What is an Offsite Meeting?

 Companies and startups organize team meetings regularly to discuss ideas, finetune strategies, collect feedback, or find solutions to specific problems. But some companies organize onsite meetings, while others opt for offsite meetings.

An offsite meeting is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a meeting that takes place outside of the office.

As the name suggests, onsite meetings are held within the office premises and often in conference rooms. On the other hand, companies plan offsite meetings outside of the office. Many companies keep the environment relaxing by holding offsite meetings in holiday retreats.

Likewise, many organizations boost managers’ creativity by making them indulge in exciting leisure activities. Hence, an offsite meeting differs from an onsite meeting in many aspects. We can understand what an offsite meeting is based on these major differences.

How does an Offsite Meeting differ from an Onsite Meeting?

Location

Onsite and offsite meetings differ from each other primarily in the category of location. Onsite meetings are held inside office premises, while offsite meetings are held outside of the office.

Arrangements

While organizing an onsite meeting, companies have to make arrangements for meals, snacks, beverages, writing accessories, and other items. But offsite meeting packages include facilities and technologies required by a company to organize an offsite meeting successfully.

Interruptions and Distractions

While attending onsite meetings, employees get distracted by their coworkers and professional responsibilities. But employees can attend offsite meetings without frequent interruptions and disruptions.

Environment

While attending an onsite meeting, employees feel like spending time in the office. But they feel relaxed while attending an offsite meeting. The relaxing environment promotes team collaboration and fosters brainstorming.

Costs

Companies can organize onsite meetings regularly without escalating ongoing expenses. But they have to incur additional expenses to hold offsite meetings successfully.

Why do Companies Organize Offsite Meetings?

Allow Face-to-Face Interactions

Most businesses these days operate in distributed environments. Onsite employees and remote employees stay connected in the distributed working environment through calls, emails, and instant messages. Companies make onsite and remote employees connect and network face-to-face by organizing offsite meetings.

Foster Creativity

While attending an offsite meeting, employees spend time in a different and relaxing environment. Many employees even feel like taking a break while attending an offsite meeting. The change in the physical environment makes them creative and come up with innovative ideas. The unleashing of creativity often results in brainstorming fresh ideas.

Make Employees Focus

As noted earlier, employees are not distracted while attending an offsite meeting. The absence of distractions and interruptions makes them focus better on problems. They can further come up with ideas to solve specific problems.

Opportunities to Build Relationships

While planning an offsite meeting, the organizer can make participants indulge in various team-building activities. The team building activities bring employees together and make them relate with each other. The relationships will make them improve processes and solve problems in the future by becoming a single team.

Leverage New Technologies

Most companies do not upgrade their conference rooms by installing the latest communication tools. But offsite meeting venues impress clients by installing the latest audio-visual communication tools. The access to new communication technology will make the participants focus only on improving presentations and finding solutions.

How can Companies Organize Offsite Meetings Successfully

Inviting Selected Employees

Companies hold offsite meetings with the aim of discussing new ideas and solving existing problems. They have to consider more ideas, opinions, and perspectives when a large number of employees attend the offsite event.

Companies often restrict the number of participants to make managers focus on core topics of discussion. Also, the decrease in the number of participants makes it easier for managers to plan offsite meetings.

Choosing the Perfect Venue

While planning an offsite meeting, decision-makers have the option to choose from many venues. Many hotels and resorts provide customizable offsite meeting packages at negotiated rates.

Also, many decision-makers keep the participants relaxed and excited by choosing outdoor venues or theme parks. But they ensure that the meeting venue is equipped with modern audio and visual communication tools.

Creating and Sharing Meeting Agenda

Employees often feel like taking a break from work while attending offsite meetings. Despite keeping participants relaxed and excited, organizers must ensure that all topics are discussed elaborately in a short span of time.

Hence, they create well-structured meeting agendas that clearly define the goal of the meeting and the topics to be discussed. They further share the meeting agenda with participants in advance to make it easier for them to research and prepare.

Keeping Participants Excited

Excitement and engagement are two elements that make corporate employees unleash their creativity. Companies make offsite meetings successful by keeping participants excited in a variety of ways. Organizers make participants connect and interact using icebreakers.

They make onsite and remote employees introduce themselves in funny ways. Also, they plan team-building activities that keep participants excited and strengthen relationships. These exercises prepare participants to delve into serious topics and issues with open minds.

Continuing the Momentum

Offsite meetings create opportunities for onsite and remote employees to bond and collaborate. Companies leverage the connection to improve operational efficiency and solve recurring problems in the future. Organizers document the sessions to capture the ideas and solutions discussed by the participants.

Also, they ensure that each participant understands action items clearly. Participants are requested to share their achievements after the offsite meeting in the form of feedback. At the same time, organizations encourage them to suggest solutions by thinking divergently.

Conclusion

A company or startup can leverage many benefits by holding offsite meetings strategically along with regular onsite meetings. But the organizer can make the offsite meeting successful only by selecting the perfect venue and making it easier for participants to travel to the locations.

Many companies reduce the time and resources required to hold offsite meetings by implementing corporate travel management software. The corporate travel management software eliminates the need for a corporate travel agent and makes it easier for travel managers to make travel arrangements.