When COVID-19 lockdowns and travel restrictions began to lift, many companies planned events with the simple motivation of gathering their teams in-person. Often, this was the first time co-workers might have met face-to-face after working together for 2+ years, and the potential impact of an event was obvious and palpable.

In the time since, motivations related to events have evolved. Many leaders and teams still appreciate the simple power of gathering in-person, but with more nuanced and purposeful intentions that are tied to their company’s goals.

In a survey of our customers, about 58% stated that their events are a combination of work and fun. We believe the majority of corporate events are most successful when blending socialization, learning, collaboration, and focused productivity.

Common goals we see from customers

Building team morale, cohesion, and engagement

Improving communication, processes, and workflows

Spurring creativity and new solutions

Strengthening client or network relationships

Preventing burnout through wellness and relaxation

Developing trust within leadership teams

Providing a perk or incentive to boost retention

Offering learning and development opportunities

If you’re planning events that require teams to travel, it’s important to provide value to employees and create value for your organization so that the investment is worthwhile.

The best way to accomplish this is through your event content.

When it comes to event content, we believe variety is key. Even an event hyper-focused on training should still include opportunities for fun, and even a relaxation-oriented getaway should include moments to reflect on personal and professional goals tied to your workplace.

As event strategies within organizations mature, we’re seeing more and more investment into unique and varied event content.

Event content trends

Increased interest in group community service experiences and giving back

More focus on expert speakers and facilitators who provide tangible value

Custom and curated programming that connects with your company culture

Learning and development opportunities that go beyond typical workplace training

A rise in sessions focused on inclusion, mental health, and employee wellbeing

Across all company types and sizes, we believe most remote and hybrid employees expect to attend 2-4 corporate events per year that require travel, or about 1 event per quarter.

For small companies like startups, events generally bring the entire team together. For larger companies, events in a single year are generally split between team-specific and business unit-specific events.

Assuming a company has 4 in-person events per year, 2 would generally be specific to a small team (e.g. North American sales team retreat, North American sales team training offsite) and 2 would include a broader set of attendees (Global sales kickoff, go-to-market team onsite).

Events with a large number of attendees generally occur in early Q1 or late Q3/early Q4, as travel is less expensive during these times and they don’t overlap with the summer or holiday vacation season.

Large companies generally host a wide variety of events, some of which tend to be scheduled for specific times of the year, and some of which can be more flexible.

Events generally set at the same time every year:

Q1: Company kickoffs, sales kickoffs

Q3/Q4: Annual planning, holiday parties, leadership summits

Events that occur any time of year:

Offsites and retreats

Co-working events

Workshops and trainings

Client events

Incentive trips

There are a variety of ways to measure the impact of an event, and we walk through them in more detail in this blog post. Here, we’ll briefly break down the two most commons methods.

Post-event feedback surveys

Most companies send a detailed attendee survey immediately following an event. These surveys can be used to gain insight on how attendees regarded specific things like accommodations, dining options, and activities. They can also be used to collect sentiment related to how the event impacted things like engagement, sense of camaraderie, social connections, clarity on goals, and more.

You can find a detailed breakdown of post-event surveys on our blog.

Benchmark and general pulse surveys

Following an offsite or retreat, many companies see positive impacts in their general employee pulse survey. Especially for remote and hybrid teams, meaningful in-person gatherings often boost scores related to engagement, connectedness, clarity, and a sense of purpose at work.

You may want to time your pulse surveys thoughtfully as a benchmark to help track the impact of events. We encourage companies to set goals for their event which are tied to specific metrics they already track. Do you want teams to feel better aligned with the company’s mission? Do you want to ensure teams are collaborating and communicating well? An event can be oriented to meet these specific goals, and changes in surrey results pre-vs.-post event can help measure whether your strategy was successful.

You can find more information about creating employee pulse surveys on our blog.