Our vision
As CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) gains ground, more and more companies are looking closely at the impact they have on the world around them. It’s not just about doing the right thing. It’s about building a better business environment through sustainable, ethical practices.
In the corporate events industry, these two worlds can seem at odds: sustainability on one side, the short-lived on the other. Yet we’re delighted to see more and more events dedicated to CSR and sustainability.
Arcane wants to strengthen its own CSR commitment and help this shift towards responsible event design, by sharing our good practice.
Building CSR into “eco-friendly”, “green” or “sustainable” events lets us keep making an impact on people while minimising our impact on the planet.
So today, as a creator of event games, we treat CSR as a genuine guiding principle: minimising any harmful footprint on society, on the places we work in and on the communities around us.
Our mission and our ambition
Arcane Experience is an agency that designs games for corporate events. We open our escape rooms to the general public (in Paris and Geneva) and we create games for companies: Criminal Quest, escape rooms, treasure hunts and bespoke activities.
Our games are designed to give players a moment of escape, where individual talents and skills move the whole group forward. We also put game mechanics to work in the service of collective intelligence. That expertise has given rise to gamestorming, workshop facilitation and team building as a way to reveal cohesion and cooperation.
At Arcane, a game must serve an objective, a challenge (HR, financial, cultural, strategic and more). It answers a need, and its effectiveness should be measurable so it can keep improving.
With that mission in mind, our ambition is to put the CSR challenges that concern us all back at the heart of our work as creators of event games.
How do we do it? First, by creating games that raise awareness of the CSR issues of our time: discrimination, sustainability, biodiversity and more.
Disability
We developed an investigation game, “Follow the brain”, with our partner Réseau H, exploring how the human brain works and where its cognitive biases come from. These mental shortcuts often lie behind prejudice about situations or people; they’re also what usually drives discriminatory behaviour (disability, racism, sexism and so on).
Biodiversity
Arcane has created a dreamlike adventure, “Biotopia: the Wild Adventure”, bringing endangered species to life through an exhibition explored in augmented reality. Players solve a series of puzzles to uncover the hidden artworks. Our facilitators immerse participants in an adventure somewhere between immersive theatre and a giant escape room.
Sustainability
The creative workshop “Adventures in pictures” casts participants as everyday superheroes committed to protecting the environment and driving sustainability. After a class led by a professional photographer, they’re guided through the creation of their own photo story illustrating their commitment to the environment, both inside and outside the company.
Climate
Arcane Experience is an accredited facilitator for the Climate Fresk. This serious game covers the fundamentals of climate change in a three-hour workshop. It puts IPCC findings into perspective and opens up the everyday solutions we can put in place to improve our environmental impact, a genuine societal challenge. At Arcane, every member of the team has taken part in a Climate Fresk, then trained to deliver it to our clients. In our view, the Climate Fresk is a public-interest activity that should be compulsory: it explains the causes of climate disruption and embeds good practice. Let’s not forget that knowledge is power, in the most active sense of the word.
Workplace wellbeing
Les infiltrés de la QVCT is the ideal investigation game for raising awareness of workplace wellbeing. Why? Participants are immersed in an investigation among the greatest villains in pop culture. They belong to an evil organisation with a few productivity problems, caused by a toxic working atmosphere. Our players have to investigate this rather unusual company and put things right.
Our values
Trust
We act with honesty and a strong sense of responsibility. Our relationships with clients, partners and employees are long-term, fair and balanced. We stand by our commitments, which means being transparent and keeping our word.
Enthusiasm
We’re open, engaged, motivated and curious, and we take the concerns of our colleagues, clients and partners seriously. They’re at the centre of everything we do. We work with energy and enthusiasm. We make life easier for our partners, which is why we always come with solutions to any problem we spot.
Quality
We work to offer our clients ever better, ever more effective services that answer their challenges and objectives. We listen to comments and suggestions, and we question our own work in order to improve.
Humanity
We’re committed to services built on the three pillars of sustainability: social, economic and environmental. We want people at the centre of our thinking. That’s why communication matters so much: it’s what moves a relationship, a project or a team forward. It means never expecting someone else to know what hasn’t been said, and speaking up as soon as a subject needs raising.
Modernity
We always aim to offer solutions that feel of their time. To do that, we draw on everything around us (outings, films, exhibitions, games with friends) to sense trends, feed our creativity and share our discoveries with the rest of the team.The social pillar — our people
We see well-trained, motivated and skilled employees as the main pillars of Arcane Experience’s success. We nurture initiative by encouraging autonomous decisions and “entrepreneurial” thinking and action, because the Arcane project is built by every member of the team. Each Arcane employee brings qualities that make them indispensable. We place great importance on respect between colleagues, exemplary behaviour, teamwork and a willingness to take an active part in change. We believe relationships grow through informal moments that help people know each other better and build stronger mutual respect.
Our ethical commitments
To embed good practice in workplace wellbeing, the whole Arcane team helped draw up a list of meaningful actions:
01
Hygiene, health and safety
Respect the basic rules of hygiene, health and safety at work.
02
Employee rights
Be rigorous in respecting and upholding employment law (decent pay and hours, leave and so on) and human rights right across the supply chain.
03
Working environment
Set a decent pace of work, provide effective, high-performing tools and support remote working.
04
Equal pay
Ensure equal pay between women and men.
05
Fair pay
Ensure fair pay for every employee.
06
Equal opportunity
Root out discrimination and prejudice to support equal opportunity and inclusion, whatever someone's education or social background.
07
Team cohesion
Give our people social get-togethers and team building activities to build and energise team spirit.
08
GDPR compliance
Stay GDPR compliant so that employees' personal data is handled responsibly and securely, with no risk of discrimination.
The economic pillar — our clients
Arcane runs its business soundly, without harm to people or the environment. On the economic pillar, we approach our business challenges with a long-term, responsible view, and no race for profit at any cost. We favour steady, shared and sustainable growth, productive full employment and decent work for everyone on the team. We cultivate sustainable patterns of consumption and production.
We believe every client deserves a personal relationship, built on professionalism, understanding and mutual trust. Regular personal contact keeps us close to our clients’ needs and wishes, and we act reliably and accurately. We offer solutions that meet those needs, are easy to understand and fit the budget. That’s why our range of services is so varied.
We don’t run a low-cost pricing policy. Instead, we price every service on a reasonable balance between profit and sound management. We often tell our clients that builders don’t put up the same house for €100,000 as for €1,000,000. The same goes for our activities: for every budget, there’s a format that fits.
Our ethical commitments
To embed good practice in long-term corporate governance, the whole Arcane team helped draw up a list of actions:
01
Sustainable growth
Plan the company's growth sustainably, with a genuine organic development strategy.
02
Cost optimisation
Build cost optimisation into the way we grow the business sustainably.
03
Fair, flexible pricing
Price our services fairly and in line with what clients actually need.
04
GDPR compliance
Protect our suppliers' and clients' personal data so that no form of discrimination can arise.
The environmental pillar — our operations
Responsible purchasing charter
For several years now, Arcane has been buying from responsible suppliers, in line with the voluntary ISO 20400 standard. This matters all the more in the events industry, which involves many suppliers (shops, caterers, set designers, technicians, directors and more) and therefore purchases that are both substantial and numerous.
Our action goes beyond the agency itself: as a creator of corporate events, we make most of our purchases on behalf of our clients. So we do our best to pass our responsible purchasing charter on to every company we work with. Our clients benefit too, as it strengthens their own CSR strategy.
We believe every client deserves a personal relationship, built on professionalism, understanding and mutual trust. Regular personal contact keeps us close to our clients’ needs and wishes, and we act reliably and accurately. We offer solutions that meet those needs, are easy to understand and fit the budget. That’s why our range of services is so varied.
We don’t run a low-cost pricing policy. Instead, we price every service on a reasonable balance between profit and sound management. We often tell our clients that builders don’t put up the same house for €100,000 as for €1,000,000. The same goes for our activities: for every budget, there’s a format that fits.
So what do we actually spend on?
Most of our spending goes into producing our games: printing game booklets, buying technical equipment (cameras, sound) and sourcing props, décor and costumes of all kinds.
Outside production, our purchases fall mainly into communications, notably printing promotional posters, and administration, such as ordering office supplies.
Our ethical commitments
We’re convinced that collective effort is what makes a real difference in the fight against global warming. So, to embed responsible purchasing practices, the whole Arcane team helped draw up a code of conduct:
01
Ethical suppliers
Because of what we do, every project calls on a large number of suppliers. Choosing them well is therefore crucial. We buy from committed, responsible partners. We favour online purchases from local suppliers to cut our carbon footprint, and independent shops wherever possible. We're also keen on low-impact delivery, by bicycle for instance. Finally, we limit our use of mass-market platforms with questionable social models.
02
Committed caterers
For the corporate events we prepare, we work with caterers. In line with our CSR approach, we choose partners whose values match ours. Baluchon is one of them: a social caterer promoting workplace integration and organic, local produce. We favour partners who have banned single-use plastic from their model. We also work with the organic artisan chocolatier Mon Jardin Chocolaté, so our clients can offer high-quality local chocolates at their company offsites.
03
Refurbish rather than waste
At Arcane we're firm believers that the old ways are often the best, so we favour second-hand materials, brought back up to date to decorate our event games. The benefit: giving forgotten objects a new life and cutting waste. Where we shop: La Ressourcerie Créative, Emmaüs and, of course, car boot sales and vintage shops.
04
Responsible printing
Aware of how much paper our games require, we print with responsible printers and use mainly recycled paper. We pay particular attention to suppliers holding paper and printing labels, notably Imprim'Vert, FSC and PEFC.
05
Everyday actions that show where we stand
Because small actions drive big changes, we apply our CSR charter to everyday working life. We drink only organic, fair trade coffee and tea. We choose public transport over individual vehicles, and the train over the plane. In our own way, we help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We sort our waste (easy, but far from trivial). And rather than throwing things away, we give away whatever no longer has a use in the office but could be useful to someone else. All of this is about taking greater responsibility for environmental challenges that matter more than ever.
Want to know more?
2020 survey “Employees and responsible companies”, conducted by Des Enjeux et des Hommes and ekodev, among 1,016 private sector employees from companies with more than 250 staff.
