Venture Up Team Building - Since 1983 - www.VentureUp.com VENTURE UP delivers fun, personally-enriching team events to help create a vibrant workplace. Game on!
Established in 1983, Venture Up owes its success to an ever-growing list of consultants = customers. Our repeat clients have driven us to innovate new programs as they return again and again. New to us? What you already maynshare with our base is the need to:
1.) increase employee engagement
2.) promote diversity and inclusion in all ways possible
3.) improve in-house corporate social responsibil
ity programs
HISTORY
VENTURE UP began as an adventure company guiding first-time alpinists to summit famous peaks in the U.S., Europe, and Latin America; and leading easier treks the Himalayas. Co-founded by David Lengyel, a plant biochemist and mountaineer-turned entrepreneur, and his travel writer wife, Venture Up gained widespread publicity in the 1980s. Speaking at travel conferences on cultural awareness and responsible travel, the founders were taken aback when widespread publicity turned corporate leaders their way. They had another idea in mind: bringing the adventure experience to corporate meeting and training events. Today, 100% of Venture Up’s business involves corporate groups, and many of the programs last longer than two hours. Venture Up is the granddaddy of the so-called “team building industry,” and remains the top provider of corporate team building activities in the U.S. and abroad.
10/12/2025
HPE's Global Corporate Center in Houston, Texas, recently hosted Venture Up's dynamic scavenger hunt, fostering meaningful connections and a sense of community among participants. The picturesque day and impressive facility created an inspiring atmosphere. Congratulations to over 100 participants who demonstrated remarkable collaboration and teamwork. With every team member fully invested, Hewlett Packard Enterprise is poised for continued growth and success. www.VentureUp.com/location/houstonwww.VentureUp.com/location/dallas
06/12/2025
Holiday cheers to the incredible team at Community CPA in Des Moines. Our third Venture Up team event and it's still a wild ride. This team always knows how to bring the energy and fun. The future is looking bright and your team is always ready to roll. www.Ventureup.com www.Ventureup.com/minneapolis
03/12/2025
The Motorola Solution service team in Long Beach, California, was totally on fire with their teamwork and collaboration skills during the Venture Ups Technicolor Transport challenge at the Maya Hotel - we're talking major high-fives all around. Congratulations are in order for all participants, with a special shout-out to Jen’s Team for crushing it and taking home that sweet 1st Place prize. Big thanks to Venture Up for hosting this awesome experience.
Bravo to Provider Resources for their outstanding teamwork in building 12 prosthetics for donation to children.
Venture Up's innovative team building program 'Bionic Hands' utilizes cutting-edge 3D printing methods to create prosthetics in 5 sizes for children aged 5-17. Each print requires a remarkable 26 hours and involves around 65 pieces. The final prosthetic is completed with 'muscle' and 'ligament' cords, resulting in a cost-effective, movable solution. Applause to Provider Resources, these prosthetics will undoubtedly make a profound impact on lives
Provider Resources, a NGO, provides arbitration services to veterans across the USA, collaborating with insurance companies.
Venture Up team building launched another 10-day Downstream Leadership development program for engineers at Phillips 66, at the Houston Corporate training facility. A diverse group with mechanical, electrical, petrochemical, and systems engineering backgrounds - all highly motivated, energetic and enjoyable to work with. We appreciate the collaboration with Venture Up and wish you success in 2025/26. www.ventureup.com
31/10/2025
Marathon Petroleum refinery engineers brought their A-game to Venture Ups "Escape The Case" team building program at the historic Dearborn Inn, and were super fun to work with.
Visit www.VentureUp.com/detroit and www.VentureUp.com/chicago for the deets.
Marathon Petroleum Corporation is a heavy hitter in petroleum refining, marketing, and transportation, with 13 refineries and a total capacity of over 3 million barrels daily.
The historic Dearborn Inn, by Marriott, in Dearborn Michigan has been around since 1931 and is the oldest "airport hotel" in the US, originally built by Henry Ford.
31/10/2025
Congratulations to Vizient's software engineers for successfully completing Venture Ups' Project 15 THE MAZE team building challenge. This challenge, which is divided into multiple phases, focuses on sharing best practices, strategizing, optimizing, and implementing across multiple teams. All teams successfully completed the challenge in under 47 seconds. www.VentureUp.com
Vizient, headquartered in Irving, Texas, is a healthcare performance improvement company that provides data, analytics, and consulting services to help healthcare organizations, including a majority of the nation's academic medical centers, improve performance in terms of cost, quality, and market competitiveness.
26/10/2025
Nepal's Gen Z changed a regime in 48 hours — they redefined how teamwork at scale can succeed in the digital age.
05/09/2025
What a fantastic day for an Amazing Race team building event with the incredible team at United Way Nashville. We’re thrilled to be working with this group for the fourth time - their enthusiasm is contagious. Keep shining a light in the community through your incredible work.
Since 1983, Venture Up team events. www.ventureup.com 888.305.1065
22/04/2025
Bayer Chemical Leadership team building retreat, St Louis MO. Venture Up team building events. www.ventureup.com
22/03/2025
High Point University, Venture Up / Graduate Student, Leadership Development. www.ventureup.com
22/03/2025
High Point University, North Carolina Graduate Student leadership program with Venture Up Team Building Strategic Games
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Our Story
Snowbound in the French Alps for a week in 1983, two mountaineers escaped cabin fever set on creating Venture Up. Recent graduates of the University of Arizona, David Lengyel and Teresa Shaw spent days dreaming of how to spend more time in the wild, as in a “real job” -- anything that beat dressing up and working for a corporation. Venture Up was born ... nobody knowing the ironic twist that lie ahead.
Never to forget their roots in Chamonix, they landed back in the USA to begin Venture Up, offering first-time adventurers a chance explore caves, go rock climbing, trek in the Himalayas and summit famous peaks, such as Mont Blanc in France, Aconcogua in Argentina, and El Pico de Orizaba, a dormant volcano in Mexico. When they began speaking at international conferences about responsible travel, or eco-tourism as it is now called, widespread publicity drew attention to Venture Up, and the company took a wild turn. Today 100% of Venture Up’s business involves corporate groups and organizations.
When corporate leaders first came to Venture Up, they were seeking to engage staff and improve relationships so they would work better together. “At first we rolled our eyes,” says David Lengyel. “Then we said, “Ok.” Venture Up programs expanded to include ropes courses across the nation, including one Gold Canyon, Arizona where it remains today.
Today’s successful companies rely on retaining and recruiting top talent. Employees want to be proud of where they work, and a strong social responsibility program is what keeps them anchored with firms over the long term, saving corporations millions in training and recruiting new staff.
In 2018, Venture Up launched its most popular game series ever: Escape the Case. Sometimes we do it in the oddest of places, such as an aircraft graveyard for the Race to the Red Planet escape event below:
Venture Up became the first so-called “team building company,” and today delivers the most innovative programs devoted to improving relationships in the workplace. While “team building” -- that catch-all term -- is what we’re known for, what we do is far beyond offering a chance for teams to interact.
“When the same clients keep hiring you over and over again, you need to constantly come up with something different, something new,” says Lengyel. “Our clients are our consultants. They are the motor behind our innovation.” Venture Up’s team of well-educated, well traveled, and offbeat staff are always ready to meet the challenge.
Whether long-time clients or newbies, all share in common the desire to:
1.) increase employee engagement
2.) promote diversity and inclusion in all ways possible
3.) improve in-house corporate social responsibility programs
The Future
Venture Up will soon turn over to the next generation. But its humble beginnings are not too far from the challenges facing Gen Z and Millennial college graduates today. Both Venture Up founders, each with advanced degrees, majored in one thing and did something entirely different. David is a plant biochemist, while Teresa studied journalism but only worked for a newspaper for 3 months before becoming and independent travel writer and photographer. They both took the crooked road less traveled and ended up where they are today.
Forever known as the “granddaddy of the team building industry”, Venture Up is a debt-free family-owned company devoted to showing individual team members their hidden talents to drive success in their personal and professional lives. In so doing, they drive the success of their organizations.
