Thank You Nashville | Benjamin Peace Hoffman

This started in my dorm room 25 years ago, basically, with Polaroid cameras. I'd read that sometimes people give gifts instead of getting gifts for their birthday. So when cityHUNT hit 25 years, I was like, well, can we give a gift back to the community?

The idea

Nashville is one of our favorite places to do events. We do them all over the world, mostly North America, but Nashville has been really fun, and it's a great city, especially East Nashville.

One of my close friends owns a bunch of restaurants there. He's basically my next-door neighbor, across the street. We've helped him on projects before, and it was their 10-year anniversary at the same time we hit 25. One of his restaurants is Butcher & Bee.

So we decided to do it together and focus it on the people in the service industry.

Two participants in hot dog costumes and a game leader in a striped apron walking past colorful Nashville street murals during a cityHUNT scavenger hunt

Three cityHUNT scavenger hunt participants in bacon and hot dog costumes with cowboy hats inside an eclectic Nashville shop

The game

We built a complementary game for the service personnel who make Nashville awesome. A bunch of restaurants came with teams. We put together $1,000 in cash and prizes for the winning team. Players went out all through East Nashville, solving clues, taking photos, making videos, and just having a really fun day.

It was an unusual format for us. We usually run one company at a time. This one had a bunch of different organizations playing against each other.

Butcher & Bee brought in the teams and had amazing food. The players were so gracious and kind afterwards. A real big win for cityHUNT, for Nashville, for Butcher & Bee, and for the players.

Group of excited people gathered around someone checking a phone on a Nashville sidewalk, videographer filming nearby, colorful street mural in the background

Group in fast food costumes holding cityHUNT game cards in a circle during a Nashville scavenger hunt event

Man with an instant camera around his neck sharing a photo album with a bearded guest at an outdoor Nashville gathering

Man jumping with fists raised in celebration on a Nashville sidewalk, with three teammates running behind him past a white brick building

The crew

We had a full documentary crew there. This was a deliberate 25-year time capsule, not just a production detail. Two film crews and a GoPro crew followed the game, and an interview room was set up for in-depth interviews with different people about cityHUNT's 25 years, Nashville, and this experience. We’re turning it into a short narrative film and a series of clips for social and future cityHUNT marketing.

I got to follow one of the film crews out on the game, which is rare for me. I'm more in a coaching role now for the people running the business, so I don't get to play games much anymore.

Ben Hoffman seated during a Nashville video shoot, wearing a wide-brim hat, colorful scarf, and sunglasses, with studio lighting and a boom mic visible

Behind-the-scenes of a video production shoot in Nashville, with a softbox light rig, a crew member in a wide-brimmed hat reviewing a script in the foreground, and a man seated as the interview subject

Ben Hoffman seated for a video interview in Nashville, with camera crew and softbox lighting surrounding him in a warmly lit venue

Ben Hoffman seated and smiling during a professional video interview shoot in Nashville, surrounded by studio lighting and a cinema camera

25 years

Watching the evolution of it into this, impacting over a million people so far through these experiences, is something I sit with.

We were just about to bring on our first hire.. September 11th was the next day. We were in New York.

Then the business has shifted greatly since COVID. We rethought everything during COVID and rebuilt the whole company during that period.

Now I'm more in the founder role than running the company day to day, supporting amazing people who are doing amazing things all over the country.

Gratitude

It's gratitude. I'm so grateful for this experience and the impact cityHUNT has had on my life.

The reason we do this is that I have seen suffering in the world, especially at work. A lot of companies only have two hours a year for connection. Through a lot of positive psychology and gamification, I realized early on that there's a lot of stress in our society, but there can also be a lot of joy.

Thank You Nashville, was the version of that lesson I most wanted to live this year. Give the gift back. Watch what happens.

That's what 25 years has taught me. Build the game. Watch what happens.