So how does team sparkspace retreat? Over the past 17 years in business and hosting thousands of meetings, we’ve learned lots of best meeting practices and staff retreat ideas. However it’s through our own personal experience meeting as a team that we’ve discovered the must-haves for staff retreats.
Here’s sparkspace’s top three necessities for creating the perfect staff retreat.
We find the perfect location:
Yes, we have an amazing facility. It’s actually a perfect space for a retreat but we as a team take our own advice seriously: go offsite for a retreat! Staying on-site is not conducive to a distraction-free, fresh, new environment, so we look for another staff retreat location. Our owner has a cabin on a lake only about an hour away, which is a perfect spot. We’ve also used nearby hotel suites. We make sure any space has natural light, comfortable seating, and is advantageous to creative thinking.
We involve everyone ahead of time:
Pre-work and an agenda is a must for a staff retreat. We think back over the past year on what has worked out, what can be improved, and what were our biggest successes. We then kick-off our retreat with each person sharing the top 3-5 biggest successes in their role over the past year. This not only starts the retreat on a positive note but creates an open environment where we’re all comfortable participating, sharing ideas, and brainstorming throughout the day.
We end the day with a fun activity:
We’re kinda big on the whole team bonding thing, so it’s no surprise we incorporate a team activity. Some of our fun retreat ideas we’ve brought to life include Segway tours, Cirque de Soleil, dinner and zoo lights, participating in charity work, baking and decorating cookies together, participating in a #hashtag comedy activity, etc. Our team bonding experiences have ranged in budget, but were all equally fun and energizing!
