Essential Planning Tips for Hosting a Team Building Event

Posted by Jake Mandel on Mar, 20, 2018

Team building is one of the best ways to develop your team, learn new skills and appreciate each other’s talents in a different environment. Often team building is the perfect way to unlock people’s potential and build social relationships between teams and departments and is the key to a more productive team and workplace.

Sometimes it can be daunting to plan an event, but it doesn’t have to be. Here are some essential tips to get you started and help you address key components of an event plan.

How - Tackle the Budget

The first thing to take into account when planning your event is the budget. Determine and decide on the budget upfront, as this will help in the majority of the decisions moving forward, and can help you choose what type of event to host.

This makes sure that any ideas brought up, researched or discussed can be framed in context of your resources, and the plausible ideas can be carried forward and worked on.

Who - Make an Event Team

Forming a small team to facilitate the event planning is a great idea and getting representatives from different departments is normally best practise. Having a diverse team of event planners will make sure that the options you have, are representative of your organization’s culture and needs.  If different groups have any unique requirements, then the concerns or requests can be vocalised at the early stage of the planning.

Why - Is There a Reason for the Event?

Why is the event taking place? Is it a celebration of a landmark or an anniversary? Is it an annual event that always takes place? Knowing why you are doing the event makes it significantly easier to start planning it. The social activity you select will need to match the overall purpose of the event - for example, how light-hearted should it be, does it need to tie into a larger mission or charity.

What - Begin with an End Goal

What do you want to see achieved at the end of the event? Is there a specific goal that you need to reach? What are management’s expectations? Will there need to be a tangible outcome after the event? These are all questions that will help shape the planning process.

Understanding your goal is crucial to planning your team building event, as it will help you decide on metrics that could be part of your plan. For example, will participants complete a post-event survey to measure success points? Or sign-up for a company initiative?

When - Indoor, Outdoor, Escape Door

Another important factor to consider is the time of year you want to host your event. And this comes into play when deciding on hosting outdoor programs. We have designed specific indoor versus outdoor activities, and are able to customize programs to fit every season. If weather is a factor there are ways to plan ahead to accommodate changes.

Where - Bring the Mountain

One of the key things to consider is the location. Are you bringing the masses to the event or the event to the masses? As with the previous points, the budget is a major factor in this. Events, when done right, can be just as appealing locally as they can be further afield. When planning your event consider the pros and cons, including costs and logistics for different venues. While choosing the right program is paramount, a setting can attract or detract from the experience, so consider this point carefully.


If you are interested in hosting a team building event and are not sure where to start, get in contact with one of our experts and we’ll help you out! Leave the admin up to us, and enjoy the event knowing it’s all taken care of and professionally managed.

Get in Touch with Teambonders!

Tags: Benefits to Team Building, Benefits, Team Building