Corporate away days that know what they're for
Celebrating 25 Years of Events
An away day can do three jobs. It can align a leadership team around strategy. It can build the trust and connection a team runs on. Or it can reward people for a result. The away days that disappoint are usually the ones that try to do all three equally. The ones people still talk about picked a primary purpose and built the day around it. We've been designing and delivering corporate away days across the UK since 2001 - single day, overnight or multi-night.
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Award winning end-to-end event management
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SafeContractor accredited
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Away days designed and delivered across the UK since 2001
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Venue finding, logistics, catering and programme under one contract
Talk to us about your away day | 01793 772999
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Clay Shooting Away Day
The three jobs an away day can do
Strategy. Leadership or a project team gets out of the building to think. Annual planning, problem solving, product roadmaps, the conversations that never survive contact with the office diary. The venue matters less for wow factor and more for focus - good rooms, good light, no interruptions, somewhere people can walk between sessions.
Connection. The day is about the team, not the agenda. Colleagues who mostly exist to each other as meeting tiles get a day of actually being people together. These are the away days that change how a team communicates for months afterwards.
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Reward. A milestone hit, a year closed out, a target beaten. The day (or the overnight) is a thank you, and it should feel like one - the venue, the food and the pace all signal that the company noticed.
Most briefs we receive contain a bit of all three. That's normal. The design question is which one leads.
Pick the primary purpose
Here's the pattern behind most away day disappointment. The MD wants decisions. HR wants bonding. Finance signed it off as a reward. So the day becomes a third planning workshop, a third activity, a third treat - and serves nobody. The leadership didn't get through the agenda, the team felt the fun was rationed, and the reward didn't feel like one because everyone worked half the day.
The fix is simple to say and takes discipline to hold: pick the primary purpose, and let the other two support it rather than compete with it. A strategy offsite with a genuinely good dinner at the end is coherent - the dinner serves the thinking. A reward overnight with one short optional session works - the session doesn't steal the day. When we take an away day brief, the first question is always the same: what does this day most need to achieve? Everything else follows from the answer.
Same venue, different day
Led by strategy - the day runs two or three working blocks with proper breaks, lunch kept light and quick, phones parked, and the social element held back to the evening where it belongs.
Led by connection - the working content shrinks to a short morning frame, the middle of the day opens up, and mealtimes stretch because the conversations at the table are the point.
Led by reward - the schedule loosens altogether - late start, long lunch, free time that's genuinely free, and the only fixed point is the dinner.
Same venue, same headcount, same budget bracket. Three different days. This is why we ask about purpose before we ask about venues.
What we handle
Venue finding across the UK - country houses, hotels with proper meeting space, private-hire venues, racecourses and the unusual options a search engine won't surface.
Logistics and transport, accommodation blocks for overnight and multi-night formats, catering and dietaries, evening arrangements, AV for working sessions, and the run-of-day management that lets whoever booked the day actually take part in it.
For workshop-led away days, we set the stage - the right room, the layout, the facilities and the schedule around your sessions - whether the workshops are run by your own leaders or an external facilitator you bring in.
A recent away day
Client: Etoro
Event: Clay shooting event
Venue: Holland & Holland, Rickmansworth
Delegates 12
Format for the day
Pre-event invitations sent with a signed copy of the Holland and Holland story
10:00 Meet, reception breakfast bacon rolls, tea coffee etc
10:30 Gun measuring and historical briefing in the gun room
11:00 Introduction to clay shooting, gun handling, shooting techniques
12:00 Light lunch
13:00 - 15:00 Clay shooting competition over 6 stands, 1 instructor to 4 delegates
15:30 Tea and cake
16:00 Transfer to Watford Grange hotel, check in and free time
19:00 Pre-dinner drinks
20:00 Dinner and clay shooting results and prizes
How we work away days
Our process runs the same five stages on every project - first chat, design and venue work, build, the event itself, a proper catch-up afterwards. On away days, the first chat is mostly about purpose: what the day needs to achieve, who's in the room, and what a good outcome looks like three months later. Simon Maddison founded Planet Pursuits in 2001 and personally leads the first chat on every brief.
What have we learned about pop-up and flash innovative events
We've been doing this for quite a while now, in fact since 2001 and we worked with some pretty amazing organisations who have their own creative thoughts about engaging staff and associates.
Sometimes we are there with practical advice on how we will execute this style of event and support them with logistics, suppliers, and the health and safety aspects. Other times, we are employed to bring our own creativity to this style of event.
What we have learned is that fresh ideas keep your associates engaged and rewarded but they also create a natural environment for creativity and innovation.
Questions about corporate away days
How far ahead should we book an away day?
For a single day at a non-peak time, six to eight weeks is workable. For overnight and multi-night formats, or anything in the May to September window, three to six months is more realistic - the venues with the best working space and accommodation under one roof book out first.
Day, overnight or multi-night - how do we choose?
This style of event can usually be delivered within a very short 2-4 week window, providing we have had the time to discuss your fresh idea with you and that we can get appropriate suppliers to match the theme or idea.
Can an away day include workshops?
Yes, and many do. We design the day around your sessions - room, layout, kit, timings and breaks - whether they're run by your own managers or a facilitator you bring in. What we add is everything around the workshop that determines whether it works: the setting, the schedule and the parts of the day that aren't the workshop.
Do you run team building activities on away days?
We can build activity into an away day where connection is the purpose - our team building services cover this in detail here.
What size group suits an away day?
We've designed away days from eight-person board retreats to full-company days in the hundreds. The purpose usually sets the size rather than the other way round - strategy formats work best small, reward and connection formats scale.
If an away day isn't quite the right format
For events better matched elsewhere in the corporate events service set:
Pick up the phone or drop us a line
Let's start the conversation. Just pick up the phone, and we'll start throwing around a few ideas, or if you feel more comfortable, just send us an email with what you're thinking.
Or Phone us today 01793 772999 or email events@planetpursuits.com
