WOW, there's some killer ones in there. The Hawaii one is definitely a standout to me.
The company I used to work for out of Sac put on a team building event in Tahoe as part of an offsite for 150 sales people last February. They did two large group problem-solving exercises - one out in the snow, the other indoors, and then came together for a final activity. Apparently it was a huge success.
I've run a lot of these events in all shapes and sizes, both indoors and out, more content-based as well as rah-rah motivator type days. What I have found is that the most effective types of events (depending on the client objectives, of course) are ones that involve activities that everyone can participate in regardless of physical abilities or prior interests. Usually there is some sort of problem-solving component involved, and if you want the program to be a real slam-dunk, you hire a facilitator who can draw parallels between the activities in front of you and the current workplace challenges.
Charity-based events are great, too. One of my favorite ones to run is a bike build, where employees are split into teams and are required to build children's bikes after competing in some team challenges to "earn" their bike parts. At the end of the program, participants are surprised when the beneficiaries (kids, usually ages 8-15) are brought in to have the bikes presented to them.
@Nightowl - I love your CalPirg story. I think the PIRGS are still around - they used to recruit very heavily at NYU, back when I worked at their career center. I would frequently send mass marketing emails to students to try and bring them in for their interviews.
As a matter of fact, that was a great place to work, too, especially as a student. The top banks from NYC (back when banks existed there) would come in and recruit NYU students, so they would throw events all the time that were fully catered by great restaurants. On a day-to-day basis they provided breakfast for students, recruiters, and employees alike, and oftentimes we would get free "schwag" - coffee mugs, mints, pens, etc.
