Plane hijackers are holding you hostage. What’s your first move?

In a high-stakes plane hijacking, only quick thinking and teamwork will help you to solve a series of clues and save yourself and other hostages within an hour.

Thrill-seekers can participate in Breakout Quest’s latest simulated escape room adventure — “Cargo Hold” — at the company’s Boardwalk Mall venue.

The fun can be enjoyed with family and friends but franchise co-owner and New York-based brand strategist Mike Huddleston says the adventures are also ideal team-building challenges for companies looking to develop inter-work relationships, leadership and camaraderie in the new hybrid work culture.

“Smart companies that I have seen, if they are not getting their employees to come in every day or on different days, they’re investing in team building and are making more effort, putting more resources to bringing people together in a physical way and not just online,” Huddleston said.

“Everyone understands the importance of having a harmonious team, a settled team that will be together through company highlights and stable in terms of not always recruiting.

“The challenge now is how do companies build a work culture when there is no office environment to build from,” he said.

Since opening its Gqeberha venue in July, international franchise Breakout Quest has offered participants an opportunity to test their puzzle-solving abilities.

The concept of an escape room first rose to popularity in the US about 10 years ago.

A group of people are locked in a room and have to look for clues that will help them solve a series of puzzles.

Each puzzle provides clues and tools that will provide access to the next stage of the room, and the ultimate goal is to find the key or code that unlocks the door and sets you free.

The addition of a timer adds to the excitement, and if you want to up the ante, pit two teams against each other to see who can escape their room the quickest.

First introduced in SA in 2018, Breakout Quest has branches all over the country.

In December, it introduced “Cargo Hold”, which can now be enjoyed in addition to “Prison Break” and “Ghostship Quest”.

Huddleston said Breakout Quest’s internal data showed that globally it was now a trend to use escape rooms for corporate team building because it not only allowed employees to physically share the same space and but forced everyone to participate.

“One of the reasons it’s good for team building is because it’s not physical,” he said.

“Sometimes with team building when you go and play bowls or build a raft across a river, often it’s the strong men who almost take over.

“With escape rooms, some of the activities are mental, while some are using common sense or just initiative.

“But some of them you just need to work together to solve a clue, whether it’s reading out numbers or unlocking a door.

“It helps because it needs everyone to participate and it develops things like communication, problem-solving, confidence building and leadership.

“All the things it highlights help build leadership.

“And because we have monitors that show how the teams are doing, we have had leadership coaches come to watch themes.

“So after teams have fun they have a debrief afterwards which will give feedback,” he said.

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