Corporate olympics in Marrakech usually take half a day, in a hotel garden or on the lawn of a private estate, with five to eight events that teams of eight to ten people play in rotation: tug of war, relays, archery, games of skill and puzzle challenges. The format works for anything from 20 to 200 participants, provided you add more stations rather than make teams queue. From May to October it is played in the morning, before the heat builds; in winter, the afternoon works. The olympics themselves are priced on request; the rest of the day can be costed: for 40 people, local transport, a private dinner at the hotel and a DJ come to roughly €4,000 to €7,500. Here is how to plan the events, the teams and the schedule.
Which events should you include, and who are they for?
A good corporate olympics is not won on muscle. The programme mixes physical events, games of skill and challenges where nobody has to move, so that every team needs all of its members. The table below lists the usual families of events and what each one requires on site.
| Event | Physical effort | What you need on site |
|---|---|---|
| Tug of war | High, for a few minutes | A flat lawn, a suitable rope, gloves if possible |
| Relays (running, sack, egg and spoon) | Moderate, each person chooses | A clear lane of 30 to 50 metres |
| Archery | Low | A dedicated instructor and a closed-off area behind the targets |
| Games of skill (quoits, skittles, ring toss) | Low | Flat ground and some shade |
| Blindfold course, guided by voice | Low | An open space and cones |
| Team build (tower, bridge, structure) | None | A shaded table and the materials |
| Team quiz or puzzle | None | A table, a host, possibly a sound system |
One simple rule: at least half the events should be winnable by someone who does not run. The voice-guided blindfold course and the team build are the most useful here, because they reward how a team communicates rather than how fit it is. Keep the tug of war for the final, when everyone is watching, rather than opening the morning with it.
A theme can dress the whole thing up without changing the events: team colours, medals, an opening ceremony. The theme costs little; what drives the cost is the number of stations and hosts.
How should you put the teams together?
Eight to ten people per team is a good balance: enough to share out the roles, few enough that nobody hides at the back. For 40 participants that means four or five teams; for 100, ten teams of ten; for 200, around twenty teams.
Draw up the teams in advance and do not let people pick their own. Mix departments, offices, ages and levels of seniority, and spread the known athletes across teams: a team made up of every runner from head office wins everything, and the others lose interest by the second event. Give each team a captain who is not the usual line manager of the other members.
Hand out roles that do not involve running, too: a strategist who decides who plays which event, a timekeeper, a scorekeeper. They give a real place to anyone who prefers to sit out the physical events, without leaving them on the sidelines.
What does a half-day look like, minute by minute?
Here is a typical schedule for 60 people and six events, in the morning, with the group staying in town and the olympics held in the garden of an estate about thirty minutes away.
- 8.15: coaches leave; water and caps handed out as people board.
- 8.45: welcome, team colours, a ten-minute group warm-up.
- 9.05: briefing on rules, scoring, safety and the meeting point.
- 9.15 to 11.15: six rotations of 15 minutes’ play and 5 minutes to move to the next station.
- 11.15: a break in the shade while the scores are added up.
- 11.35: tug-of-war final between the two leading teams, with the others cheering.
- 12.00: medals and group photo.
- 12.30: lunch on site, then return or a working session in the afternoon.
The calculation that sets the length is the rotation: with six teams and six stations, each team plays each station once, which takes six slots. With ten teams, either you set up ten stations or you double up the simplest ones, two quoits pitches instead of one, for example. What you want to avoid is a team standing around waiting for a station to come free.
How many people can take part?
Anything from 20 to 200, but not in the same way. With 20, two or three teams are enough and they can play head to head at the same station, which helps the atmosphere. From 60 upwards, rotation becomes essential, with one host per station and a coordinator who keeps the master clock and the scores. With 200, the ground is split into two zones playing in parallel, with a shared final, and a sound system becomes indispensable so that everyone hears the instructions.
A rule of thumb for staffing: at least one host per station, plus a coordinator. For six stations, that is seven people, not counting the venue’s own team.
Where can you hold corporate olympics in Marrakech?
Three kinds of venue suit the format. A hotel garden solves everything at once: the group is already there, so is the catering, and a meeting room can serve as a fallback. Its limits are the amount of lawn available and sharing it with other guests, unless you take the whole place. An estate or villa with grounds, in the Palmeraie or along the roads leading out of the city, offers more space and the freedom to make some noise, in exchange for transport. A hired sports ground, finally, gives you the surface but rarely any shade or comfort.
Before you choose a venue, ask five questions: how much flat ground there is, lawn or gravel; what shade there is, natural or to be put up; whether toilets and water are close to the playing area; whether coaches can reach the garden; and what the fallback is if it rains or gets too hot. Our article on choosing a hotel or private estate for team building goes through these criteria.
Which season, and what time of day?
Heat sets the timetable. Climate normals for Marrakech (Ménara station, 1991-2020) give an average maximum of 29.4°C in May, 37.7°C in July and 28.5°C in October. INRS (in French), the French occupational health and safety body, uses 28°C as a prevention benchmark for physical work. From May to October the average maximum is above that figure, so the olympics are played in the morning and finish before noon.
From November to April the afternoon becomes possible again, with one constraint: daylight. The sun sets around 5.30pm in November and December, and around 5.50pm in mid-January, local time. A winter olympics therefore starts around 2.30pm so that it ends before dark. Morocco stays on GMT all year round: one hour behind Paris in winter, two in summer, which matters when you schedule transport after a morning working session.
The high season, March to May and September to November, is the most comfortable for playing outdoors, and the busiest. During Ramadan, expected to begin around 8 February 2027, give or take a day, some of the local staff will be fasting: plan a shorter format and raise it when you ask for a quote. For summer dates, our article on summer team building in Marrakech gives the timings month by month. In late January, a team can also take on a shared sporting challenge: read our article on the Marrakech Marathon for corporate teams.
How do you make sure nobody is left out?
State the level of each event in the invitation, and say plainly that people can take on a role without doing the physical events. A colleague with a bad back, a pregnant team member or someone who simply does not like running should be able to score points for their team on the skill or puzzle events, or act as strategist.
The scoring matters too: if the tug of war is worth three times as many points as the quiz, the message is clear, and it is the wrong one. Give every event the same weight, and add a prize that does not reward winning, such as one for the most supportive team. Our article on a team building programme that excludes no one goes further on the framework and the wording.
How much does a day of corporate olympics cost?
The olympics have no line in our pricing model: they are quoted on request, depending on the number of stations, hosts and equipment. The rest of the day is costed with the same model as our online calculator. The table below includes local transport for the day, a private dinner at the hotel and a DJ, with 10% contingency, rounded to the nearest hundred. To get several hundred participants playing at the same time, read our article on large-group team building in Marrakech.
| Participants | Transport, hotel dinner, DJ | Per participant |
|---|---|---|
| 40 | €4,000 to €7,500 | €100 to €190 |
| 100 | €8,300 to €14,300 | €80 to €140 |
| 200 | €15,400 to €25,600 | €80 to €130 |
If the olympics take half the day and a working session takes the other half, add a day delegate package (meeting room, breaks, lunch) and audiovisual equipment: for 40 people, the total rises to around €6,500 to €11,500, or €160 to €290 per participant; for 100, to €14,400 to €23,900, or €140 to €240. These figures exclude the olympics, flights, accommodation, alcohol, tourist tax and organisation fees. To compare with the activities our model does price, such as the medina rally, cooking or quad biking, see our comparison of team building activities in Marrakech.
Mistakes to avoid
The first is timing: an olympics starting at 2pm in June puts the group under strain, however good the events. The second is waiting: a team queuing at a busy station loses its energy within ten minutes. The third is scoring that favours the athletes. The fourth is water: a water point and shade in every playing area, not just at the entrance. The last is sound: with more than 60 people outdoors and no sound system, instructions simply do not carry.
What Saphyyr Events does
We start from your objective, whether that is welcoming new starters, bringing a team back together or rewarding a year’s work, then adapt the events, the intensity and the pace to the people actually taking part. We select and coordinate the hosts, the venue, the transfers and the catering, and a Saphyyr team is on site throughout, giving instructions in French and English. You plan the project with our Paris office; our Marrakech team visits the venues and runs the day.
Frequently asked questions
How long do corporate olympics last?
Half a day, or about three hours including the welcome, briefing, six twenty-minute rotations, the final and the medals. Add travel time if the venue is not your hotel.
Do you need to be sporty to take part?
No. A well-built programme keeps at least half the events for skill, communication or thinking, and includes roles that involve no physical effort at all.
Can you hold corporate olympics in Marrakech in summer?
Yes, in the morning: from June to August the average maximum is above 33°C. Start around 8.30am, finish before noon, and provide shade and water at every station.
How much do corporate olympics in Marrakech cost?
The olympics are quoted on request, depending on the number of stations and hosts. The rest of the day can be costed: for 100 people, transport, a hotel dinner and a DJ come to around €8,300 to €14,300.
Can you combine corporate olympics with a seminar?
Yes: a working session in the morning and the olympics in the afternoon in winter, or the other way round from May to October so that you play while it is cool.
To take it further, see our team building in Marrakech service, try your own scenarios with the seminar and team building budget calculator, or ask for a free quote with your dates, your number of participants and how sporty your group is.