Everything You Need to Know When Planning a Team Offsite
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Planning a team offsite can be daunting, especially for companies where there is not a dedicated “event planner” or “event manager”.
Do you have the expertise for the destination? What’s the best and most efficient way to book flights? How do you manage bookkeeping for all the expenses? How many days/nights should the event be? What do people want to do versus what feels like forced fun?
Here’s everything you need to know to start your planning process, in addition to the resources and tools you should consider.
1. Make a list of your invitees and your goal for registration numbers.
At this time you should also determine if this is a mandatory event or an optional invitation. If it’s an optional event, what’s the incentive for them to attend the offsite?
2. Determine when your event will happen.
Things to consider:
If you’re traveling and need multiple days, think about the fact that your employees are real people and have commitments outside of work.
Use a Doodle poll to present trip date options and gather votes. Cater as much as you can around attendee preferences.
This starts you out on a more positive note if folks have the buy-in to opt for dates that work for them instead of feeling resentful if they “have to go to an offsite” over something else planned in their personal lives.
3. Compile a list of possible destinations, and then have your attendees vote on their top 3 destinations.
4. Decide on a budget, and prioritize where you want to spend.
5. Secure accommodations.
At the very least, have backup accommodations booked before planning anything else. If you don’t have somewhere for people to stay, it’s a problem! You can always modify or cancel the reservation later once you have firmer plans and a clearer direction.
6. Find suppliers.
First things first, make sure you have a supplier for transportation, meals, experiences, conference rooms, meeting moderators, AV technical support, and more.
Consider hiring a professional to manage the event logistics. They have the relationships specific to that destination that will help pull it all together, and they can be boots on the ground if anything goes wrong and you need creative, last-minute troubleshooting.
Additionally, many professional event organizers can negotiate rates and contracts on your behalf.
7. Survey your attendees.
Send your attendees an pre-trip survey once you have an idea of experiences, meals, etc. Find out what’s most important to them and what would add the most value.
8. Plan your days.
Determine your priorities for your group. Is it strategy time & meetings, team building activities, fun for the sake of fun, cultural experiences, meals together, etc?
9. Give people free time.
Allow for some free time for people to expand on conversations they might have started with colleagues during meetings, explore on their own, recharge for the introverts who need alone time, catch up on emails, and other day-to-day tasks.
10. Bring your team into the planning.
A great way to get buy-in is to have your attendees participate in some of the planning. Assign tasks to teams that will be something they can look forward to.
Example: Team A chooses the dinner venue and Team B plans a full day of activities in the surrounding areas.
Case Study: In our team offsite we split into two teams. Team Merida planned the first 2 days of our experience and Team Oaxaca planned the second 2 days of our experience. They organized everything from activities to meeting times, transportation, restaurants and meals, vendor meetings, etc. The feedback was that they had fun feeling like they were ‘hosting’ half of the offsite and felt like they where they were walking in with fresh eyes for the other half. It also got them thinking about coordination, planning, and who else on the team they needed to work with. The value of the offsite can take shape well before the event itself.
11. Plan for things to not be perfect.
Have the names and contact information of extra suppliers in case you need to call in an emergency service: taxis, AV services, caterers, etc.
12. Make life at home as easy as possible.
If you have the budget or resources - consider the challenges at home that make it difficult for your team to get away. Can you provide a meal delivery service voucher (UberEats, etc.) for their families when they’re gone? Do you have a nanny agency that can provide evening care options?
If doing it yourself sounds like too much, let us do the planning for you! Contact us with information about your event and what you need the most help with. We’ll work with you to make all the necessary arrangements and bookings so you can check it off your to-do list.
No matter where you travel, we always recommend purchasing travel protection to safeguard against sudden changes or cancellations. If you don’t already have a preferred vendor, you can check out ours - Travel Insured - which offers a “Cancel for Any Reason” policy.
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