16 Fantastic Ideas to Make Your Annual Corporate Retreat Memorable

What Is a Corporate Retreat?

A corporate retreat is a getaway or get-together for one day or more for a company’s employees. You can enjoy hanging out with your co-workers and getting to know more about them without worrying about your workload. It is meant to entertain or relax employees and help them get closer.

Corporate retreats can be organized for a team, a department, or the entire organisation. While at work, co-workers do not always get the chance to communicate about anything except work. It prevents them from bonding on a personal level. During corporate retreats, they get the chance to know each other while enjoying different activities.

Finally, corporate retreats can be arranged in whatever shape or form suits the needs of your workforce. It could be a weekend at a resort or a trip to another city or country.

Additionally, it could involve a range of short but effective after-work events such as a trip to the movies or an after-work happy hour.

16 Fantastic Ideas to Make Your Corporate Retreat a Memorable One

You cannot deny that corporate retreats are fun and should be organised often. There are so many ways to have corporate retreats that you cannot get enough of them.

Here are some of the most interesting ideas for a corporate retreat that we think would be both enjoyable as well as beneficial.

1. Arrange a VR Event

Nowadays, VR events are becoming incredibly popular. Many corporations are including VR as entertainment as well as a marketing tool. Nonetheless, you can host a VR event as a corporate retreat. It is granted that your employees will enjoy this amazing experience.

There is so much versatility in VR game genres, and you will surely find something that everyone will love. You can arrange themed events based on the games as well. You can go for a general VR fun experience, hunting games, horror games, or relaxing and calming games. You can get a VR rental for the games you want for the event.

A great thing about VR events is that they can be organized in such a way that employees from around the world can join in. Having remote workers from different parts of the world, many companies can still have a common ground to enjoy fellowship.

2. Go Hiking with Your Team

Hiking is a great way to go outdoors and enjoy nature while bonding. Your team members will feel energised after a hiking retreat. Hiking can help everyone relax, breathe in some fresh air, and find motivation. Surely, your employees will enjoy some time out in nature after spending so much in the office. Moreover, this is an amazingly low-budget retreat option.

Keep in mind that you should carefully select a trail for hiking. Ensure that the trial is suitable for all team members. If you do not have any hiking trails nearby, you might have to make other arrangements to reach there.

3. After-Work Happy Hour

While many of the ideas listed in this article can be easily accommodated on weekdays after working hours, one of the best after-work bonding sessions has to be a corporate happy hour.

Similar to happy hours at bars and restaurants, a work happy hour is a time during which your employees enjoy free food and drinks. But that is not the only purpose of such events.

During this period, employees can mingle, casually chat, and get to know each other in a casual and informal setting. You can organise a happy hour at a bar or you can book a venue for the purpose. Moreover, you will greatly benefit from making the happy hour a permanent fixture in your weekly corporate calendar.

And the first step to building the perfect after-work event – of course – is choosing a fantastic venue. That’s perhaps where we can help you, we’ve got an after-work room in every style after all!

4. Go for Bike Tours

Hiking might not be for everyone. In that case, you can enjoy bike tours. It also allows you to enjoy nature or a specific place and regain your energy. Working in an office becomes monotonous, and a bike tour will help everyone have a break from it.

You can explore the city or the countryside. Maybe rest for a while in some place and enjoy a meal together. A bike tour not only makes you cheerful but also helps create better relationships among the teams.

5. Attend a Conference with the Team

As co-workers, there is a high possibility that many of you will have similar interests. You can attend a conference in that case.

You can spend some quality time as a team as well as learn something new. Similarly, virtual conferences, workshops, or sessions can also work.

6. Do a Food Tasting Event

Food tasting can be an amazing experience for corporate members. They can enjoy the food and spend time with their colleagues. You can search for food-tasting places or events that all of you could visit.

You can go to taste cheese, ice cream, oil oils, chocolates, teas, coffees, and many more. Surely, wine tasting can be a fun experience if you are okay with involving alcohol in a corporate retreat.

7. Enjoy a Movie Screening

Movies are a great source of entertainment, whether you watch them alone or with friends. In fact, the enjoyment increases when you watch it with more people. Watching a movie can be an absolutely fun experience for co-workers. They can also discuss the movie afterwards. So make sure to choose some thought-provoking movies for your corporate retreat.

You can enjoy a horror movie, sci-fi, documentary, or comedy. Moreover, you will be surprised how affordable booking a movie theatre is. So your entire office can enjoy an outstanding experience.

8. Arrange a Sports Event

Arranging a sports event can be a cheerful experience for everyone. It enhances sportsmanship, leadership, and team-building among the members. The members also get a sense of healthy rivalry. A sports event makes everyone feel the heat and enjoy the moment.

You can do one or multiple types of sports. Like any other sports, the sports in corporate retreat can also get extremely exciting and thrilling. Those who do not want to participate can also watch others play and cheer them up.

9. Have Fun with Board Games

We understand that sports events might seem physically draining to some, so you can also have game events. However, for a game night, you would choose board games instead.

The board game experience can be extremely mind-blowing, especially if you have a large audience to hype it up. You can try different board games, card games, or even arcades.

10. Host a Karaoke Event

Karaoke events can be extremely fun and filled with laughter. This is an incredible idea to relieve the stress and anxiety of work.

Co-workers can sing together and form a bond. You might even find some talented singers in your group. This event can last a lot longer than anticipated. So don’t forget to include some snacks and drinks for the event.

11. Take Cooking Classes Together

Taking cooking lessons is an incredible way to build a strong bond among co-workers while learning a life skill. Some mishaps in the classes will be sure to set off laughter. On the contrary, you might find some amazing cooks in your team.

Moreover, at the end of the lessons, everyone gets to enjoy a delicious meal together. You can work on teams during cooking and have your MasterChef moments too.

12. Have an Arts and Crafts Session

You can have a corporate retreat by organising an arts and crafts session. The great thing about this is that everyone can have fun and bring out their creative side. There are endless possibilities with arts and crafts. You can have painting, sculpting, sewing, jewellery making, origami, pottery, and so on.

Moreover, employees can have their arts and crafts as a keepsake or decorate the office.

13. Go Glamping

A corporate retreat can be a trip to a beautiful location for glamping (camping without the hard work). Employees can have a relaxed time while hanging out with their co-workers. Glamping is the best way to improve communication among co-workers. You can easily register your camp with the Regfox camp registration platform, and set everything up for a great corporate camping retreat.

In glamping, you get pretty much everything: sightseeing, enjoying a campfire, gossiping, cooking, drinking, and whatnot. It is great for team building and cooperation too.

14. Enjoy a Game

If you have a match where you can go, you should consider booking tickets for that. It can be football, basketball, baseball, or whatever sport you and your team members would enjoy.

All of you will have a fun experience, enjoy the game, and make your bonding stronger.

15. Participate in Wellness Classes

Wellness classes can provide a soothing experience at a corporate event. Having a hectic schedule almost all the time, the employees will surely appreciate some time to feel calm and relaxed. They get to relieve their stress.

You could find several options for wellness sessions. You can have a yoga session, exercise session, meditation, or even pamper your employees with a spa day. There are a lot of spas that offer massages along with curated spa music playlists, that will relax your employees and be the highlight of your retreat, so make sure you find the right massagecenter near you.

16. Host a Family Day

Many people aren’t really interested in doing a work event on the weekend, since it’s the only time they really get to spend with their family. So consider including their family members in events as well.

Invite families to the retreat. Tell everyone to bring their partners and children to the events so everyone can get to know each other. Knowing your co-worker’s families makes the connection stronger.

To Conclude

An annual corporate retreat recharges the employees, and they will work with more enthusiasm. It rewards employees, leading them to feel more appreciated and motivated to work hard.

When an organisation arranges different types of corporate retreats, the positive outcomes are reflected in the business too. Hopefully, now you have some wonderful ideas that you can use to organise your next corporate retreat that everyone can enjoy.

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