Plan Your Company Retreat in Sitges: 12 Essential Tips

Planning a company retreat can be a daunting task, but choosing the picturesque town of Sitges as your destination simplifies the process. Our guide provides 12 essential tips to help you organize a memorable and effective retreat in a luxurious Sitges villa. From selecting the right property to planning activities that foster team building and relaxation, these tips will ensure your retreat not only meets but exceeds expectations, allowing your team to reconnect and rejuvenate in an idyllic setting.

1.      Have a goal that the team buys into

Why are you planning a company retreat? Is it to concentrate on an upcoming project, strategize for the coming year, or foster personal connections within a remote team? The objectives of your retreat will significantly influence how you organize the event, making it crucial to set clear goals from the start to ensure alignment in planning. Different types of corporate events, such as a management retreat focused on strategy versus a team-building event for a geographically dispersed software development team, will have distinct objectives and require tailored approaches.

2.      Give as much warning to the team as possible.

You want everyone there, in body and mind. To do that you need to give everyone as much notice a possible. With 6-months or more warning, almost everyone will be able to block out the time, and you are not putting pressure on people to throw their professional and personal lives into chaos.

3.      Create space in your teams work calendar

Where you can, ensure that day-to-day working responsibilities will not intrude into your company retreat. You have a goal and you want the team to be able to focus on the retreat. Nothing pulls you out of long-term thinking like getting sucked back into your daily slog. Work with team members to ensure that phones can stay turned off wherever possible.

4.      Location, location, location

You are asking the team to come away with you and their colleagues. Make sure that the place you pick for your company retreat is somewhere that the team is excited to visit. Your location should be easy for transport, have access to excellent restaurants, some nightlife, and activities for the team that aligns with your goals and also with the kind of things that your group likes.  Our clients love our villas in Sitges, Barcelona as a location for a company retreat because:

• It is 25 minutes away from Barcelona airport
• You have over 300 restaurants to choose from for team dinners
• There are plenty of beautiful villas to host the retreat in and house team members
• Sitges boasts 17 beaches to enjoy for downtime
• Team building activity choices are plentiful.  There is kayaking, SUP boards, hiking, wine tours, Barcelona Tours, tapas tasters, and many more options
• Our guest relations team takes care of all of the details for you – whiteboards, projectors, in-villa shopping, BBQ nights, in-villa chef, exercise and yoga sessions…  whatever you can think of.

5.      Make as many people (and the right people) as happy as you can

You can seldom please everyone. Know this, and life becomes much more manageable. For dinners, make sure that you cater to dietary restrictions, but you don’t have to ensure everyone’s favorite cuisine is covered. Be smart in getting some champions onboard. Who are the influencers in the group? If you can enlist their assistance and buy-in in selecting venue, activities, restaurants, and more then the most persuasive voices are cheerleading rather than sniping.

6.      However… Remember the introverts!

Squeaky wheels get the most grease, this is true. A corporate retreat can often end up catering to the extroverts in the group. Remember that a boozy night in the pub is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, and a karaoke night may be some folks idea of torture. You’ll need to think carefully about who makes up your group, and maybe try to draw out some ideas from those who are less forthcoming. A beautiful hike or a visit to an art gallery may be a treasured activity for some in the group.

7.      Over-plan and over-communicate.

Things will go wrong, guaranteed. If you have thought of contingencies and have everyone clear on expectations you’ll be in a much better place when something doesn’t go to plan. What are you going to do in case of a medical, personal, or work emergency? What if the weather is atrocious? How will you handle any unexpected conflict? What are expectations around session attendance? How much drinking is too much?

8.      Get help!

Organizing a successful corporate retreat takes an extraordinary amount of planning and organization. Make sure you delegate where you can. Get team members to take ownership of parts of specific areas. If the venue has the capability, make sure to use their team. They’ll know the area and will also have experience in what works best for the place. Pick their brains; it should be their job to help you get the most out of your stay.

9.      Balance fun and focus

Having sessions booked from 8 am to 7 pm might seem like the best way to make sure you get value from having your team in one place but overloaded attendees are disengaged attendees. Be aware that lots of the magic is going to happen in the informal connections made in the gaps in the program. That casual conversation over a coffee, connecting with someone as a tenpin teammate, a perfect question over a beer. These are often the most valuable outcomes from the retreat. Make sure that you have enough structured sessions to achieve the formal part of the agenda (you know, the stuff we agreed way back in number 1) but have downtime and fun time to spark the informal gold.

10. Check the technology and props

Do you have decent internet that will cater for the connectivity you need? Do you need butcher’s paper, whiteboards, projects or more? Ensure that you have everything you need, either that you are bringing it, or that is taken care of by the team at the venue of the retreat.

11. Include those who miss out

Inevitably, someone will not be able to attend. Think about ways that you can include them on your return (or even during the retreat.) Bringing back a “My team went on a Corporate Retreat in Sitges, and all I got was this crummy t-shirt.” memento may do more harm than good! Can you share a recording of sessions, remotely loop them into some of the discussions, or otherwise involve them?

12. Consider a luxury villa as your venue

Your corporate retreat in a luxury villa may be just what the team needs. The privacy and informal setting, the ability to bring sessions into the place everyone is staying naturally creates those relaxed times to build connections. A catered BBQ night, a themed pool party or even a DJ are all easy to facilitate in a villa and impossible in a hotel. The per head costs of a villa are surprisingly low in comparison to hotels, even with extras like in-villa catering. If you have a larger team, consider splitting the event across two or more villas in close proximity. The multi-venue approach allows you flexibility in session location, and also gives you the opportunity to introduce a competitive edge throughout the retreat!

Sitges, Barcelona is the perfect location for your company retreat

Located just 20 minutes from Barcelona international airport, Sitges Barcelona offers the perfect blend of small-town charm and big-city amenities. With a wide range of restaurants, bars and activities Sitges will be a favorite destination from even the most demanding in your team. The Utopia Villas team are experts in assisting retreat planners to get the most out of every moment. Regardless of the type of retreat, our guest relations team is standing by the help you bring your plan to fruition in a luxury villa in beautiful Sitges.