5 Useful Tips When Planning Offsite Staff or Client Entertainment Events

Your company’s staff entertainment event is coming up, and everybody’s psyched – that is, except for you: the person in charge of planning the thing. Whether it’s in your official job description or not, arranging for a group of colleagues to go offsite is an unusual occurrence, one which can bog the hapless organizer down with details, dread, and feelings of impending doom.

Maybe that’s a bit dramatic– but it can certainly be stressful.

Prior to starting my own corporate entertainment & team building company in NYC, I spent 6 years as director of adult education & enrichment programs at the 92nd Street Y, a large cultural & community center in Manhattan. As part of the 500+ classes and events I oversaw was a robust outings and tours program, where we routinely took groups of up to 75 people throughout the city for a variety of enriching adventures.

Here’s what I learned from being responsible for all of those people & events:

1. 1          Make a Roster – You should have a full roster of everybody who will be (or possibly will be) in attendance, including cell phone numbers

1. 2          Provide Crucial Info in Advance – A mass Email will do; you want to make sure that everybody is on the same page with regards to event date, time, meeting location, and any other pertinent information

1. 3          Provide a Means of Being Contacted – Especially when folks are going to meet up on their own – versus everybody taking a chartered bus or something – they’ll need to have a way to contact you. Somebody WILL get lost, or have the times mixed up, or a zillion other things.

1. 4          Confirm Numbers in Advance – Wherever you are taking these people, the offsite location will need to be prepared for your group. The most important thing they need to know: how many people will you be bringing? There’s usually an attrition rate, but you’ll have a general sense – it’s usually different from the number you originally told them, so make sure your site knows the actual number.

1. 5          Contact EVERYBODY if ANYTHING Changes – Things come up which are beyond your control; start times need to be shifted, programs altered, or entire events get cancelled. If there is ANY change in the plan, you MUST let the attendees know in advance, in as many ways as possible: Email, phone, text, carrier pigeon (this is especially true in the event of a cancellation – there’s nothing worse than somebody showing up at a cancelled event, trust me. You’ll hear quite a complaint if they do.)

All of this can easily be applied to your company’s offsite event. In a nutshell, you’ll want to clearly communicate everything upfront, know who’s coming and how to reach them, and give them a means of reaching you.

Good luck – enjoy your offsite!