You realize your annual offsite is more than just another meeting.
It’s a rare chance to step back from the day-to-day, to realign with your vision, and set a course for success that resonates through your company’s culture and future achievements. When executed well, it becomes more than a successful offsite—it’s a catalyst for transformation.
Few executives would call their offsite meeting a disaster, but it’s not common for executive teams to look back on their investment 6-12 months later and feel confident their team offsite truly impacted their strategic goals.
That’s why we created this guide to set you up for success.
From themes to logistics down to the offsite agenda, we’ll cover it all in this comprehensive guide and share common offsite pitfalls we see every year.
Planning your annual offsite meeting probably isn’t at the top of your priority list. You may delegate it and not pay much attention to it until a couple of weeks before the event, when you are asked if you want chicken or steak for lunch. 😊
But without thoughtful design, they quickly degrade into an expensive box-checking exercise, leaving no lasting impact on your team or the business.
Your offsite is likely a significant line item on your budget—so how do you maximize your return?
YOUR RETURN ON INVESTMENT
The greater expectations, the higher stakes, and the unique nature of strategy discussions require special planning to ensure meaningful and constructive conversations happen.
Yet surprisingly, little guidance exists for designing strategy offsites, so we’ve created this guide to help you transform your annual team offsite from a perfunctory meeting into a powerhouse of revenue growth.
This guide will help you better understand:
- How to make an agenda that focuses on what’s really important for your team and avoids wasting time on things that don’t make a difference.
- Ways to make sure everyone can talk openly about the tough stuff, which is where the best new ideas come from and allows for team bonding.
- Action items to ensure the energy and plans from the offsite turn into real actions once you’re back at work.
- How to pick speakers with something new and valuable to say, not just the same old advice.
- How to incorporate team activities that help to build a sense of connection and trust to improve team dynamics and collaboration.
With careful planning and design choices, your offsite can align your team, ignite fresh thinking, and propel your organization onwards and upwards.
Let’s dive into your action plans.
An annual offsite is a strategic investment that energizes, aligns, and empowers your sales team, ensuring they are primed and ready to tackle the challenges and opportunities of the new fiscal year.
Here’s how this investment can pay off:
- Strategic Alignment: Unifies the team with clear priorities and goals, ensuring everyone is moving in the same direction.
- Targeted Training: Equips the team with the latest skills and knowledge needed for GovCon success.
- Competitive Insight: Keeps the team ahead of the curve on competitive trends and emerging opportunities.
- Networking and Relationship Building: Promotes valuable informal interactions and breaks down silos, creating a united front across all teams.
- Cross-Collaboration: Fosters idea-sharing and best practices among team and invited guests.
- Recognition of Excellence: Celebrate team and individual achievements.
Annual offsite events involve a lot of planning. Selecting a motivated planning team is critical to the event’s success. The planning team will organize, coordinate, and execute various aspects of the meeting.
Here are a few vital steps for selecting the right team:
1. IDENTIFY KEY ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
List out all the key roles and responsibilities that need to be covered by the planning team. One individual may perform multiple roles, but some may require personnel from other departments, e.g., MARCOM.
Roles include:
- Event Coordinator: Oversees the entire planning process and ensures everything runs smoothly.
- Content Curator: Manages the agenda, speakers, facilitators, and panelists.
- IT: Ensures all technical aspects, such as audio-visual equipment and meeting platforms are in place.
- MARCOM: Manages invitations, promotions, and internal communications.
- Budget Manager: Oversees the event budget, ensuring all expenses are tracked and within limits.
2. CONSIDER PAST EXPERIENCE & DIVERSITY OF PERSPECTIVES
Look for individuals from different organizational departments, roles, and levels with previous experience planning corporate events or offsite meetings. Their experience can be invaluable in anticipating potential challenges and ensuring the event runs smoothly.
3. GAUGE INTEREST & ENTHUSIASM
Try to select team members who are enthusiastic and genuinely interested in contributing to the success of the sales meeting. Their passion can be contagious and contribute to a positive planning experience.
4. ESTABLISH CLEAR EXPECTATIONS & BUDGET
Once you have selected your team, clearly communicate the roles, responsibilities, and expectations to each member and make sure they have the necessary resources, information, and support they need.
Once your core planning team is assembled, it’s important to lock down key logistics upfront as these will inform subsequent decisions and help you avoid last-minute changes:
- Budget Parameters: Provide clear cost guidelines and approvals for essential lodging and food.
- Attendee List: Compile the target attendee profile.
- Offsite Location: Decide if the offsite will be in the office, remote, or virtual forum based on budget, goals, and attendee flexibility.
- Date and Duration: Select optimal timing and length to achieve objectives without overloading participants.
- Event Host: Select somebody to be the overall event host. They are critical for connecting events, keeping attendees informed, and raising the energy when required.
For a month by month checklist of tasks, sign up for our Company Offsite Planning Guide.
As you develop your company offsite agenda, anchor it in a theme and objectives that resonate with your team’s aspirations. This will ensure they enjoy the experience and benefit from the time and financial commitment involved.
Choosing topics based on your current team state of the union and address your most pressing initiatives, priorities and needs. For example, if finding ways to identify new opportunities with existing customers is a critical need for growth, you need to dedicate time to that topic.
Example Offsite Themes:
- Winning Together
- Powered by Purpose
- The Power of We
- United in Growth
- Make a Connection
- Connect, Collaborate, Innovate
Want more ideas? View our Guide to Sales Kick Off & National Sales Meeting Themes. It includes over 100 ideas and real-world examples from leading organizations worldwide.
Now that you have the event boundaries, you can set the agenda. Here, you outline high-level agenda topics based on your theme, offsite goals, and attendee mix.
Remember, You can invite all the right people and plan the perfect off-site—but if no one takes away anything valuable, it’s just been one expensive party!
The ideal off-site agenda should:
- Stay true to your theme, goals, company culture, and strategic plan
- Keep attendee’s attention by including:
- Inspiring speakers, interactive workshops, open discussion, and collaborative activities.
- Provide professional development
- Provide networking activities and exercises
- Allow for breaks between sessions
- Allow sufficient time for Q&A
- Recognize team achievements
Your agenda will look different depending on your offsite duration, goals, and priorities.
To get you started, we’ve created a comprehensive list of agenda items to inspire you:
KICKOFF INTRODUCTION
Make sure you start the event with a positive kickoff.
Starting strong gets participants engaged right away. An impactful opening sets the stage for an event that educates, empowers, and motivates your sales team for the challenges and opportunities ahead.
It sets the stage for the event, so you’ll want to pay paticular attention here to both the content and the overall energy of the speakers. Make sure speakers have a quiet place to gather their thoughts and get energized before addressing the crowd to avoid any additional anxiety that might arise.
Finally, don’t forget housekeeping items. To keep energy high, incorporate essential event details and safety announcements at the end of your kickoff.
ICE BREAKERS & WELCOME ACTIVITIES
Icebreakers are an easy way to increase attendees’ interaction before diving into more serious topics.
Why not kick off your offsite with a “Newbies Quiz” that turns typical awkward introductions in front of a group into a fun activity that takes the pressure off them?
Using something like the Three Truths and a Lie game is a quick and fantastic icebreaker to introduce new hires and hear some of their best personal stories.
“STATE OF THE UNION” PRESENTATION
Your business development team are highly motivated professionals who want to improve their sales figures throughout the year. And your delivery team is passionate about your direction and innovations.
So your offsite is an excellent opportunity for your corporate leaders to provide an overview of where your organization stands and the goals for the next year. This presentation should cover the qualified pipeline, pending bids, backlog, expected bookings, and revenue shortfalls.
A specific area for discussion is the identified revenue gaps for the current year and how to balance winning contracts in the year of execution with business development and delivery team efforts required to be positioned to win contracts in the out years
GUEST SPEAKERS
Inviting guest speakers to present at your offsite meeting is a great way to get your audience engaged and thinking differently. You could invite customers, leaders of other teams, or outside community members to come and speak at your event.
Hearing their stories firsthand can inspire and motivate your team. Enlisting experts or motivational personalities can energize your audience.
While high-profile keynote speakers with industry renown are valuable, don’t overlook the potential impact of emerging voices within your field. These individuals often bring innovative ideas and a relatable presence that can resonate with your team.
To select the “best” offsite meeting guest speakers, consider the following:
- Purpose: Pick speakers who align with the theme and goals of your offsite. If you need several speakers, think about how each one fits into the overall plan.
- Audience: Select speakers who will connect with and excite your team.
- Budget: Speaker fees vary a lot. Decide on a budget and find the best speaker within that range and consider travel times. Remember, a big name doesn’t always mean a better fit for your event.
If you’re interested in improving your team’s relationships with your customers for increased competitive intelligence, win rates and customer retention rates, consider featuring Winning Relationships™ in your upcoming offsite.
PANEL DISCUSSIONS
Are you looking for an engaging and insightful format to cover a topic? You may want to try panel discussions! Panel discussions can be a dynamic way to delve into a subject during an offsite.
Gathering a group of guest speakers and leaders to share diverse perspectives on a specific topic is rewarding for the audience and those involved in the panel.
If you want to use panel discussions, consider the following:
- Choose a Topic: Select a specific topic or issue. This sets the stage for a focused dialogue.
- Select Your Panelists: Carefully choose panelists with unique insights to ensure a rich, varied conversation.
- Decide the Format: Will your panel interact with audience Q&A, or a moderated discussion without direct audience input? Both have their merits.
- Prepare Questions: Draft clear, topic-related questions to guide the discussion.
- Select a Good Moderator: Your moderator is critical. They should guide the discussion, keep the pace, and facilitate audience interaction.
BUSINESS LINE / DIVISION STRATEGIC OVERVIEW
To ensure your team is fully informed about the strategic trajectory, customer dynamics, and organizational capabilities, it’s crucial to incorporate sessions dedicated to each facet of the business.
If your team interacts with various business units, allocate specific time slots for representatives from each division to share insights on their strategic plans, market trends, capability enhancements, and exciting projects.
This will give your team a comprehensive view of available services and where growth is being targeted, enhancing their ability to spot opportunities with customers.
77% of sales and business development professionals agree that collaborating with departments like Marketing, Finance, and Engineering is vital to achieving their goals. Source: State of Sales
SUCCESS METRICS & MEASUREMENTS
If there are any changes to annual goals, performance reviews, or incentive compensation packages, you may want to address them in your offsite. Ensure that everyone understands what will be measured and how it will be measured, and allow sufficient time to answer questions.
NEW TOOLS, PROCESSES, & PROCEDURES
If you are considering investing in new tools, processes, or procedures, this can be an excellent forum to get feedback and answer all questions. Usually, one segment of the event is dedicated to this topic, where things like upcoming changes to expense reporting, travel, CRM, databases, AI enhancements, or other topics that impact your team’s efficiency or effectiveness.
GROWTH STRATEGY REVIEW
As your company embarks on a new fiscal year, aligning and communicating your team’s strategic vision and objectives in your off-site is crucial. This is particularly important during the annual offsite, where leadership has the unique opportunity to set the tone and a clear vision for how your team will contribute towards success over the next 1-3 years.
Strategic Vision and Objectives Alignment: To foster a shared understanding, clearly articulate how the company’s strategic vision and goals are shifting and what this means for everyone. Emphasize each team member’s role in realizing these ambitions over the next three to five years, focusing on how the team will drive this progress.
Markets and Accounts: Clearly articulate any changes required to target markets and accounts and how these changes impact the team.
Must Win Opportunities: Dive into specifics about upcoming “Must Win” new and recompete opportunities the leadership team identified as critical for corporate success.
LEADERSHIP FIRESIDE CHAT / CEO PERSPECTIVE
A fireside chat is an informal yet structured interview between a moderator and a guest. It’s a unique opportunity to uncover the Guest’s personal stories and ideas. It also goes by names like “Ask Me Anything” or “A Conversation With…”
The fireside chat format has indisputable advantages in your off-site. This laid-back, interactive format puts speakers at ease and allows for a two-way conversation with the audience.
BREAKOUT SESSIONS
Collaboration is at the heart of every successful team.
To create a collaborative environment at your offsite, use breakout sessions focused on specific topics of interest or skill-building to segment your current team. This is always more beneficial than having the entire team attend plenary sessions where the topic or speaker holds little interest for them.
When considering breakout groups, knowing that these slots often consume most of each offsite day is helpful. Breakout sessions tend to be 30-120 minutes long and are a great environment for team building.
You can consider shorter sessions (think TED Talk-style) if you want to present higher-level topics quickly. You’ll need more time for more robust content, like training or professional development.
When deciding on your breakout topics – consider your audience and then plan a well-rounded experience that’s fun, productive, and has topics of interest for most attendees.
The topics should focus on your company’s big bets, how to deal with challenges, skills improvements, lessons learned, or engagement with subject matter experts.
TEAM-BUILDING ACTIVITIES
If improved collaboration is needed, you might need to include some team-building and networking activities in your off-site agenda. These activities must be built around your theme and engage attendees in fun and collaborative challenges to strengthen bonds and team morale.
This type of activity is critical for virtual events, where your team might have never personally interacted with others on the team. Online events often lack the crowd participation of in-person events.
It can be rough concentrating when someone is talking for hours on end. That’s why it’s essential to get the audience involved. While it is impossible to recreate the same environment of in-person gatherings, you can allow people to socialize in other ways.
Many different types of team-building activities exist. Group size varies from large groups, breakout sessions, or 1-1. The focus could be anything from philanthropic or community activities to trivia group quizzes, dance-offs, or building paper skyscrapers.
You can also consider customer engagement or sales roleplay exercises. A successful roleplay can uncover hidden habits holding your team back in a safe environment and offer an opportunity of self-reflection for those watching.
It’s an incredibly powerful and effective tool. We’ve gathered 8 of our most transformative role plays we’ve used for years with teams just like yours, with scripts and facilitation tips for your event.
Q&A SESSIONS
Q&A time is often where you get the best feedback on your team’s thinking, challenges, and buy-in to new ideas. Yet, it’s often not given as much importance as it deserves.
While presenting key information is vital, fostering an environment of openness and transparency is crucial by showing your team that their voices matter.
Make sure you include plenty of time for Q&A in your company offsite. Instead of waiting until the end of the day to address them, answer questions in dedicated time slots after every speaker while the content is still fresh in people’s minds.
ADDITIONAL ITEMS TO CONSIDER
When planning an agenda for an offsite event, considering the following additional social activities that enhance the experience and ensure a well-rounded and productive gathering:
- Breakfast, lunch, and dinner hour(s)
- Health and Wellness breaks and activities
- Networking hour(s)
- Live entertainment (comedians, music acts, etc.)
- Happy Hours
- VIP special activities, cultural or local experiences, or other exclusive events
- Company swag or products that support your theme they can reuse throughout the year
Below is a real-world sample of a 2 day offsite agenda sample with time frames.
Your agenda may be more complex depending on the functional teams you include and breakout sessions you plan for your type of offsite, but this illustrates how you want to incorporate breaks and activities within your meeting structure to ensure your teams are not overwhelmed.
Want this offsite agenda template? It’s in our Offsite Planning Guide.
- Distribute your agenda at least 2-3 weeks in advance to give attendees ample time to prepare.
- Ensure your detailed agenda is available both online and offline.
- Identify and label which sessions are mandatory for all attendees.
- Have a clear communication plan for notifying attendees of any last-minute changes to your agenda. For smaller groups, email notifications may suffice. However, consider using push notifications through an event app for larger events.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is a company offsite?
A company offsite is when a group of employees from a company get together at a location away from their regular workplace, usually for a specific purpose like a strategic planning session, team building exercises, or just to get out of the office for a day or two.
The idea behind an offsite is to provide a change of scenery and environment that can help foster more open and creative thinking, encourage bonding between coworkers, and allow the team to really focus without the usual distractions and interruptions of the regular workplace.
Companies often use offsites as a way to take a step back, get aligned on priorities, and strengthen the connections between employees who may not interact as much day-to-day.
What does off-site mean in business?
A company offsite is when a group of employees from a company get together at a location away from their regular workplace.
The “off-site” part just refers to the fact that the meeting or event is happening somewhere other than the company’s normal office or facilities. This could be at a hotel, conference center, rented event space, or even somewhere outdoorsy like a cabin in the woods.
What is the difference between a company offsite and retreat?
While a company offsite and a company retreat are both events that happen away from the regular office, there are a few key differences between the two:
A company offsite is usually more focused on business objectives – things like strategic planning, project kickoffs, department meetings, etc. The agenda is pretty structured and task-oriented, even if there are some team building activities mixed in. The main purpose is to get work done in a different setting.
On the other hand, a company retreat is more focused on employee wellness, bonding, and personal/professional development. The agenda for a retreat tends to be lighter, with more time dedicated to activities, workshops, and social events. The goal is to provide a chance for employees to recharge, connect with each other, and come back to work feeling refreshed and motivated.
- Offsite = More work-focused, structured agenda
- Retreat = More employee-focused, less structured agenda
Both can be valuable for a company, but they serve slightly different purposes. An offsite is about the business, while a retreat is more about the people. Companies will often do a mix of both throughout the year to meet their various needs.
What is an offsite agenda?
An offsite agenda is a schedule or plan of activities and discussion topics for a meeting or event that takes place away from the organization’s regular workplace.
Typically, an offsite meeting is held at a location outside of the office, such as a conference center, hotel, or other dedicated event space.
The offsite agenda usually covers things like:
- The purpose and objectives of the offsite meeting
- A detailed schedule of sessions, presentations, and activities
- Discussion topics and areas to be covered
- Any social or team-building events planned
- Logistical information like start/end times, breaks, meals, etc.
Why are offsite meetings important?
First and foremost, getting the team out of the normal office environment can really help shake things up and spark new ideas. When you remove all the usual distractions and day-to-day tasks, people are able to focus, think more strategically, and really dive into the big-picture stuff. It’s amazing how a change of scenery can unlock that creative headspace.
Another key benefit is the opportunity for deeper bonding and collaboration. At the office, people often stay in their own silos – the marketing team, the engineering team, etc. But at an offsite, everyone’s together for an extended period of time, which allows for more organic interactions and relationship-building. It’s amazing how much teamwork and camaraderie can blossom when you get people out of their usual routines.
And let’s not forget the rejuvenation factor! Offsite meetings give employees a chance to recharge and come back to work feeling energized and motivated. A little time away from the grind can do wonders for morale and productivity. People come back with fresh perspectives and a renewed sense of purpose.
What is the objective of an offsite?
When companies start planning their offsite meetings, they typically have a few key goals in mind:
- Alignment & Strategic Planning
- Process Improvement & Optimization
- Team Building & Culture Development
- Professional Development
- Rejuvenation & Inspiration
Ultimately, the overarching goal is to step back from the daily grind, bring the team together, and position the company for greater growth, alignment, and success. With the right balance of work and play, an offsite can be truly transformative for an organization.
What is discussed at an offsite meeting?
Offsite meetings tend to cover a wide range of important topics and initiatives. Let me give you a rundown of some of the key things that usually get discussed:
Strategic planning is a big one. With the entire leadership team or key stakeholders all in one place, offsites provide the perfect opportunity to dive deep into long-term goals, priorities, and big-picture vision for the company. You’ll often see presentations, breakout sessions, and lively debates around market trends, competitive positioning, budgets, and big new projects or initiatives.
Another common agenda item is reviewing and refining core processes, policies, and workflows. When you get people out of their usual silos, it allows for a more holistic, cross-functional look at how the organization is running. Teams can workshop ideas for streamlining operations, improving collaboration, and identifying areas for optimization.
Team building and cultural development are also hugely important focuses for offsite meetings. Companies invest a lot of time into activities, workshops, and social events that help strengthen interpersonal relationships, align on shared values, and foster a stronger sense of community and camaraderie. This pays huge dividends when people return to their day-to-day roles.
And of course, you’ll often see a mix of professional development opportunities sprinkled throughout the agenda – things like guest speaker sessions, hands-on training modules, and peer-to-peer knowledge sharing. The goal is to help employees level up their individual skills and capabilities.
What is the goal of the offsite meeting?
The goal of an offsite agenda is to provide structure and focus for the meeting, while also allowing time for more informal interactions and discussions that can be difficult to have in the regular office environment.
Offsite meetings are often used for strategic planning, leadership development, employee retreats, and other events that benefit from being held away from the day-to-day distractions of the workplace.
What are creative ideas for offsite meetings?
Check out our 20+ creative ideas to add to your next Company Offsite agenda!
