Planning & Promoting Your Company Picnic [VIDEO]

It’s that time of the year again! Time to plan your company picnic. Of course your company picnic is an excellent opportunity to relax and recharge with family and coworkers- and eat delicious food, but it can also be an excellent opportunity to promote the personality of your company to clients and potential clients. 

Among the seemingly obvious relaxation, and consumption activities, many companies have taken the standard company picnic and transformed it into a team building, and company promotion activity. What better way to show the personality of your company, than to promote your company and its employees as they are happy and having fun?

If you’re back and forth about hosting a company picnic this year, we ask that you consider this:

• Company picnics are one of the best ways to show employee appreciation. If you want to boost the morale of your staff and continue on with a successful year - a company picnic should absolutely be in your plans and in your budget.
• If you want your team to work better together- you need to give them opportunities to work together in different environments (and hopefully work out the kinks). Company picnics provide an opportunity to host a number of team building exercises that can be both fun for your staff- and beneficial for your company’s success.

To plan your company picnic we’ve compiled the following to-do list:

• Budget: Your budget should account for the costs of the venue, food, games and activities, entertainment, and giveaways/prizes. Though company picnics are a time for relaxation - this is a time to pull out all the stops and show your employees how much you appreciate them.
• Date: Selecting the date for your picnic is more challenging than it may seem. As many business owners will have events, trips, and projects planned months in advance, planning ahead of time is your best bet. For example, we would suggest selecting the date for your picnic 3-4 months in advance prior to the confirmation of other commitments.
• Guest List: Of course each and every one of your employees should be invited to your celebration. You will then need to decide if you’d like to also extend the invitation to their significant others and children, if any. (This decision may impact the activities, as well as the food and beverages served - please consider before making a decision).
• Invitations: Theme or not - an invitation should be created as a way to invite your employees as well as their friends and family! You could even consider getting creative with your invitations- and link them to social media. You might consider including a QR code that would redirect the recipient to the Facebook event page. This would allow you to easily track the RSVPs, comments, questions, and concerns of your guests.
• Venue: If your office location provides an outdoor picnic location then you are in luck, and so is your budget! If it doesn’t there are many budget friendly, and splurge options as well. Consider local parks, beaches, lakes, community centers, campgrounds, and even zoos. Outdoor locations that allow for food display, electric outlets (for entertainment) and flat clear space for activities are ideal!
• Menu: The standard picnic foods are always loved and appreciated by our employees - you know the standard, burgers, hotdogs, salads, etc. If it is in your budget you might consider a caterer! You might even consider having each of your employees bringing a dish to pass - this way recipes can be shared, and the workload is split. Consider this an option when choosing your picnic menu. We are partial to bqq as one of the best bbq places in the world is right down the road.
• Entertainment: Entertainment could come in a variety of forms- be it a band, a DJ, a performer, or something less extravagant. Keep in mind, once again that if children will be in attendance you’ll want to keep this family-friendly. If nothing else some music for background noise is always a great idea.
• Activities: Activities may be just for fun - but you could also use this as an opportunity for team building. Consider brain games like puzzles, and trivia, and also more physically demanding games and activities like volleyball, badminton, tug of war etc. Consider creating teams to challenge your employees to work together in environments and situations other than those commonly encountered in the workplace. You might even consider team names or colors to help unify and strengthen each team, with coordinating tee shirts? Regardless of the activity you will want to ensure that they are helping to create unity and promote teamwork!
• Giveaways: Winners of activities, raffles, etc should be rewarded for their efforts! For these types of “prizes” we recommend higher ticket items for people to get excited about - it also stimulates a competitive environment. Perhaps a dinner for the winning team, a hotel in a location of their choice, a television? You might also consider smaller gifts for everyone to take home, especially if children will be in attendance.

Promotion

We hope that these ideas will assist in the planning of your company picnic this year. During the picnic be sure to have someone responsible for recording the day’s events, which will also help your traction on your various social media accounts. You might even have an employee live tweet the picnic featuring personalized hashtags: #LiveTweetTheCompanyPicnic #CompanyPicnic2016. Photos of setup, activities, food, and prizes are all good things to post. Although it is a good idea to throughout the day you’ll want to be careful not to post too much. The videos and photos captured can later be shared as a way to promote your company - a true reflection of your company’s personality!

Keep in mind that clients and potential clients choose to do business with you because of the connection they’ve made with you and your employees, and most importantly - have fun! For a little inspiration: below is a video of one of our company picnics from a couple years ago.

Have ideas for your company picnic this year, interesting activity ideas? Let us know in the comments!

Directive/JoomConnect Company Picnic: Celebrating Another Great Year with Friends and Family Video!