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 isn’t only 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 sometimes look at odds with each other (sustainability versus the ephemeral). All the more reason to welcome the growing number of events dedicated to CSR and sustainable development.
Arcane wants to strengthen its own CSR commitment and help this responsible approach to event design take root, by sharing our best practices!
Putting CSR at the heart of “eco-friendly”, “green” or “sustainable” events lets us keep making an impact on stakeholders while minimising our impact on the planet.
So today, as a creator of event games, we treat CSR as a genuine code of conduct: minimising any harmful footprint on society, on the venues we use 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 such as Criminal Quests, escape rooms, treasure hunts and bespoke activities for companies.
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 gave rise to gamestorming, workshop facilitation, and team building as a way of revealing cohesion and cooperation.
At Arcane, a game must serve a purpose and a challenge (HR, financial, values-driven, strategic, and more). It answers real expectations, and its effectiveness must 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 craft as creators of event games.
How do we do it? First, by creating games that raise awareness of today’s CSR challenges: discrimination, sustainable development, biodiversity and more.
Disability
We developed a murder mystery, “Follow the brain” with our partner Réseau H, to help people understand how the human brain works and where its cognitive biases come from. These mental shortcuts often lie behind our preconceptions about situations or people; they are also what usually drives discriminatory behaviour (disability, racism, sexism and so on).
Biodiversity
Arcane has created a dreamlike adventure, “Biotopia: the Wild Adventure”, which stages endangered species through an exhibition to be explored in augmented reality. Players solve a series of puzzles to uncover the hidden artworks. Our facilitators plunge participants into an adventure somewhere between immersive theatre and a giant escape room.
Sustainable development
The creative workshop “Adventures in Pictures” casts participants as everyday superheroes committed to protecting the environment and advancing sustainable development. After a lesson from a professional photographer, they are guided through the creation of their own photo story illustrating their commitment to protecting the environment, at work and beyond.
Climate
Arcane Experience is an accredited facilitator of the Climate Fresk. This serious game covers the fundamentals of understanding climate change in a three-hour workshop. It puts IPCC findings into perspective and opens up the everyday solutions that improve our impact on the environment, a genuine societal challenge. At Arcane, every member of the team has taken part in a Climate Fresk, then trained to run it for our clients. In our view, the Climate Fresk is a public-interest workshop that should be compulsory: it explains the causes of climate change and embeds good practice. And let’s not forget that knowledge is power, in the active sense of the word.
Workplace wellbeing
Les infiltrés de la QVCT is the ideal murder mystery for raising awareness of workplace wellbeing. Why? Participants are immersed in an investigation among pop culture’s greatest villains. They all belong to an evil organisation with a few productivity problems, caused by a toxic working atmosphere. Our players have to investigate this rather special company and put things right.
Our values
Trust
We act honestly and with a strong sense of responsibility. Our relationships with clients, partners and team members are long-term partnerships, fair and balanced. We stand by our commitments, which means we are transparent and we keep our word.
Enthusiasm
We are open, interested, motivated and curious, and we take the concerns of our colleagues, clients and partners seriously. They sit at the centre of everything we do. We work with joy and enthusiasm. We make our partners’ lives easier, which is why we always come with solutions to the problems we spot.
Quality
We work to offer our clients ever better, ever more effective services that answer their challenges and objectives. We listen to feedback and suggestions, and we question our own work in order to improve.
Humanity
We care about delivering services built on the three pillars of sustainable development: 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 without being told, and speaking up as soon as a subject needs airing.
Modernity
We aim to offer solutions that are always in tune with the times. So we draw on what’s around us (outings, films, exhibitions, games with friends) to sense trends, widen 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 encourage initiative by leaving people free to make their own decisions and by backing “entrepreneurial” thinking and action, because the Arcane project is built by every member of the team. Each Arcane employee brings qualities that make them an essential pillar. We attach great importance to 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 respect each other more.
Our ethical commitments
To embed these good practices in workplace wellbeing, the whole Arcane team helped draw up a list of meaningful actions:
01
Hygiene – health – safety
Respect the basic rules of hygiene, health and safety at work.
02
Employee rights
Make a point of respecting and upholding employment law (decent pay and hours, leave entitlements) and human rights across the entire production and distribution chain.
03
Working environment
Set a sensible pace of work, provide effective, high-performing tools and support remote working.
04
Pay equality
Ensure equal pay between women and men.
05
Fair pay
Ensure fair pay for every member of the team.
06
Equal opportunity
Tackle discrimination and prejudice to support equal opportunity and inclusion, whatever someone's education or social background.
07
Team cohesion
Give our team moments of togetherness and team building activities that bring people together and lift team spirit.
08
GDPR compliance
Stay GDPR compliant, so personal data is handled responsibly and securely, with no risk of discrimination of any kind.
The economic pillar – our clients
Arcane runs its business soundly, without harm to people or to the environment. On the economic pillar, we approach our business challenges with a long-term, considerate outlook, rather than chasing profit at any cost. We favour sustained, shared and sustainable growth, productive full employment and decent work for everyone on the team. We cultivate sustainable 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 we have such a wide and varied range of services.
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 a builder doesn’t put up the same house for €100,000 as for €1,000,000. The same goes for our activities: for every budget, the format that fits best.
Our ethical commitments
To embed these good practices 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 work, for sustainable business development.
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 it can never give rise to discrimination of any kind.
The environmental pillar – our activity
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 a long list of suppliers (shops, caterers, set designers, technicians, directors) and therefore purchases that are as substantial as they are numerous.
Our action reaches beyond the agency: as a creator of corporate events, we make most of our purchases on our clients’ behalf. So we work to pass our responsible purchasing charter on to every company we collaborate 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 we have such a wide and varied range of services.
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 a builder doesn’t put up the same house for €100,000 as for €1,000,000. The same goes for our activities: for every budget, the format that fits best.
So what exactly do we spend on?
Most of our spending goes into producing our games: printing game booklets, buying technical equipment (cameras, sound) and sourcing props, set pieces and costumes of every kind.
Outside production, our purchases go mainly into communications, notably printing promotional posters, and into administration, such as ordering office supplies.
Our ethical commitments
We’re convinced that collective effort is what makes a real difference to the fight against global warming. So, to embed responsible purchasing practices, the whole Arcane team helped write a code of conduct for responsible action:
01
Ethical suppliers
Given what we do, every project calls on a long list of suppliers. Choosing them is therefore crucial. We buy from committed, responsible businesses. We favour online purchases from local suppliers to cut our carbon footprint, and small independent shops. Low-impact delivery methods such as bicycles get our vote too. Finally, we limit the use of mass-market platforms with questionable social models.
02
Committed caterers
The corporate events we prepare often call for caterers. In keeping with our CSR approach, we choose caterers who share our values. Baluchon is one of them: a social enterprise caterer that supports employment integration and works with organic, local produce. We favour partners who have banned single-use plastic. We also work with Mon Jardin Chocolaté, an artisan organic chocolate maker, so our clients can offer local, quality chocolates at their offsites.
03
Refurbish rather than waste
At Arcane we're convinced that the old ways are often the best, so we favour second-hand materials, which we bring back to life to decorate our event games. The point: give a new life to objects that were simply forgotten, and limit waste. Where we shop: La Ressourcerie Créative, Emmaüs, and of course car boot sales and vintage shops.
04
Responsible printing
We know our games call for a lot of paper, so we print with responsible printers and use recycled paper wherever we can. We pay particular attention to suppliers with paper and printing labels, notably Imprim'Vert, FSC and PEFC.
05
Everyday gestures that show what we stand for!
Because small gestures add up to big change, we apply our CSR charter to everyday working life! We drink only organic, fair-trade coffee and tea. We choose public transport over the car, and the train over the plane. In our own way, we help cut greenhouse gas emissions. We sort our waste (easy, but far from trivial). And rather than throwing things away, we give away whatever the office no longer needs but others can still use. All of this is about taking greater responsibility for environmental challenges, which 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.
