Global remote company Toptal was planning a virtual conference and asked Playwell Bricks to design a custom set made from, in part, genuine LEGO® bricks for their attendees. Toptal wasn’t entirely sure what they wanted, but this isn’t unusual for our corporate clients.

“In these cases, I’ll go through an exploratory session with them,” explains Playwell Bricks CEO Jason Pyett. “I try to find out what they want out of this conference, what their goals and objectives are, what the topics are going to be about, everything.”

As a result of this session, Toptal and Pyett hit upon the idea of a modern bridge for the conference’s bespoke build. The model would represent the communication bridge between Toptal’s community to their community leaders and from those community leaders to Toptal.

Pyett mentioned to Toptal that Playwell Bricks does corporate workshops, and they were immediately interested. Ultimately, they decided to make this workshop a corporate event. “I came up with activities based on the parts of the bridge set that I designed,” Pyett explains.

Before he could host the workshop, the sets needed to be delivered to the distributor so they would be on hand for the virtual event. “There was a hiccup,” Pyett admits. “One that led to changes in our Quality Assurance steps.” He sighs and covers his face with his hand. “I may have forgotten
to have some stickers printed up.”

Pyett immediately got to work to rectify his mistake, finding a printer near the distributor to print the stickers. The next challenge was getting the stickers from the printer to the distributor. “I ended up having to hire a courier to hand deliver the stickers to the fulfillment center. In the end, it cost me about $150 to get $10 worth of stickers.” Pyett shakes his head. “Twice. But I had everything buttoned up,” and the sets arrived in time for the conference.

The sticker challenge fit in well with the topic of the virtual conference. “It was all about how to effectively communicate and problem solve,” Pyett says.

Using playable bricks as a metaphor for the elements of community and leadership, Pyett had the workshop attendees build along with him, engaging their bodies as well as their minds. This kind of active learning amplified Pyett’s message. “I have lots of experience with keeping an online community going, so I was sharing that kind of knowledge with them through the means of bricks. Things like figuring out what gets people excited and doubling down on those kinds of things.”

Bricks have elements of play, enabling the attendees to open up and grow more comfortable as they worked with their custom models. Pyett asked a lot of questions of the conference attendees and replied to the feedback he got. “They loved it!” Pyett recalls. “They were like, it was amazing. It was wonderful.”

Despite the sticker incident, which Pyett was able to turn around and impress Toptal with his problem-solving skills, the project was a success. “Some things you can’t learn in a book,” Pyett says. “They only come with experience.”

If your company has an event coming up that you would like to use Playwell Bricks’ extensive experience for, Playwell would love to design a custom set made from genuine LEGO® bricks for you. If you aren’t sure what you want, Playwell Bricks will work with you, just as with Toptal, to come up with a project you can get excited about. We will work with your corporate vision, colors, and branding to ensure your custom model represents your company in the best possible ways. Contact us today and let’s get started building your dreams.

Did we mention that we also do corporate workshops?