The Largest Financial Costs To Run A Corporate Offsite

Corporate offsites are a popular way for businesses to take a break from their daily operations and focus on strategic planning, team building, and employee engagement. While these events can be beneficial, they also come with a cost. Let’s explore the cost of planning and running a corporate offsite and how to optimize these costs to fit any budget.

Location and Venue

The location and venue are two of the most important factors in planning a successful corporate offsite. Renting a venue and the expenses associated with travel, accommodations, and meals for your team can add up quickly.

To optimize these costs, consider choosing a location that is easily accessible and has a variety of accommodation and dining options. You can also negotiate with the venue for a package deal that includes meals and accommodations.

If your budget is vanishingly small, consider these low-cost offsite locations:

• A Coworking Space: Many coworking spaces offer a first-time-for-free offer or inexpensive conference room rental ($50-$100)

• Someone’s Home: If a colleague is comfortable with hosting a team offsite, their home can be a deeply personal experience for team members

• A Community Center, Library, or Entrepreneur Workspace: Many urban areas have public spaces that can be reserved for free with enough advance notice. Additionally, there may be an entrepreneur workspace/organization that may have space available for a low cost

Activities and Facilitation

Activities and facilitation play a crucial role in the success of a corporate offsite. The cost of hiring a facilitator or planning activities can vary widely depending on the type of event you want to organize.

While it may seem wise to use internal resources to plan and facilitate activities, the value of outsourcing the planning and facilitation to a professional that specializes in corporate offsites may outweigh the financial cost savings. Internal teams can be mired in politics or lack impartial facilitation expertise, whereas third-party offsite professionals can provide fresh perspectives without organizational baggage, delivering better outcomes.

For a step-by-step guide on offsite activities and facilitation strategies, download our free Offsite-In-A-Box that includes how to plan the lead up, delivery, and wrap up from your offsite.

Technology and Equipment

Corporate offsites often require technology and equipment such as projectors, sound systems, and microphones. The cost of renting or purchasing this equipment can be significant. To optimize these costs, consider using the equipment available at the venue. You can also consider renting equipment from a third-party vendor or using your own equipment if it is suitable for the event.

If you are looking to organize a particularly innovative and low-cost offsite, consider taking your offsite into the metaverse! Providers like FrameVR, Horizon Workrooms, and Spatial can provide the venue, activities, and technology into one decision…but there are plenty of considerations to take into account to make your virtual offsite successful such as accessibility, orientation to the digital space, and metaverse-appropriate facilitation techniques.

Communication and Marketing

Communication and marketing are crucial in ensuring that your team is engaged and excited about the event. The cost of communication and marketing can include creating and distributing invitations, designing promotional materials, and creating a website or landing page for the event. At the very least, you have to block people’s calendars!

Driving engagement before the offsite will have a big impact on the offsite’s overall success. Consider using internal social media, email marketing, and pre-offsite briefings to promote the event. You can also use free design tools to create promotional materials and invitations to indicate that this event is different than typical day-to-day business.

The Other Stuff

Miscellaneous expenses such as printing materials, transportation, and parking can also add up quickly. Using digital materials instead of printed materials is inexpensive and eco-friendly, but remember that humans love to touch and write on things. You can also consider carpooling or providing shuttle services to reduce transportation costs.

Corporate offsites can be expensive, but with careful planning and optimization, you can reduce these costs and still have a successful event. By considering the location and venue, activities and facilitation, technology and equipment, communication and marketing, and miscellaneous expenses, you can plan a corporate offsite that fits within your budget while still achieving your objectives.

Looking for some more guidance on planning or running a corporate offsite? Talk to us for a free consultation on how you take take your offsite to the next level.