A Strategy for Event Cadence in 2025
A Strategy for Event Cadence in 2025
BoomPop Team · 9/17/2024
Planning company events for 2025 goes beyond creating a simple program budget—it’s also about finding the right cadence for your events throughout the year. Event cadence is how you space out varying events and structure them based on your company goals, priorities, and culture.
Event planning should be done with intention. So how might you go about figuring out the best cadence for your team?
Let’s discuss.
Start with the end in mind
Event planning shouldn’t take place in a vacuum. Before setting your event cadence, identify your company goals and priorities and identify how company and team events can help support those goals. It may also be helpful to list out the types of events you could host and align them to specific goals. Here is a list of common event types we see in the workplace:
Offsites
Happy Hours
Team Meetups
Team Building
Training Workshops
Holiday Parties
Anniversary Celebrations
Kick-Offs
Networking/Customer-Facing Events
Hack-a-thons
Product Launches
AMAs or Round Table Discussions
With these event types in mind, evaluate the primary purpose behind each event. You will want to ask yourself, “Why are we gathering for this event?” until you get to the root of why you are hosting this event.
Knowing the “why” of your event will also help influence how to best space out the events and which events to double down on. If you know that you want employees to up-level their skills, ensure you are planning more workshops and opportunities for professional development.
2. Start with a Quarterly Structure
A good starting point for event cadence is to plan one large event per quarter. Think of the larger events as the keystone events that anchor the quarter. This approach allows you to maintain a steady stream of engagement without overwhelming your team. You want just the right amount of enthusiasm from the people attending.
Here is a sample of how to space out “larger” events:
Q1: Company Kick-Off
Q2: Company Hackathon
Q3: Full Team Offsite
Q4: Team Holiday Party with Plus Ones
At BoomPop, a remote-first company, we have one offsite per quarter to maintain team bonding and create business alignment. We have heard from many attendees that one offsite per quarter is the perfect cadence to reignite the fire and excitement for the people we work with and the work we are producing.
If you want more inspiration regarding how BoomPop spends their time at team offsites, check out our most recent blog post here.
3. Fill in the Gaps
Once you have created the anchors for each quarter, begin to layer in smaller events. The variety of your smaller events will tether back to your team’s goals. Here is a general example for a medium-sized company in which we begin layering in smaller events:
Q1: New Year Kick-Off
3x Happy Hours (One per month)
1x AMA
1x Training Workshop
Q2: Company Hackathon
3x Happy Hours (One per month)
1x Training Workshop
1x Team Building
Q3: Full Team Offsite in Hawaii
3x Happy Hours (One per month)
1x Networking Event
Q4: Team Holiday Party with Plus Ones
2x Happy Hours (Oct + Nov only)
Awards Ceremony
Be sure to check out our most recent post on budget planning to help you continue your planning journey. Your budget will impact how many events are necessary. If your budget is limited, prioritize high-impact events that tie to the company’s goals.
4. Research: Before Solidifying Event Dates
Be sure to ask your team and executives which events are non-negotiable throughout the year. Prioritize those. Also, can you align your events with major company milestones like a product launch or an upcoming conference?
Also, keep in mind that there may be industry conferences or times of the year when many of your employees are not around, especially during the holidays and summer months.
5. Leave Room for Spontaneity
While it’s important to have a structure, avoid overloading the team calendar. You never know when something will pop up, which is why planning one quarter at a time is highly advisable for fast-growing companies.
Final Thoughts
Playing with the cadence of your events program will come with time and patience. What worked at a previous company may not work at your current company.
Don’t get too comfortable though—your program may change next year, and that’s what keeps the job exciting!
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