aha!” moment of working something out.
Rather than list the item to find we made clues that needed to be solved first. We wanted to capture that feeling you get when you solve a riddle or puzzle (the clue in this instance), followed by locating the item and capturing that “aha!” moment by taking a photo or video together with the team.
2. Social embarrassment to strengthen friendship.
There’s nothing quite like making a fool of yourself in front of the general public to create memorable experiences that strengthen friendships. And so, our scavenger hunt was going to have plenty of embarrassing moments.
These core experiences helped guide us when coming up with clues and items for the scavenger hunt.
Choosing a location
I can’t remember when we chose South Bank but I know why we did — it was the perfect location for this kind of event. It has BBQ areas we could use once the hunt was over to feed everyone. Free wifi is available in many places throughout the parklands. The area also has an incredibly diverse range of different things to find — both throughout the parkland and inside nearby buildings such as the Queensland Museum and Queensland Art Gallery.
Choosing the items to find
Initially we had a few ideas of what to include in the hunt but once we scouted out the area we came up with a good list of items for people to find. We went with a total of 30 items to go with turning 30. We also thought this would be a good number for the desired timeframe of 2 hours — a number we estimated that most teams wouldn’t be able to fully find.
A traditional scavenger hunt usually requires people to find items and bring them back. However, we decided this might be difficult to achieve and instead we decided that people could take photos with items and send them to us via SMS. This meant nothing was being taken from a public place and also we had a great collection of photos to share later.
We also decided that rather than just getting pictures of items we wanted pictures of the group members. So we included challenges that required a little creativity and embarrassment. We got groups to high five a random stranger, build the biggest sandcastle they could, video themselves playing with dinosaur toys, and also reenact the famous scene from titanic (no not the drawing scene… the other one).
The prize
A scavenger hunt usually has a winning group, and it’s nice if the winning group receive a prize. For us, we toyed with the idea of giving something of monetary value such as movie tickets. However, as those attending were all close friends we knew that the glory of winning would be enough. But we did want something to commemorate the event — so we made a sweet trophy. A kickass golden dinosaur trophy to present to the winners.
Team size
We limited the team size to 3 people. We wanted to keep groups together while they did the hunt so they could properly socialise and not have them break up into smaller groups to complete items. To strengthen this idea of teamwork we also required some group photos to be submitted.
Execution
Surprisingly, execution was smooth. The hunt involved participants meeting at South Bank Parklands, forming teams, having the rules explained, distributing the list of items to find, and then wandering off and running around South Bank for 2 hours. There were a total of 21 participants which neatly made 7 teams of 3 people.
We had 3 judges, each assigned a number of teams. The teams had to send their submissions to the judges phones and the judges replied to them to let them know if the submission was correct of not, or if they needed a hint. Phone battery did run out quickly so it might be worthwhile taking one of those external battery chargers.
No team managed to find all the items, although two teams got close. And we actually had a tie in the end between two teams.
Post-party
We did end up having a bit of a post-hunt celebration involving a whole lot of chicken, salad, beers and tasty cakes. A great way to end the hunt and bring everyone together.
I also then used all the photos and videos from the groups to make a video highlighting some of the best submissions from groups. This was a great way to remember the event.
Next time
Overall the scavenger hunt was a triumph (I’m making a note here — huge success). However, there are still a few things we would probably do a little differently next time.
Pick a better meeting spot — or provide better directions to the one we chose. I figured a Google map with a pin would be enough, but with no clear landmarks on the map it was difficult for many of the participants to find the location.
Provide instructions on parking. It can be difficult to find a cheap park around South Bank. Often you might be lucky down near Kangaroo Point, otherwise it’s best to encourage those attending to take public transport. Participants can always park for free near Orleigh Park and take a City Cat into South Bank pretty cheaply.
Be clearer in terms of judging criteria and clues. We didn’t really have a proper judging debrief, especially when it came to how we provided clues to participants. Luckily the judges were awesome and handled it well, but it would be good to have better guidelines next time for judges banter with participants and also providing clues.
Wrap-up
Well that was fun! If you’ve made it this far and you’re still interested in more details regarding the rules and clues you can find a link to a pdf version of them here:
A scavenger hunt is a brilliant event to run if you’re having a party or some kind of similar event. There’s a little more work involved but it definitely makes for a memorable experience. If you’re thinking of running your own version of this scavenger hunt get in touch with me and I’ll send you a list of the answers.
Game on!
