Corporate Retreat Ideas | Promote Your Corporate Retreat

			Promoting Your Corporate Retreat A corporate retreat is one of the best ways to maintain harmony and progress in your company. In fact when you are thinking of promoting a corporate retreat, you are actually promoting the values of leadership, trust, communication, creativity and team work. A cohesive atmosphere is vital for the prosperity and profitability of the company. Planning out trips to a corporate retreat location is just what is needed for a forward thinking company.

You can take a lead from the major Fortune100 companies, companies building corporate retreat teams that have stressed the importance of corporate retreats. There are different ways in which you can promote the corporate retreat location that you have planned in your board meeting or business conference. You can give a theme to the kind of corporate retreat program that you will be launching. There is a company X which has referred to its corporate retreat theme as ‘co-operate retreat’. The message is clear like writing on the wall. What the company wants is co-operation, camaraderie and communication.

You can take a respite from the rigors of the daily work and plan a luxury corporate retreat where you can mingle and have fun in a relaxed atmosphere. You can plan out anything from building a sandcastle on the beach to playing a game of dumb- charades. There is a company which has recognized the potential of planning corporate meetings every quarter of the year rather than annually. There are companies and organizations which make it a point to entertain their employees with a healthy dosage of corporate entertainment with a visit to the corporate golf retreat.

Try to go for a location which is offsite and has a cool and pleasant environment. It should offer enough opportunities for fun, interpersonal interaction and also have a comfortable meeting space. You can plan corporate entertainment events which could range from anything like excursion, rock-climbing, water-parks, to fishing, poker, bowing tournaments and golf courses. Planning a corporate event in these lines requires funds as well as time. So make sure that planning is done meticulously and nothing is remaining for the last minute.

Planning of an event is just half the job done. The other vital part lies in promoting your corporate retreat. You have to promote the concept as well as the location. You can try unconventional ways of promoting your corporate entertainment event. There is a company Z which aptly promoted its retreat theme by claiming it as an event to go “full throttle on sales.” True to its phrase, the corporate entertainment was an event on sailing and water skiing where the employees were taught how to sail and glide through the water on boats, with their names written on them. Most of the time, it is good to keep the corporate retreat idea a surprise and underplay the agenda of the ‘fun’ factor in the corporate retreat location. You can set the momentum by distributing invitation cards prior to the event to infuse enthusiasm. You can even get the message ‘delivered in a bottle’ to your group.

You should contact your organization or get a facilitator involved with the planning and promotion of the corporate entertainment event. He or she can sit with you, reserve the location for the corporate retreat and plan the agenda. Your corporate advisor of facilitator can also accompany you to the retreat location for giving further guidance on keeping your team motivated. Your promotion of the retreat should be in tandem with the purpose of the planning the corporate retreat activity. Decide on the outcome and the length of the event.

Plan out a budget for the promotion of the activity. It is better if you allocate enough budget money towards the promotion instead of asking the employees to contribute. You can arrange for the payment of the retreat location by contacting the accounting head in your office of VP of Finance to pay the rental fees for the retreat location. There are some companies which ask you to make a deposit payment in advance. There are others that will ask you to bring the check of the entire amount when you arrive at the luxury corporate retreat location.

You can contact the food catering company and the transport company for providing the best services for your employees. Food and beverage catering are no doubt, quite essential for a corporate retreat event. Contact the best and cost effective suppliers in the trade for meals during the retreat. There are some places which may not favor you to get food from outside and you will have to use the catering services provided by the retreat company. Work out the menus, food timings and menu with the provider.

What are the tools to promote the concept and place of your corporate retreat? Well, in today’s times there is no shortage of ways in which you can promote a luxury corporate retreat. Make sure that you make your employees know about the date in advance so that they can reschedule their other appointments and priorities. You cannot stress enough on how important the retreat is for your employees and clients. You can contact your potential business affiliates, clients or customers and promote the corporate retreat event to them through emails, banner ads in the company premises and local newspaper inserts.

You can even outsource the idea of promotion of the event to an in-house advertising company or public relations company so that they can conceive an idea to market your corporate retreat. Make sure that you make it known to your employees and the people who matter, by posting your ads on television and local cable network if you can afford.

Promote your corporate retreat by making it known to the employees that you will have fun and more fun. It is however, as mentioned earlier, not recommended to disclose the agenda of the corporate entertainment event beforehand and spoil the fun element. Promote the event by laying emphasis on building a corporate retreat team. Provide a handbook or a magazine article about the future trends and bright prospects in your industry and let your employees read them prior to the retreat. This will motivate the employees and get them mentally prepared to share their views about how they can overcome certain hurdles and help the company grow in a better way. Tell your employees to get the best and priceless information they can collect about the industry and the competitors. They can share those bits and pieces of information during the retreat and the one who gets the most information can be honored with a prize.

Create back up plans for everything including transportation glitches, unexpected weather changes, urgent medical situations, change in company plans etc. Have knowledge of where to go and whom to contact at the retreat for help. Holding a retreat program does not have to be a costly affair. A corporate retreat is a wonderful opportunity to decide on what action you need to take to better your level of performance and propel business growth. Stick to the right format, the right method of structuring and promotion and you will find the investment paying you off really well. Add to it the expertise of an able facilitator and you can have a great financial year ahead with customer contentment, immense goodwill and employee satisfaction.