A Successful Team Building Event

Staff outings are a wonderful way to generate fresh ideas and motivate team members by offering an opportunity to get away from the day-to-day grind. Holding meetings away from the office can build morale, create new enthusiasm and renewed commitment to working toward company goals. Whether you’re going off-site to set up strategy, build team chemistry, or reward the staff for work well done, you’ll want the event to seem special – to generate excitement beforehand, and to leave a lasting impression afterwards. Otherwise, why go off-site in the first place? So, I've tapped into my experience with off-site meetings for tips to make your off-site meeting or team building event successful.

Clear Goals and Objectives

Be clear in setting your expectations. Is the outing a working retreat or an incentive? Identify your goals for the day and be upfront with the staff. Prepare an agenda for the day and plan to stick with it. You’ll lose momentum quickly by straying off course.

Location Matters

A drab location will produce drab results. Take time and look for creative alternatives like movie theaters, bowling alleys, museums, theme parks and other memorable venues.

Exercise Balance

Don’t create events that are too taxing or too mindless. Try to exercise balance so your events aren’t overly comical or overly difficult, as either extreme will distract from the main message of the event.

Innovative Ideas

If team building is the goal, consider a volunteer event. Few activities bring people together better than teaming-up to help others. Serve meals, help build a house, or help stock a food shelf.

Fun and Games

Depending on your budget, rewarding your team with group seats to a local professional game is an absolute great incentive. And sports-based games can be a wonderful way to teach team concepts and get everybody engaged at an off-site meeting. 

If golf is your game, there are several fun activities for golfers of all levels, and even non-golfers. Mid day golf isn't overly pricey and short-game golf clinics can make for an effective team building experience. 

Food for Thought

Whether it’s a catered meal in a meeting room, a tailgate before a game, or boxed lunch for an outdoor activity, put some thought into your food choices. Make sure there are options for various diets (like vegetarian, vegan, low-fat and gluten-free) to include your entire team. Or have them make it themselves. Cooking classes are a wonderful way to get your team involved and working together.

Pictures This

Engage a photographer and/or videographer to document your event. Give copies of the pictures to the participants, and post them on your website and in your offices. Want to make the memories last a little longer? Have a video edited with music and graphics to show at the next event.

Planning

Give yourself four to six months to plan your perfect work outing. You’ll need time to book your location, set up transportation, work on your agenda and encourage participation. Plan your budget carefully. Consider location fees, meals, transportation and collateral costs.

And when you start process, try to choose two dates (preferred and alternate). Once you decide on the perfect venue, you want to increase the odds that it will be available, since location plays such a key role in creating a memorable meeting.

Happy Planning,

SimplySHAY

Sharon Patrice Simply Perfect Peace Events, Inc. and Designs by Shay, the Blog "My Peace, My Journey, My Way, SIMPLY SHAY ~ Celebrating Love, Laughter and Everything in Between..." You or your brand interested in a review? Getting married or having a social event and need assistance? Email Me For All Your Event Planning Needs.

The Business of Team Building

When taking stock of a company’s most valuable assets, most would agree that people rank number one. With changing work environments and more employees working remotely, how can an organization motivate and encourage team spirit? Team building activities, like a Monday golf outing at University Park Golf Club, or an off-site retreat, can bring multiple benefits to your employees and business. Yet most business still wonder, is it worth it? The key to tracking team building ROI is asking the right questions.

What Is Your Objective?

Are you looking for a fun day out, or are you looking to help solve a specific problem or area? Having a clear objective makes it much easier to measure the outcome of your team building event.

What Personalities make up your team?

By understanding your team’s strengths and weaknesses, you can create team building activities that cater to what your team needs to achieve successes along the way.

What does success look like for your team and organization? Have a clear picture of what your organization considers success, and find ways to incorporate those goals into your team building structure.

Prepare for feedback!

Survey your team immediately after the event. Invite attendees at the end of the day to participate in a post-event survey. You can build a simple form on Survey Monkey that allows your team to offer anonymous feedback. Make sure your questions relate to the goals and objectives you set in the first place.

Don’t forget to follow-up afterwards. Regular off-site meetings and exercises with your team reinforce the take away from your team building exercises. By paying attention to what works, you can continue to build upon your team’s successes and set new goals.

Quantifying team building exercises can be tricky. After all, there’s no definitive diagnostic tool or measurement for ROI, but the known benefits include increased employee happiness and fewer sick days, not to mention higher productivity and retention rates – all numbers that will ultimately help your company make more money.

Sharon Patrice Simply Perfect Peace Events, Inc. and Designs by Shay, the Blog "My Peace, My Journey, My Way, SIMPLY SHAY ~ Celebrating Love, Laughter and Everything in Between..." You or your brand interested in a review? Getting married or having a social event and need assistance? Email Me For All Your Planning Needs.

Congratulations Brittny and Earl: "Fall In Love"

Fall is one of the most popular times to plan a wedding -- and for good reason! On Saturday, October 8, 2016 Brittny and Earl Guyton became one. Their sunset union took place on the beautiful grounds of the University Park Golf Club. Here are a few photo's commemorating their day.

Sharon Patrice Simply Perfect Peace Events, Inc. and Designs by Shay, the Blog "My Peace, My Journey, My Way, SimplySHAY ~ Celebrating Love, Laughter and Everything in Between..." You or your brand interested in a review? Getting married or having a social event and need assistance? Email Me For All Your Event Planning Needs.

Newly Engaged? Tips for the bride to be!

So, he asked and you answered. The ring is on the finger. And you’ve posted your big news on Snap Chat, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Congratulations on your engagement! Brides-to-be are in for an exciting ride of wedding planning that leads to the big day, but it can also be exhausting – and even confusing. So, we’re here to help get you started with our top five wedding tips for brides.

Things to know about the date

Picking the date of your wedding is an important decision you’ll need to make early on in the process. First off, take a look to see what dates might not work, like school reunions, other family weddings, or other special occasions that could interfere with guests attending. 

Once you start to zero in on a few favorite dates, it’s also good to have an idea about what other events might be happening on your wedding day. Things like major sporting events, parades or charity walks could affect the logistics of parking, traffic or hotel availability. And you’d rather weigh those considerations on the front-end, rather than running into surprises after you’ve already picked the date.

Get a rough estimate of the guest list

The number of guests will be a factor in determining many of the other decisions about your wedding and reception. So, you’ll want to have an approximate number of how many people will be there helping you celebrate your special day. It will really come in handy when choosing a venue, to make sure there is space for everyone.

Keep in mind that the size of your guest list will have an impact on many of your wedding costs – from invitations to food and beverages.

Get Organized

There will be plenty of decisions, details and tidbits to keep track of with your wedding planning. That’s why it’s important to stay organized. Find whatever organization system works best for you (three-ring binders, electronic spreadsheets, notebooks) to keep all your notes, contact with vendors, photos, brainstorms and contact information in one place.

Staying organized will help cut down on some of that wedding-planning stress.

Slow and Easy

Sometimes slow and steady wins the race, right? Well, the same idea can be put toward wedding planning. Maybe when choosing a date, take a look at how far out you want to go. A year? 18 months? Two years? The further out the date is, it could help with vendor availability, making sure guests can get it on their calendar, and perhaps most importantly, reduce stress of all the planning.

Getting everything together for a day 16 months from now might sound much more doable than for a day six months from now.

Prioritize

It’s natural to want everything on the wedding day to go off without a hitch. Every bride wants everything to be perfect. However, nothing in life is entirely perfect, and that’s OK. Think of some priorities when it comes to the details of your wedding. What’s the most important thing? Is it having the best DJ in town? An extravagant cake from a well-known baker? A dress from the hottest designer? Pick a few things to prioritize and make sure those items are just right, and everything else will fall into place.

Enjoy the process!
SimplySHAY

Sharon Patrice Simply Perfect Peace Events, Inc. and Designs by Shay, the Blog "My Peace, My Journey, My Way, SimplySHAY  ~ Celebrating Love, Laughter and Everything in Between..." You or your brand interested in a review? Getting married or having a social event and need assistance? Email Me For All Your Event Planning Needs.

40th Birthday for Nikeva Lawrence

Simply Perfect Peace Events was honored to plan and manage the Champagne and Chocolate's 40th Birthday Soirée for Nikeva Lawrence which was nothing short of amazing!  The honoree was stunning in her gown by Curvaceous Couture (Columbus, MD), Hair by Ebony Roberts and flawless makeup by Sheree Day Stroud, founder of Fog Cosmetics.

Theme, budget, a few must haves and GO was all she gave us to work with.  Although we hit a bump late in the planning process with our first venue selection the Main Street Diner at the Sapphire Room proved to be the perfect setting for this diva and her guests. A big shout out to my Partner who took time away from her new baby to do what we do and our team for making it memorable for all. Palette Pleasers Catering supplied the delicious cuisine, my business partners Sherhonda Atkins-Martin and Ronnie Martin from Candy Personified and the fabulous sweet table left the guests wanting more. Designs by Shay created a sexy elegant atmosphere with beautiful floral arrangements and the overall design elements. I certainly can't forget my sound and lighting team, saxophonist Rico Maatre and DJ Memphz who set the tone early and had the party rocking all night long. Last but not least, photographer, Marcus L Sanders for capturing the pure essence of this event. I'm looking forward  to the professional photos but in the meantime enjoy these taken with cell phones by myself and guests.

Champagne infused chocolate covered strawberries
by Candy Personified

Sweet table
by Candy Personified

Catering by Palette Pleasers

Ice sculpture for the mimosa bar

DJ Memoh

Saxophonist Rico Maatre

Centerpieces by Designs by Shay

Custom candy wrappers
By Candy Personified

Sharon Patrice Simply Perfect Peace Events, Inc. and Designs by Shay, the Blog "My Journey, My Way, My LIFESTYLE ~ Celebrating Love, Laughter and Everything in Between..." You or your brand interested in a review? Getting married or having a social event and need assistance? Email Me For All Your Event Planning Needs.