Corporate workshops are an excellent opportunity to bring together all the employees outside of professional premises to discuss and participate in activities that promote cohesiveness. Among some of its advantages, it allows team members to connect with the vision of the company, plan out the roadmap for the future, as well as strengthen communication and teamwork.

In order to meet your goals and get the most out of this experience, corporate workshops must be perfectly planned out. What are the main steps you should focus on when it comes to organizing a successful business seminar? Here are 15 tips you should keep in mind.

1. Set the main goals: define the outcome you expect

Before you start preparing the corporate workshop, make sure to formulate the primary and secondary goals you want to reach. What is the main target? Ideally, what can you expect to achieve by the end of the corporate workshop?

Perhaps you are looking to improve team collaboration, train new recruits or implement new methodologies. After defining the main objectives, you can draw out secondary goals and list them all, ranking them in order of priority.

2. Designate a theme

The target of the seminar should be reflected on the theme, and you get to decide if the format of the event will be a formal, semi-formal or informal one. The theme will help you set the tone from the beginning.

3. Choose the participants

Who is this event intended for? You can either organize it for the whole staff, for some employees or only for certain teams or departments.

4. Establish the speakers

After taking into account the profile of the participants that will attend the corporate workshop, you should establish a list of speakers and/or experts that will guide and train the group according to their interests, needs and dynamics.

These can be either external speakers or skilled and experienced staff that can open the workshop and guide the conversation throughout the event in a professional and competent way.

5. Set a budget

Before you go any further, it’s recommended that you set an estimated budget that will allow you to hold an event that suits your company. Don’t forget to also allocate a margin that can cover any unforeseen expenses.

6. Select a date 

When choosing the date, it’s best to consider the availability of the people invited in the corporate workshop. While exploring the date options, choose only the dates that suit the majority of the participants, keeping in mind public holidays, school holidays or major sporting events, which usually are days that employees have reserved for family time.

Also, keep in mind that if you’re planning to book a certain venue, low season periods can have reduced rates.

7. Find the right venue: what to look for 

Consider aspects such as reception capacity for activities, catering and accommodation, as well as the level of comfort that suits your team’s needs and expectations.

8. Reservations and deposits

After choosing a fitting venue, don’t forget to make reservations and pay the requested deposits on time, in order to avoid future inconveniences.

9. Provide transportation 

The transportation provided must ensure a safe and comfortable travel experience to and from the venue, as well as between activities if they are set across multiple locations. You have different options to choose from, from flying commercial or using a private jet rental company, which removes the stress of vehicle coordination, as AEROAFFAIRES.

You might think a more affordable solution would be renting shuttle buses or cars, but aside from time consuming, this solution can turn out to add up the cost if you’re planning for a long distance venue or multiple participants.

10. Define a balanced and realistic program

When proposing the schedule for the seminar, don’t go overboard with long activities or predominantly productive sessions, but make sure to include moments for relaxation and bonding time within the team. Make sure to include activities and content that enable your staff to engage and that is appealing to all the profiles involved.

11. Test individual sessions on the agenda

You won’t be able to come up with a one-size-fits-all corporate workshop that can please all participants, but the content of the activities should aim to reach the majority of the people involved. Testing your workshop is a great way to assess if it is set up to be as productive as possible.

12. Use a checklist to plan the organization of the workshop

Keeping a written record of the preparations will avoid going over things twice and ensure that nothing is left out. A checklist is a fundamental element that must be present in most event planning processes, including corporate workshops.

13. Promote the event

Send invites to your employees a couple of months in advance and gather their answers and attend confirmations, so you can assess the actual number of participants with an adequate time margin.

Remember to give out reminders via newsletters or social media notifications, as well as pinning the workshop in the corporate digital calendars.

14. Communicate the schedule in advance

Inform your team by sharing the activities plan and schedule, and allocate responsibilities accordingly, so that all members know what is expected of them and what they are in charge of before, during and after the workshop.

16. Follow-ups and post-event strategy 

After the workshop, gather feedback from the participants and send thank you notes as well as pictures and reports of the goals that were met and future actions that will take place as a result.