Brazil 9
Last Wednesday at Embark Immersion Rio 2026 was a full day of Mission Impossible. Again, according to numbered instructions on the back of the really important name badges, people knew which team they were in. They’d pre-determined whether to go in closed or open-sided 4x4s, probably about eight in a team.
After a detailed briefing the 400-plus participants climbed into appropriate vehicles for s-l-o-w movement (which gave even more time for onboard networking). The first stop was in the Museum of Tomorrow, Museü do Amanhä (Salvatore Calatrava, 2015) – above is the cantilevered overhang at one end. Two people on the stage roll-played a client and an advisor. Instructions had been given before to treat your partner like a client, get to know that client, consider this a training ground, find out everything you can in 15 minutes, then trade roles. Don’t interrogate, converse, observe. Listen, what makes the other excited? What makes them feel understood? How can you surprise them? Then there was voting on from the audienc-, which had got the absolutely right excitement for the supposed customer. Very clever.
After lunch at the museum, with bags-to-go for those who wanted kosher, it was time to head for a samba school for a really, really exciting immersion in getting the right communication. Say there was a loyal customer who obviously is beginning to feel fobbed off onto junior associates, how to get them back. One suggestion was hand-delivered invitation for two to a local fashion show with a handwritten note and a bunch of flowers. Moving behind some of the incredible static floats that are stored in the samba school, it was time for Annie Fitzsimmons to work with a wall of probably 80 different carnival masks, all suitable for various places, to work on particular attributes for particular customers, what makes them tick, what doesn’t work, and so on. The same theme was followed throughout. Dig further, don’t probe, but find out as much as you can and think individually for each interaction.
The final stop was going up in the Sugarloaf Cable Car, first introduced 1912 (but completely overhauled 2018). Spectacular sunset views and very fast rise – thanks Tina Lyra for the fab photo below (she’s the hatted gal, the other’s Anne Scully meets Sugarloaf wind). You could stay up as long as you wanted. or come down straight away as many did because it had been a very tiring day in the heat and anyway it was time to titivate for the finale….
