The Amazing Wrigley Race: How We Turned a Cubs Game Into Our Best Networking Event Yet

Six years in, we tried something different

Paul Bashaw and John MacMullen (better known as Paulie and JMac) have hosted this event for six years. Each year, they listen to feedback from the sales teams across Pyramid Global Hospitality and Benchmark Resorts and Hotels and look for ways to make the day better.

This year, they decided to gamify it.

"We gamified the game," Paulie said, "and brought in our clients to be more interactive with our sales team. Rather than salespeople going and trying to track down clients at an event, we actually had the clients reaching out and finding our team members."

With 16 properties represented on the rooftop, that shift changed the whole energy of the day. Every client met every property. Every decision-maker got face time. And everyone got to know each other.

The challenge: competing with Major League Baseball

Hosting a networking event at a ballgame has one obvious problem: the ballgame.

"You're at a Major League Baseball game," JMac explained. "It was the last home game of the year. So how do you get meeting planners' attention, especially Chicagoland meeting planners' attention, at a venue like that?"

The answer was to give them a reason to get out of their seats.

How the Amazing Wrigley Race worked

The rules were simple:

Find your matched salesperson somewhere in the venue.
Have a conversation and snap a selfie together.
Earn a two-night stay at that salesperson's hotel.

"It was a really great motivational way to get the clients out of their seats and out of the bleachers," JMac said, "and in and around the venue seeking the salespeople we brought to the event, and have a conversation."

His favorite part? Watching it work. "The coolest thing we saw was how many customers and meeting planners were around the venue looking for salespeople to talk to. You've never seen that at an event."

Timing helped, too

The date wasn't an accident. The team always schedules the event near the end of September, betting that the Cubs will be in the race. This year, the bet paid off: the Cubs clinched in that final home game.

"Sometimes you're good, sometimes you're lucky," JMac said.

The results showed up the same day

The best measure of success came before anyone left the rooftop. Salespeople walked away with RFPs in hand.

"It all started from an initial conversation because the meeting planner sought them out in the venue," JMac said. A planner would take a selfie, keep the conversation going, learn about the property, and realize they had a meeting headed to that part of the country. Next step: "Let me send you my RFP."

Paulie and JMac reviewed the responses together on a call the following week, and the feedback was clear. Planners called the Amazing Wrigley Race one of the best event experiences they'd had, and several said they plan to use the game at their own company events.

"That's just great flattery," Paulie said. "So not only were we affecting just that day and our relationships, we're looking at long-term relationships."

The bigger win: real human connection

RFPs are the immediate payoff. But JMac sees the longer-term value in the introductions themselves.

"There were so many introductions of meeting planners and salespeople that had never met before that immediately struck up conversations and friendships," he said. "A rapport was built right there in the venue."

Weeks later, the team is still fielding emails from attendees about the day.

The selfies did double duty

Those photos weren't just a game mechanic. They proved each planner and salesperson actually connected, and they gave the team a photo of every client in attendance. That means faces matched to names for every follow-up conversation.

They also settled a few questions. When one salesperson asked who had won their property's gift certificate, JMac pulled out his phone: "Oh, wait, I've got a selfie right here."

What planners can borrow for their own events

If you're planning a conference, incentive trip, or client event, the Amazing Wrigley Race holds a few lessons worth stealing:

Give people a reason to move. A simple challenge pulls attendees out of their comfort zones and into conversations they wouldn't otherwise have.
Reward the conversation, not just the attendance. Tie the prize to actually meeting someone, so every interaction counts.
Pick your moment. A great date and setting do half the work of creating energy.
Capture proof of connection. A photo turns a quick hello into a memory, and into a name you can follow up with.

Imagine what we can do for your next meeting

We got 160 meeting planners and salespeople out of their seats and talking to each other at a Major League Baseball game, on the final home game of the season, with the Cubs fighting to clinch. If our team can spark that kind of connection while competing with Wrigley Field for attention, imagine what we can do for your next meeting or event.

The Benchmark Resorts and Hotels Global Sales team brings that same creativity to every program we help plan, from corporate retreats to summits and incentive trips, along with destination insights, pricing and seasonality guidance, and hands-on planning support. Tell us about your next meeting. Send us your RFP, and let's build an event your attendees will still be talking about weeks later.