How We Ran a 350-Person Scavenger Hunt in Laguna Beach

At a glance

• Client: A Fortune 500 technology company (executive group)
• Group size: 350 participants
• City: Laguna Beach, California
• Format: Our signature story-driven scavenger hunt, customized for the client and played on a web app, with live challenge stations
• Game window: 2 hours 20 minutes per team
• Services: Game customization with the client's brand and learning-day materials, 5 challenge stations with costumed guides, staggered bus-drop plan, on-site help hub, live scoring and a finale dinner at a local restaurant
• When: Fall 2025

A team works through a clue in Laguna Beach.

We work with Fortune 500 companies, celebrities and politicians, so we protect every client's privacy. That's why this case study describes the client without naming it.

The challenge

Three hundred fifty executives were arriving in Laguna Beach by bus, all at once, with a hard stop. Every team had to finish at a restaurant in town by a scheduled time for the group's dinner, so the game couldn't run even a few minutes over.

Put 350 people in a small beach town at the same moment and you get crowds at the first clue, lines at every station and teams following each other around. The client also wanted the game to feel like their event, not an off-the-shelf hunt.

Our approach

A rotating "dial" for the bus drops. We set up one easy drop-off point near Main Beach and staggered the buses five minutes apart. Each bus was given a different pair of starting stations, rotating around the five stations like a dial. Bus 1 started at Stations 1 and 2, Bus 2 at Stations 3 and 4, and so on. That spread the teams across town from the first minute, so no station got swamped.

A storyline built on real Laguna history. Our signature Laguna game, Who Stole Tony the Hat's Stash?, is built around Laguna Beach's Prohibition past. Tony "the Hat" Cornero was Southern California's most famous rumrunner. Local history accounts say his boats waited offshore while small skiffs ran liquor into hidden Laguna coves like Crescent Bay (Visit Laguna Beach). Teams played detective through the village to find out who took the stash.

Costumed guides at live challenge stations. Solving clues revealed the location of each of the five challenge stations. Our live guides ran them in character and in costume, so every stop felt like a scene from the story, not a checkpoint.

The client's own brand and learning-day content. We worked the company's learning-day materials and brand into the clues. Teams had to use what they'd learned that day to move forward. The client approved every question and station before the event.

Rehearsed on the ground. Before the event, we drove the course and ran through the game in town to check timing, walking routes and the drop-off point.

Event day

Teams got their game packets before boarding and decorated team flags on the ride over so guides could spot each team. The buses dropped them in waves at the meeting point, and each team headed to its assigned starting station.

The game ran on a web app, so there was nothing to download. Teams logged answers and photo and video submissions as they went. Our safari vehicle was parked near Main Beach as a central help hub, with Expert Active staff on hand for any questions, and it doubled as the check-in point when teams finished.

A ring-toss challenge station on the beach.

The finale

Instead of a bus pickup, every team finished the game at a local restaurant in town by a set time for the group's dinner. While everyone ate, we streamed each team's best photos and videos for the room, then revealed who stole Tony the Hat's stash and named the winning team.

Live music at the finale dinner.

Results

• 350 participants played in Laguna Beach and every team reached the finale restaurant within the client's tight window. The event ran smoothly.
• Participants were still talking about the game at dinner.
• The event's destination management partner told us afterward: "It was a blast watching the attendees go through the process."

Why it worked for a large group

• Spread people out from the start. The staggered drops and rotating station assignments kept 350 people from bunching up.
• Give the game a story. A real piece of local history gave teams a reason to explore, not just a list of tasks.
• Make it personal. Clues drawn from the client's own learning day tied the fun back to the purpose of the trip.
• Build in a buffer. A central help hub, live scoring and a planned finale let us end on time without rushing.

Planning a large group outing in Orange County? See everything we run in Laguna Beach, or browse our corporate outings and scavenger hunt formats.

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FAQ

Can you run a scavenger hunt for 300+ people in Laguna Beach? Yes. We've run our scavenger hunt for 350 executives in Laguna Beach. We used staggered bus drops and a rotating start across five challenge stations so teams spread out through town instead of crowding together. The same format works in our other cities too, including Huntington Beach, Dana Point, San Juan Capistrano and Newport Beach. Each one has its own storyline and gameplay built around that town.

Can the scavenger hunt include our company's branding or training content? Yes. For this event, we built the company's learning-day materials and brand into the clues, and the client approved every question and station in advance.

Do participants need to download an app? No. The game runs on a web app that opens in a phone's browser. Teams submit answers, photos and videos there, and our staff are on site to help.

How long does a large-group scavenger hunt take? For this event, each team had a 2-hour-20-minute game window, planned around the group's arrival and dinner schedule. We fit the length to your agenda.