Who We Are

The early days…

Feet First started back in 1988 with Dave and Kevin (the Cloutier brothers) organizing intramural competitions on the UCLA campus.  They became known within the student body for creating games that were original and innovative.  

After graduation they began creating games and challenges for some “reality” television shows, including Legends of the Hidden Temple, Survivor and Endurance. 

During this time, a number of their UCLA alumni started asking Kevin and Dave to replicate the games for their companies - and Feet First Eventertainment was born…!

Since those early days, we have opened offices throughout the country and created over 10,000 Team Building events for organizations ranging from non-profits to universities, start-ups to Fortune 500s. And we’ve had a pretty awesome time along the way!

Why should you participate in a Feet First Team Building event rather than just taking the group out for dinner? Isn’t that “Team Building”?

For starters, getting your group together outside the office is always a good idea! But during dinner or at a party, people tend to hang out with the same people that they always interact with - and conversations tend to scratch the surface of who a person really is - so you don’t get the opportunity to REALLY get to know one another.

By contrast, when people participate in one of our events, they become fully immersed in a competitive or creative situation. Skill sets that may never come into play at work or during dinner get thrust into the forefront. For example, imagine a quiet, typically reserved engineer suddenly running up to strangers and convincing them to play Duck, Duck Goose with them during a scavenger hunt in order to score extra points. Or, a very serious attorney choreographing his teammates in an epic ninja battle. During our events you might see a side of someone that you never knew existed, even after working with them for years. After participating in one of our events, people often see their fellow coworkers in a completely different light!

And we know that a lot of people roll their eyes at the thought of team building because they’ve experienced a cheesy event with facilitators that were trying too hard, or trying to get them to do something inane. We work hard to ensure that our activities are fun and creative, so people actually want to participate.  In fact, one of our favorite things is having someone come up to us at the end of an event to say that they were skeptical at the start but they actually had a great time! 

Can you measure the ROI after one of our programs?

We don’t have a mathematical formula to measure the ROI but our clients tell us that after our events they can see higher morale and more smiles in the office. We don’t need a calculator to know that better morale leads to a happy workforce, and any study on relationships between employer and employee will tell you that a happy staff will work harder and be more loyal to their employers. We think that’s the reason that most of our business comes from repeat clients — because they can see the direct benefits from our programs.

Any advice for people on how to prepare for one of our events?

Don’t have any preconceived ideas. Just allow yourself to have fun! We are frequently hired by assistants or admins who are incredibly worried — they feel that their job is on the line if the CEO doesn’t like the event. However, it’s usually the CEO or the CFO who is the most boisterous person, having the most fun! We don’t get many opportunities to play as adults. And we all need to play!  As the name of our company implies, just jump in (Feet First) and enjoy yourself!