Hunters are
looking for answers

By William Kenny
Times Staff Writer

Brett Watson faced a career crisis back in the late 1990s as a New York City-based reporter and editor for Entertainment Weekly magazine.
He decided he didn’t want to work at a weekly publication anymore and was plain sick of the entertainment business.
But the Doylestown, Bucks County, native had a few things working in his favor. Among them were his great appreciation for fine art, his ability to pen witty riddles and his knack for leading friends on wild-goose chases.
Those qualities have made the almost unintentional entrepreneur a shining example of how one doesn’t particularly need a lot of money or technical expertise to start a successful small business.
In Watson’s case, creativity did the trick.
His company, Watson Adventures, stages public, private and corporate scavenger hunts for more than 10,000 people annually at museums, zoos and other public attractions in about a dozen cities across the country.
Watson holds a series of hunts in and around Philadelphia, including one scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 11, at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The cost is $34.50 per person, including regular museum admission.
"It started out as something wacky for me and my friends to do," Watson said. "And then I found out that people were willing to pay to do this."
Unlike many scavenger hunts, participants don’t actually collect objects. That’s why the Watson Adventures brochure instructs participants to "Drop that Picasso!"
Instead people hunt for clues so they can answer humorous and cryptic questions written by the event hosts. The clues are contained in particular paintings, sculptures, zoo animals or other attractions. Most hunts have a theme, such as Harry Potter, Halloween, bizarre sea creatures or Colonial America.
The Aug. 11 hunt is called "The Naked at the Philadelphia Museum Scavenger Hunt." Participants will be encouraged to remain clothed, but the clues will be nude paintings and sculptures around the Art Museum.
While Watson offers plenty of family-oriented hunts, this one is geared for adults with an irreverent sense of humor. Fortunately, the museum has plenty of material to suit that theme.
"If you look across centuries and cultures, you realize how many different ways nudity is expressed," Watson noted.
Though Watson actually formed his company as a part-time activity in 1999, his hunts date back as far as 1993. He created the first one with the intention of bringing to light some of the amusing and often overlooked details of the artworks in New York’s Museum of Modern Art.
About 20 friends with varying levels of art knowledge took part.
"I wanted to get people who are museum-phobic out to the museum," Watson said. "I was stressing to them, ‘This is not an art test or a trivia test.’ Everyone is on a level playing field. And it’s not like you have to be athletic."
Financially, the only expenses were admission to the selected venue and the cost of printing up question lists.
After about three years in New York, Watson expanded into Philadelphia.
"I was actually born in Philadelphia," he said. "Plus, I think the Philadelphia Museum of Art is America’s most underrated art museum."
Now, Watson Adventures also offers public hunts in Boston, Washington and Los Angeles. It has coordinated private and corporate events in Baltimore, Chicago, Connecticut, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Seattle and San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Corporate events have been the catalyst for the growth of the company, which now employs about 50 full-timers and part-timers. Business clients comprise about two-thirds of all hunt participants and run the gamut from small companies to Fortune 500 corporations, such as a couple of Philadelphia’s pharmaceutical giants.
Most of Watson’s sales leads come via word-of-mouth.
"That’s the primary way people find out about us," he said. "That’s the secret ingredient for us. It’s such an unusual experience that people inevitably end up going to work on Monday morning and telling all of their (co-workers) about it."
The exercises tend to combine an array of elements that many companies look for when planning employee outings. They’re entertaining enough to captivate people and require creative thinking, teamwork, leadership and timely decision-making.
Most of the venues approached by Watson to host hunts have been receptive to the concept, perhaps surprisingly for highbrow institutions like art museums.
In some ways, Watson shares a mission with the museums.
"Museums don’t have a problem, because we don’t cause disruptions and we’re respectful," he said. "(With) the questions, though they’re humorous, hopefully people are learning something. We’re bringing a lot of groups to the museum who otherwise might not think of the museum as an activity." ••
For more information about Watson Adventures Scavenger Hunts, visit www.watsonadventures.com or call 1-877-9-GO HUNT.
Reporter William Kenny can be reached at 215-354-3031 or bkenny@phillynews.com