<p>In my work, my partner and I conduct workshops on various topics. We lead and facilitate various exercises to help our clients internalize the material, which includes playing games (though games with purpose), pitting team members against one another in friendly light competition, etc. We often wind up “rewarding” individuals or teams who do the best by giving them light-hearted little prizes. $5 cards to Starbucks or Jamba Juice, $10 iTunes gift cards, a fun bookmark with a $5 card to Barnes & Noble, gourmet or fun candies, or sometimes just little fun tchotchkes that bear some relationship to the client’s product or service. </p>
<p>We are going to be doing workshops for our client in China and Brazil. While the participants are going to be very highly educated, often have spent a lot of time in / been educated in America, and are highly fluent / versed in English and dealing with Americans …
Are there watchouts with respect to doing these team exercises? (Obviously we’re reworking them to remove references that are American-culture-specific.) I’m thinking more broadly about teams vs individuals, how willing they will be to get into the spirit / creativity, how competition is perceived, how people might feel about standing up and sharing opinions, etc.
What little prizes could we bring from America that would be appreciated / relevant? (It could be certain candies, gums, mints … that kind of thing.) And no, sadly, I can’t bring admission to HYP as parlor prizes :-)</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, I sent an email to my son to see what he thinks since he is currently working in Brazil for an engineering consulting firm. His response was as follows:</p>
<p>“I think teams are better than individual. Brazilians prefer to play and joke around than to take competition seriously. As for candies, I recommend chocolate. We frequently have some kind of chocolate passing around.”</p>
<p>Chocolate’s pretty universal :-). I was trying to get at, for both Brazil and China – are there certain candies or tchotchkes here in the US that would be particularly popular? I don’t know, mini M&M’s, or Altoids, or Hershey’s, or something that would be some kind of novel treat?</p>
<p>Assuming that we are talking adults and not caring about import duties.
Bottles of fine Washington/Oregon wines
Kentucky/Tennessee Bourbon (mini and pints).
See’s Chocolates, Fruit-of-the-Loom undies, (Symbol of Warren Buffett success)</p>
<p>In Asia, mini bottles of good quality Scotch, though import restrictions would limit supply. Almond Roca is a big deal candy-partially as the gold wrapper is auspicious. A friend gave me some of the Ferrero Rocher wrapped balls for Christmas. My son, newly back from living in China said they are a big deal chocolate in China-but not to be trusted when bought there, as the counterfit candy can contain unhealthy ingredients, like sawdust. So you might want to mention that you bought yours in the USA. </p>
<p>Dove is common there, so I’d avoid, along with Snickers and Milky Way. At least one Chinese girl of my aquaintaince wanted malted milk balls from the US-a British version is popular in HK but not on the market in Shanghai at least 2 years ago. Mint is not big in Asia, though you do see After 8 for sale. Peanut butter/chocolate might be good, Reeses pieces and so on, whjch I never saw while there. Never saw Mounds bars either.
I can’t remember seeing Mounds bars there. Gourmet jelly beans might be good, and are a US product.</p>
<p>Have to agree with great lakes mom. Malteasers are the UK malted milk balls - they are now available in Stop and Shop. Ferrero Rocher is HUGE!! As would be the mini bottles of scotch and a particular cognac whose name is escaping my mind at the time.</p>