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The company offers public, private and corporate scavenger hunts in a variety of indoor and outdoor locations, with a slight divergence from traditional hunts; competitors are often not searching for hidden items. Instead, the objective is to uncover the answers to complex and often humorous questions about landmarks or artwork based on knowledge that – more... can be collected at each location.

During our hunt at the Met, rather than tracking down clues taped to walls or concealed behind sculptures, members of the ten participating teams received sheets containing a list of questions and instructions from Watson Adventures emcee Liz Williams before setting out on our excursions. The sheet directed me and my fellow amateur detectives along our routes, and the answer to each question could be found by simply reading a plaque or scrutinizing a painting.

Each team began with a different numbered clue on the sheet, so we wouldn't interfere with one another as we snaked through the cavernous building. Although the hunts are generally structured to allow teams to move on if a clue is too difficult, my team decided that skipping clues wasn't an ideal strategy for us because collecting answers to as many individual questions as possible could help us unravel the overarching murder mystery.

As my team struggled to beat the clock and return to the starting point within our two-hour time frame, we were treading the same floors where the idea for Watson Adventures first took root. Back in 1993, Bret Watson was strolling through the Metropolitan Museum of Art when he noticed a stained glass window depicting a saint who, he claims, bears a striking resemblance to Mick Jagger. His eyes then flicked to the saint's name on the plaque: Saint Roch.

Wanting to share a laugh with his friends about the aptly named St. "Rock," Watson began hosting a private annual scavenger hunt at the Met, stringing together his amusing observations about various works of art. A licensed New York City tour guide and former writer, editor and stand-up comic, Watson recognized that he could merge his diverse interests with his love of museums. He currently serves as president of Watson Adventures, which he founded in 1999.

In 2000, Watson's former Time Inc. colleague Julie Jacobs, a fervent and longtime fan of games and scavenger hunts, approached Watson about his budding company. Jacobs signed on as what she calls "employee number one," merging her business and sales background with Watson's writing experience. Now the Director of Sales and Marketing for Watson Adventures, Jacobs acts as a liaison between clients and staff and focuses primarily on private hunts, but she also works with Watson on the big-picture aspects of the company.

"I just fell in love with the idea," she says. "I think it's such a unique kind of activity."

Watson's curiosity may have inspired the initial hunts, but the company is thriving because of the enthusiasm of hunt participants. Due in part to customer demand, Watson Adventures has grown exponentially in the years since it was launched, expanding to more than 30 other cities, including Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Boston, Seattle and Washington, D.C., and employing a number of full- and part-time writers and employees. The hunts take place in various locations around each city, including Central Park, Grand Central Terminal, Greenwich Village, the American Museum of Natural History and the Bronx Zoo in New York. Private hunts can also be commissioned by individuals, and there is even a custom option in which some of the questions created pertain to a person or group participating in the hunt.

"What we offer," Watson says simply, "is a smorgasbord."

Approximately 12 hunts are offered each month in the New York Tri-State area, and on a national scale Watson Adventures has staged up to 90 hunts in a single month. Ideas for new hunts are continually taking root, and one of the most freshly coined, the SoHo Chocolatey Scavenger Hunt, traces a route to popular chocolate establishments and allows participants to sample decadent treats along the way. Watson describes the outdoor hunts as "a walking tour spiked with caffeine," explaining that they provide an outlet for younger people who are looking for a way to "get off the couch."

The public hunts also provide an ideal segue to participating in the private hunts, Jacobs says, because they are a cost-effective weekend leisure activity that inspires clients to tell their friends about the experience and seek out more specialized adventures. "It's just the type of activity that lends itself to good word of mouth because it is so unique," she says. "It's a scavenger hunt but with an intellectual twist."

For the private hunts, which are Jacobs' domain, participants can elect to have a fully customizable hunt option created and tailored to their group and chosen location or arrange to include personalized questions in an existing hunt. Competitors in some of the corporate and private hunts receive a questionnaire before the event that allows them to provide personal information about themselves, including anecdotes about trips or musical tastes or unique talents. The Watson Adventures team then pulls out the most amusing answers and crafts questions about the participants, creating what Jacobs calls a "natural ice breaker."

The hunts also facilitate corporate team-building because they emphasize work and play without creating an advantage for a specific demographic, the way a corporate event like a softball game might do by favoring athletic participants. Watson explains that a scavenger hunt levels the playing field because "it's not subject to how high you can jump or how many muscles you have. Jacobs says the brain-teasing questions also give people a chance to shine by highlighting skills they may not typically utilize in a business environment, like an aptitude for wordplay. "The talent you may have in this type of activity could be very different than the talents you normally bring to work," Jacobs explains.

It seems to be true that the different types of questions play to the strengths of the diverse competitors. After quietly recording our team's answers to each individual question throughout the hunt, one of my teammates announced that he had been slowly piecing together the correct answer to the final question about which suspect had murdered a museum curator. His focus on the big picture paid off, and my winning team collected what emcee Williams correctly identified as "bragging rights," as well as Watson Adventures T-shirts; the prizes for public hunts are often geared toward glory rather than material gains in order to discourage cheating.

"When people learn things through a game I think it's a very satisfying experience because you're still having fun," Jacobs says. "People have a kid in them, and the kid comes out."

More than 120,000 people have participated in these scavenger hunts since 1999, and Watson's hope is that their experiences will prompt them to return to the museum to dig deeper. His favorite feedback comes from avid museum-goers who have learned something new or from people whose waning interest in museums was rekindled by the adventure.

The museums don't sponsor the scavenger hunts, but Watson says they are accommodating because they recognize that the hunts draw people who are excited about experiencing their galleries in a different way.

"We're expanding people's conception of what the museum has and what it can offer," Watson says. "Our main mission is to help people rediscover a world." – less – More from ZoomInfo »

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