suggestions/recommendations for a 2 day company gathering?

May 1, 2015 10:58 PM

I need ideas for a company gathering in the summer.

It will be a 1-2 day long event for about 25 people. Most of us live in the tri-state area (ny and ny) and a handful will have to be flown in for the two days. We will need refreshments, food, team activities, hotel accommodations if the event is far from NYC, etc. We have the budget to possibly hire a company to help with the planning if need be. More info..our headquarter is in NYC and we are laidback team...up for anything.

posted by anonymous to Work & Money (1 answer total)

What is the problem you're trying to solve with the event? Most company gatherings (mostly computer/IT centric, FWIW) I've been to have been people clustered in the small groups that they usually associate in and lots of staring at cell phones playing games, doing social media, or browsing the web. Part of the issue is that the "problem" that management is trying to solve with the events is getting their coworkers to act more like friends across the board when that's not something that the employees want.

Here's a few things that I've seen sort of work:

-Group scavenger hunt
-Volunteer work where unskilled people can make some real difference in a day (like helping in a soup kitchen)
-Cook-offs (trickier with out of town people attending)
-Freeform socialization with things like kareoki, minigolf, giant jenga, classic arcade games, cornhole, etc.
-Concerts with relatively inoffensive cover or golden oldies bands (with older sets of employees)

Something I have not seen but might be interesting to try if you're doing anything cutting edge is a mini-TED style event where people present the interesting parts of their jobs (or even hobbies) that other teams might not be aware of.

Something I strongly recommend against is paintball/lasertag/anything with simulated violence, because workplace violence is a thing that may have affected employees in the past, it's easy to lead to bullying, and people can hold grudges over it moreso than other types of competitions.

A lot would depend on how accommodating you're willing to be to workers' issues. I have a subtle disability that's not really noticeable in the office but can rule out many of the zip line/rope courses type stuff that's frequently mentioned as team building exercises. It kind of sucks being either excluded from what the group is doing or being accused of being a spoilsport because of what my body isn't capable of.

Conversely, I wouldn't mind having some pork BBQ and a beer with coworkers but various religious and vegetarian coworkers might find it offensive. If what you're proposing is something outside of normal office hours, the more friendly to everyone's special snowflakiness you can be, the better your participation will be.

Doing something near where most of the people live is good because some people like sleeping in their own beds or have children/pets that need tending to. Doing something on a workday (and reducing the amount of work people are expected to do that week) is good. Doing something that doesn't go too late or start too early is good because people may have very different sleep schedules.
posted by Candleman at 9:41 AM on May 2, 2015