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Stepping up to the platform

January 8 - 14, 2014
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Gulf Weekly Stepping up to the platform

A TRAINING company has erected a giant-climbing wall in Bahrain to help motivate business teams and to push people out of their comfort zones, writes Stan Szecowka.

MANDEVCO International believes companies in the kingdom will be able to reach new heights by challenging their employees to tackle the obstacle on a site adjoining the Movenpick Hotel Bahrain in Muharraq.

Managing director Graham Nugent said: “It’son an amazing site between the hotel and the lagoon and Arad Bay Park – hugelypopular with people walking around the lagoon, having picnics and stagingsocial events, visible from the main Amway – Manama Highway.”

The foundations were laid late last year, a steel structure placed on site and the climbing wall erected to a height of 15m then faced with wooden timbers.

Taking people ‘outside their comfort zone’climbing walls have been used to support the company’s experiential,scenario-based learning for personal, team, supervisory, management andleadership development programmes that MANDEVCO International says are ‘fun,energising, challenging, motivating and an extraordinarily powerful platformfor memorable learning’.

Similar programmes have been delivered 740times by operations run by Mr Nugent with 400-plus clients, including 30multi-national companies, and experienced by 45,000 participants.

He added: “We built the first five climbingwalls in the UAE – there are now 15 walls including four in shopping malls forrecreation and leisure.”

The 63-year-old British entrepreneur established ABAMI as a leading training company in the UAE before selling the company last year to retire. As reported in GulfWeekly ‘retirement didn’t suit’so he relocated to Bahrain establishing a regional training hub here with astrategy to attract in-bound business from Saudi Arabia and beyond.

“To date we have only been able to speak toprospects and clients about our intention to build a wall here,” explained MrNugent. “It has created a great deal of interest with many prospects indicatingthey will book programmes just as soon as it is erected.”

The climbing wall for corporate training will be opened today by Iain Lindsay, theBritish Ambassador to Bahrain, with demonstrations and opportunities for gueststo try it out.







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