How Offsite Works
We handle everything you need to plan transformative, high ROI Offsites, from venue selection to agenda creation, vendor sourcing and management, contract negotiation, and more!
Book your venue
With our curated marketplace, not only do you save weeks of searching for venues, but you get exclusive room block rate discounts, favorable contract terms, and vetted, high-quality service once you’re on location for your Offsite.
Invite your team
We’ll help you centralize your team’s dietary preferences, travel sensitivities, and communications around your Offsites so it becomes easier to keep everyone informed.
Plan your agenda
Based on your team size, meeting type, venue, business objectives, and budget, we’ll help you plan the perfect agenda for your Offsites, down to meal selections, breaks, notes on how to facilitate sessions on your own, and more.
Choose additional vendors and activities
Once we lock in your agenda, we’ll help you source all the service providers and activities for an unforgettable experience, from photographers to swag, private chefs to outside facilitators, and whatever else your Offsites call for.
Enjoy your Offsite
You have an amazing team. When you reconnect in-person, we want you to enjoy your time together. Let us arrange the logistics so you can focus on strategic planning, team-building, problem-solving, ideation, and celebration.
See What Team Leaders Have To Say About Working With Offsite
"After the All-Hands retreat, a lot of people told me they felt more connected to the team, the company, and our mission"
Christopher Morton
President and COO, Cognito (acquired by Plaid)
"Having you guys decide what made sense for the team was really great. It took a weight off in terms of making those decisions… I didn’t expect you guys to go so deep with helping us solve some of our internal struggles"
Faye Almeshaan
Director of Operations, Forum Ventures
"We had a lot of uncertainty and then came across Offsite through total luck...During an executive team meeting, we decided Offsite seemed like the way to go. They helped us not make big mistakes here and have a great experience."
Wes Woven
Founder/CEO, Woven
Mike Lisovetsky
Co-Founder, JUICE
How Offsite Works (Step By Step)
Through a mix of service and software, we will plan the best possible Offsites for you - making you look like a rockstar to your team in the process.
Ready to get started? Click here.
It's time to plan your next Offsite. Here's why
Offsite Planning Consult
Before you plan an Offsite, we need to determine:
- What type of Offsite are you organizing (ie an All-Hands meeting, executive team meeting, sales kickoff, client-facing event, etc)
- How many people will attend (including any hires you’re about to make, plus-ones such as family members, and special guests)
- What kind of “vibe” are you looking for (do you want to be in a city? Head to the beach? Bring your team to a unique, remote destination?)
- What dates are you looking considering
- What location(s) are best for your Offsite
- What is your budget, per-person
- Are you looking to have a one-time Offsite, or are you building a regular Cadence of team retreats (that need to be standardized and executed in relation to one another)
A discovery call with our sales team will help you gain clarity on these important decisions, and help you determine if Offsite is the right partner to help you plan your team retreats.
Onboarding
We know you’re busy, so our goal is to save you as much time, money, and stress as possible when planning your company’s Offsites.
To do this, we ask you to take the following actions:
- Fill out a short questionnaire so we can confirm the needs for your Offsite (from venue selection to agenda creation, business objectives, etc)
- Book an onboarding call with our Client Success team to review our recommended venues for your Offsite and timeline for planning your retreat.
This allows you to meet your Client Success Lead(s), who are your main points of contact through your Offsite planning process. Their main job is to ensure that your Offsite is transformational for your team, and is executed on time and within budget
Our team has decades of event planning experience, and range from TED speakers to mastermind group organizers, creative production managers with experience on music video shoots and fashion shows, high-end hotel operations, charity galas, and more.
We’ve planned 100s of Offsites for a wide range of VC-backed startups, Inc 5000s, publicly-traded companies, venture firms, and communities.
Venue Selection
One of the most important decisions we will make together is in choosing where to host your Offsite.
We’ve searched the globe looking at thousands of hotels, vacation rentals, and other types of meeting spaces, considering a long list of factors (including total number of rooms, room block rate discounts we can negotiate on your behalf, distance from major airports, meeting room availability and layout, “vibes”, WiFi speed, dining and activity options available on-property and within walking distance, and so much more).
Only select properties have made it to our curated marketplace. Therefore, when you work with us, we will plan your Offsites at our partner properties, where we have:
- pre-negotiated discounts on your behalf (typically between 15%-40% off room block rates)
- pre-negotiated additional savings on meeting space, food and beverage, etc at many of our partner properties).
- pre-negotiated flexible terms on attrition rates, cutoff periods for adding to your room block, and rescheduling due to pandemics
- established a preferred relationship with many of the staff members at the property who will take care of you on-the-ground.
- identified the rest of the vendors you’ll need to have a great Offsite, from local photographers and videographers to caterers, chefs, wellness facilitators, tour guides, or whatever else your Offsite calls for!
Our Basic and Cadence plans include up to 3 rounds of requests for proposals (RFPs) within our curated marketplace.
While we can provide custom venue searches outside our network, we charge an additional fee for this service, and this process takes more time without the same guaranteed savings or on-the-ground quality we’ve come to know with vetted vendors in our curated marketplace.
Included in Venue Selection is contract management to ensure you get the best terms with our hotel partners. As we work with you to select other vendors, from outside facilitators to caterers, photographers, and more, we will also centralize all contracts to streamline admin work.
Inviting Your Team
Once you pay the deposit on your room block, you’ll want to share the exciting news with your team. Your Offsite is officially happening!
Now, it is time to invite your team.
We will provide you with sample copy you can use in the company Slack and/or to make an email announcement about your upcoming Offsite.
Those invited to the Offsite will be asked to complete Attendee Profiles so we can learn about their dietary preferences, travel sensitivities, and other important details they can bring with them to all Offsites planned by your company in the future
While we do not book flights or handle visas for international travelers, we are happy to connect you with vendors who handle these services from our curated marketplace and offer guidance around how other clients have handled these aspects of Offsite planning (such as issuing temporary Brex or Ramp cards to employees so they can plan their own travel without burdensome reimbursement requests).
Agenda Creation
As your attendees accept their invitations and complete their Attendee Profiles, our Client Success team will create a detailed, day-by-day agenda for your Offsite.
We will provide you with our expert recommendations on business-building sessions and team-building activities based on your meeting type, number of attendees, venue selection, budget, and attendee preferences.
We’ve created a series of science-backed, location-specific agenda templates so that we can help you create the best experience for your team based on the venue you’ve selected, your meeting type, your budget, the number of attendees for this Offsite, and the feedback we’ve received from your attendees regarding their activity preferences.
Of course, you’ll get final say on all agenda items, but we’ve taken the guesswork out of planning Offsites because each type of meeting, venue, and budget leads to different session types and activities required for a transformative and high ROI experience.
Vendor Sourcing and Management
Once you lock in your agenda, we will reach out to all the non-hotel vendors (such as outside facilitators, caterers, restaurants, activity providers, photographers, videographers, and others) and finalize the details for your Offsite.
You will pay all the vendors directly and (unlike our competitors) we do not apply any additional fees, markups, or service charges.
As your Offsite approaches, we will manage your vendors to make sure they arrive on time, know where to meet you and your team based on the final agenda, and understand the purpose of your Offsite.
Sharing The “Need To Know” With Your Attendees
While we work through an agenda, dashboard, and nuances that only you and your planning team will see, we’ll start sharing the “need to know” details with your attendees.
- What should they pack?
- What will the weather be like?
- What’s the high-level agenda?
- How should they handle reimbursement for travel expenses?
- What are the company policies for attending events that need to be reviewed?
You’ll be able to use a series of customizable, pre-Offsite feedback forms should you wish to poll your attendees for feedback such as an employer Net Promoter Score (eNPS), and/or assign “pre-work” such as presentation development.
Have An Amazing Offsite
Our Client Success Team will equip you with the information you need to ensure that everything goes smoothly. While you’ll be in direct contact with vendors as well, we’re here to help.
Rather than planning everything yourself and showing up exhausted to your Offsite, you’ll show up well-rested, engaged, and ready to take all the credit for a job well done.
Feel free to tag us on social media so we can live vicariously through you and your team!
Plus, talented people everywhere might be following your journey, and may decide to apply to work at your company after seeing how much fun you have at your team retreats.
Post-Offsite Feedback and Follow-Ups
We have a series of customizable, post-Offsite feedback forms so you can:
- source ideas from your attendees about future Offsites in your Cadence,
- gauge the impact your retreats have on important employee engagement metrics,
- discover “action items” that can increase the ROI of your Offsites.
Plus, we’ll help you settle up with vendors and gather any documents you need.
For vendors such as photographers, who need to provide assets after your retreat, we’ll be available to ensure they deliver in a timely manner.
For the benefit of future Offsite clients, we’ll ask for your review of the venue you chose for your retreat and any vendors you worked with, so we can offer you and others even better Offsite experiences as we grow.
Start Planning Your Next Offsite
Our Client Success team will be monitoring your retreat to ensure that everything goes smoothly. While you’ll be in direct contact with vendors as well, we’re here to help.
For clients who start on Basic plans and wish to continue working with us, we are happy to discuss how our Cadence plans can save you even more time and money while giving your team even more transformative experiences to look forward to thanks to you!