S. B. Lady Daphne

Boating Bourse

Z/Yen Limited, the UK’s leading risk/reward management firm, has developed a fun approach to getting across business messages – Boating Bourses. Bourse games are played for corporate entertainment, team building or training using simulated stock markets. Boating Bourses are so called as they take place on one of Z/Yen’s most distinguished clients and suppliers, the Thames Sailing Barge, S.B. Lady Daphne.

Players take the part of City investment managers trying to maximise their portfolios in a tight, competitive market. Players are grouped into teams of between three and eight. After an initial instruction sheet, Boating Bourses consist of four rounds of play where:

• players receive a news sheet telling them about interesting news in the world and about each of five exciting investment opportunities;
• players debate the why’s and wherefore’s of investment and submit an investment allocation, as well as taking punts on a few trivia questions for extra points;
• runners take team forms for processing by the Boating Bourse’s exchange trading systems with the results posted on the Big Board;
• runners return with investment management team positions, market capitalisation of the five companies, specific team results, and the next round of news.

Boating Bourses are spiced up with some team poaching, pertinent prizes and a healthy influx of dubious rumours. Winning teams often increase portfolios by over 1,000% in an afternoon – an acceptable return even in today’s e-conomy. Share ramping, insider trading and other hearty, but sadly now illegal, practices are encouraged during the game. As the games are based on deep research and sound business principles, players are also given good justification for the game and analysis of their game play in the closing presentation.

Boating Bourses work best with groups of 12 to 45. Dry land bourses have run successfully for over 100 (e.g., with Scottish Enterprise and The Royal Society of Edinburgh). Each round takes about ten minutes, with a five to ten minute break, thus the game is easily incorporated, with prizes, into a two hour corporate entertainment event. Bourses also work nicely into tea and coffee breaks as a light-hearted interlude during a longer, more serious, training or team-building day. At the moment, there are two Boating Bourses:

• the Technology Bourse, based on real investment outcomes in high technology with companies such as Pigmalia, the wonder paint;

• the Legal Bourse, based on actual senior partners’ evaluations of their greatest threats, firms floating on the exchange such as e-law.com and litigation-R-US.

• the Facilities Management (FM) Bourse, based on Z/Yen's research into the FM market, that cut and thrust world of mergers, acquisitions and outsourcing contracts;

• the Cashing in on Catches Bourse, based on Z/Yen's economic model of the impact of certification standards for sustainable fishing. Fluffy fish boobie prize aside, the game's messages helped support a high-profile event on a key global topic.

• the Bioindustry Bourse, based on some of the unique issues surrounding the development of bio-technology products and the management of bioindustry companies.

Z/Yen provides the runners, the trading systems, the financial analysts and the prizes. Z/Yen is interested in exploring new Bourse ideas and open to developing more customised games for interested parties.

Please contact Michael_Mainelli@zyen.com for more details.

E-mail emainelli@lady-daphne.co.uk for more information on S.B. Lady Daphne.
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