THIS month's York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce lunch gave a good example of the type of team-building exercise

With an ear-battering explosion of pigskin power and an ayee! or three, entrepreneurs in York and North Yorkshire literally drummed up business at the tribal pinstriped pow-wow at the Hilton Hotel in York.

First came the sedate European-style exchange of business cards, then at the climax of stirring recorded Lion King chantings the ferocious kerbloom of firecracker pyrotechnics triggered the savage pummelling of South African drums from business people who had formed themselves into tabletop tribes.

The transformation was orchestrated by Cleverdotsolutions Ltd's Gillian Tinney, who appointed a tribal chief for each table to orchestrate their own fusillade of hand-fluttering.

She was illustrating the fact that one of the main criteria for creating motivated business teams is a sense of fun. Hence the need for the competing tabletop tribes to create their own name identity. The result: Battling it out on the bongos included the likes of Mojo, the Chamber Pots, the Sexy Stallions, the Phakawi, the Wannabee Survivors and the Chamber Cheetahs. Listening carefully to them was Ron Godfrey, South African-born Evening Press business editor, who crowned himself with his own personal grass-woven Basuto hat, sign of a great chief judge. He transferred the headgear to Andrew Thompson, of York chartered accountants Garbutt & Elliott, who as chief of the Virgin on the Ridiculous table tribe, proved that he and his ten-person team could beat the drum for England - and earn a tiny teddy bear and a bottle of white wine for each of them, courtesy of the Hilton.

"It was amazing how all that drumming soothed the savage brow and transformed us briefly from worriers to warriors," said Andrew.

"In the five years I have regularly attended Chamber lunches this was by far the most enjoyable."

Updated: 09:30 Tuesday, August 27, 2002