Off-Sites & Company Retreats, Planning Ideas, Tips & Advice

MAIN Business Office Life Off-Sites & Company Retreats

Off-site meeting in the great outdoors
Cheap off-site tips:

Keep it close: restaurants, hotels, museums and even local colleges rent out space for meetings.

Keep it affordable: Hire local, or recruit talented team members
to lead activities.

Keep it simple: Even a long lunch away from the office can get team members thinking in new ways.

Oh, geez. Not that rope thing again.

Climbing trees? Role playing games?

Oh ...and all those those endless PowerPoint presentations from upper management.

We've all been there, but company retreats and off-site meetings don't have to prove that members of your work group are truly "team players." In fact, off-sites can be great opportunities for networking with the department down the hall, or for learning more about a particular field or industry.

Take a tip from experts in the field about how to arrange a more relaxed and enjoyable company retreat with timely advice on activities that make an off-site meeting worth all the planning ...

Take a Hike - The cheap and affordable mini-offsite, with an idea for holding your next meeting anywhere but in the office.

Teampedia Tools for Teams - Tired of the same old team building games and exercises at every off site or retreat? This user-edited resource has tons of resources for you to use to add some variety to the fun.

Fast Company | Can This Off-Site Be Saved? - A great read from the digital home of the print magazine, with valuable reports from the front lines plus additional advice listing The Four Deadly Sins of Off-Sites.

Off-Site Meetings - Don't Ya Just Love 'Em? - A good laugh, featuring less-than-great moments at off-sites including awkward icebreakers, PowerPoint presentation bugs, and those, um, open dialogs ...

The Seven Deadly Sins of Business Retreats and How to Avoid Them - Biting off more than you can chew, no clear direction, boredom, and four more...

Beware the Dreaded Off-Site Technology Meeting - More laughs over horror stories you'll probably recognize, with a single priceless suggestion: get staff input before the off-site meeting.

10 Tips for Successful Management Retreats - Good, common sense advice, such as including industry overviews, inviting vendors and clients as guest speakers, and balancing work and play at the off-site.

also see related feature -> How to host a fun office retreat

also see in Office Life -> Job Interview Tips | Meetings

The Office Jerk | Office Politics | Time Management

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