Dave Green has been surprising people for years. His business depends on it. Green’s company, Mystery Trip LA, gathers people into a school bus who are then ushered around the city to three locations unbeknown to them. But the primary reason for the threefold growth of his Sherman Oaks business last year was surprising even to him. Many customers are not young people celebrating birthday parties or graduations, but rather your run-of-the-mill business folk. “I’ve done three corporate parties in the last week,” Green said. “People love this.” Green started taking corporate clients on trips last year, his third in business, and some liked it so much they booked a second trip. Green even flew to Philadelphia recently for a company that requested him to lead an encore trip. The corporate trips cost about $150 to $200 per employee, with about 20 to 50 people at a time. This spring, Green is planning to do his largest yet, with about 200 local professionals. The trips are tailored for corporate clients with team- building exercises. At the beginning of a recent trip with Bullpen Integrated Marketing LLC of Encino, for example, Green asked each employee to provide the group with two things that were true about themselves and one thing that was a lie. Then, the other employees had to guess which was which. After that, the Bullpen team was taken to L.A. Connection Comedy Theatre in Sherman Oaks to try their hand at improvisation. “I’m getting them out of their comfort zone,” Green said. Ricky Mintz, one of two chief executives at Bullpen, said it’s hard to get the two sides of his business – the creative and the media – to interact, and the company’s recent trip with Green helped overcome that. “Everyone mingled so much and we learned so much about the people that do the other side of the business,” Mintz said. “It was great.” – Bailey Brewer
