09 December 2019

Updated: November 2023

Benefits of Using An Offsite Meeting Space

Hosting a meeting in an offsite meeting space is great for productivity and getting a lot of work done. Read our top reasons for planning offsite meetings.

The most important reason you should opt to get out of your normal office environment and visit an offsite venue is for the simple reason that a fresh environment will boost your employees’ engagement.

Why Does an Offsite Meeting Location Improve Employee Engagement?

• Increase your team’s productivity
• Fewer distractions
• Newer technology
• Flexible event spaces that can be customised to your requirements
• Fresh food and fresh air
• Bring remote teams together

New Surroundings Lead To Increased Productivity

It’s unlikely that the decor of your office meeting room changes very often and if you have a lot of meetings with a small choice of meeting rooms available, it’s likely that your teams will have become very used to their environment.

By visiting an offsite venue for your next meeting, it can help get delegates excited and re-focus them for the task or discussion at hand.

As offsite meetings require room hire, you can decide how long a meeting should take and means the meeting can’t run over. This will help to keep teams focused and will set clear boundaries for discussion and action points that will come out of your offsite meeting, ensuring increased productivity.

Fewer Distractions

Choosing an offsite meeting is a great opportunity to have a productive meeting. With the increased benefits of getting out of the office environment, you’ll also benefit from fewer distractions such as general office chatter, internal phone calls or in-person interruptions.

Offsite meetings put boundaries in place so that everyday business won’t impact your meeting and will ensure that others within your company understand that your meeting requires focus.

Newer Technology

Your current facilities may be great for your day-to-day operations and meetings may be perfectly adequate but for big meetings, you may need more audio-visual equipment to make your points achieve their full impact.

This may also be important if you’re trying to impress a new client or a larger client if you don’t believe that your meeting room is up to the best standards. It can also be beneficial to show potential clients or partners that you’re willing to travel to work with them but if they’re quite far away, a nice halfway point at an offsite venue with different or newer technology, could be a very beneficial meeting point for your business.

Flexible Event Spaces

When you choose a dedicated venue that offers flexible meeting rooms offsite, you can improve the outcomes of your meeting. Depending on the number of delegates attending your event, most venues will be able to offer a variety of room sizes that offer the perfect space for a range of room layouts including classroom, boardroom, theatre or U-shaped.

The flexibility of your event space is key for improving the overall success of your meeting. Choosing the U-Shaped layout can improve discussions between teams, whilst a theatre layout might be ideal for presentation. Cabaret can aid in creative thinking and discussing for easier team bonding as it can feel less formal than a standard boardroom set-up that you’d expect in your office space. This is why choosing an offsite meeting venue with modern facilities can be really beneficial for your business.

Take Advantage of Catering Facilities

Let someone else take the hassle of refreshments away from you, with breakout stations and refreshments provided by your meeting venue. You can also take the opportunity to turn your team meeting into a team lunch or if your meeting is later in the day, stay for dinner and unwind as a team bonding opportunity.

Good food and fresh air can provide a fresh perspective, perfect for problem-solving or a morale boost on a difficult project for your team.

Bring Remote Teams Together

If you have a lot of remote workers or the clients you’d like to meet are far away, consider having an offsite meeting that offers a central location to everyone. That way, you show your commitment to making the relationship work and it is a little easier on everyone.

By reducing the pressure on remote team members to take on all of the travel, you indicate to the wider team that you value everyone as part of your company culture. Equally, have a neutral offsite space means that all members of the team can feel comfortable together rather than some attendees feeling more comfortable in their normal office environment than others. This will benefit any team building activities that take place as well as helping teams to bond during your training, meeting or activities.

Offsite venues will also have dedicated catering facilities which will allow all delegates to chat and get to know each other better than if they were within the normal office space or spending lunch at their desks.

Offsite Meeting Space in Swindon

Alexandra House is a dedicated meeting venue in Swindon, just off of the M4 so is an ideal location for remote teams. We champion eco-conscious meeting room hire and offer excellent packages under our ‘Meetings For Change’ initiative for your offsite meetings.