25 May Corporate Away Day Ideas
Corporate Away Day Ideas
Eleven corporate away day ideas worth doing - from clay shooting to circus skills, plus the team-building workshop I run with Nick.
All work and no play means… money. Tons of it. But as the saying goes, it makes Jack DULL. And nobody wants that. Hold on - we don't even have a Jack working here. That's right. He left two weeks ago, citing poor morale, a lack of team cohesion, and something about communication skills (to be fair, I wasn't listening).
So before you lose a bunch of Jacks (or Gills, or Bobs, or Karens), let's think about how to boost team morale, sharpen creative thinking, and foster a bit of company harmony - without resorting to the trust-fall, ice-breaker awkwardness most team away day ideas serve up. The clue's in the name. An away day works because you're AWAY from the office, the inboxes, and the laminated process documents.
A corporate away day is, simply, a day out of the office spent doing something useful enough that your team comes back closer than they left. Eleven of those somethings are below. I've run one of them myself with my workshop partner Nick - it's called Close-Up & Crooked, and if magic-led team-building sounds like your kind of mess, you'll find it at the top. The other ten are activities I'd happily recommend, including a few I'd struggle to live through (zip-lining, mostly). Pick what fits your team. Skip what doesn't.
Close-Up & Crooked
A magic-led team-building workshop I run with my colleague Nick. Mostly close-up magic and bar bets. Occasionally chaos.
We kick off with a short close-up magic and pickpocketing demo to set the tone, then split your team into two groups. I take one group through close-up magic - the kind of impressive sleight-of-hand even your most sceptical colleague can master. Nick takes the other through bar bets and clever stunts. Prepare for a lot of "I bet you can't do this" around the office afterwards.
Groups rotate halfway through so everyone gets both workshops. We wrap with a showcase where a few brave souls perform their new tricks to the rest of the team. Watching Greg from Accounting nail a card trick is, weirdly, the highlight.
We've run it for Gowling WLG, English Camp World, and others. Melissa at Gowling WLG put it best: "Chris & his colleague Nick provided us with a fab day of magic & trickery. The feedback was excellent." More on the magic-led team-building format is on the service page. Packages are bespoke - drop me an enquiry for a quote.
Lock them in. Let them think.
Real teamwork happens when the door's locked.
I love escape rooms - as long as I don't have to use my problem-solving skills (so really, I love watching everyone else do all the work). Did I just give away how I feel about teamwork in a high-pressure life-or-death situation? Probably.
That said, escape rooms are the perfect away day idea for forcing real teamwork, problem-solving and lateral thinking out of people who've spent the last six months talking to each other via Slack. There's nowhere to hide. Either the team solves it together or you collectively miss your dinner reservation.
There are plenty around the country, so wherever you're based you'll find one. Most cities have a dozen rooms in different themes - heist, horror, prison break, the lot. Pair it with food and drinks afterwards so the team can argue about who actually solved which puzzle.
Skills required:
- Problem-solving - the kind that doesn't involve a spreadsheet.
- Teamwork - genuine teamwork, not Teams-meeting teamwork.
- Lateral thinking - knowing the answer isn't always the obvious one.
- Cryptic clue interpretation - useful for nothing else, but satisfying.
- Leadership under pressure - someone will emerge. Promote them.
- Communication - the out-loud kind. Without emojis.
Pro tip: book a difficulty level you can actually solve. Watching your team fail to escape a room designed for ten-year-olds is its own kind of corporate trauma.
Office workers, oversized helmets, mud.
Picture it. Glenda from HR doing a wheelie. You don't need to imagine the rest.
A group of 9-to-5 office-dwellers, kitted out in oversized helmets, knee pads and bulky gloves, frothing at the prospect of driving rapidly across rugged, slippery, undulating terrain. What could possibly go wrong?
It's the kind of away day idea that gets the quiet ones properly involved. People who'd never dream of speaking up in a Monday standup will absolutely race a quad bike across a muddy field if you let them. There's something about visibility being reduced to "where's the next bush?" that flattens the office hierarchy fast.
There are quad bike venues all over the UK, from Yorkshire down to Cornwall. Check what's within a 45-minute drive of the office and pair it with lunch on-site - most venues have a clubhouse with food.
Skills required: driving (preferably four wheels), and a vague awareness of where your hands and feet are.
"Yes, that was Glenda from HR. Two minutes later, everyone realised she was actually quite good at this."
What Close-Up & Crooked actually looks like
Reading about a magic-led team-building workshop is one thing. Seeing one run is another. Here's a quick look at me, Nick, and a group learning the kind of tricks that'll be ruining family dinners for weeks.
Laser rifles. Tweed coats. Robin Hood cosplay.
Yes, you read that right.
As away day activities go, this is the most quietly absurd one on the list. Most venues are country estate setups - the kind of place your CFO insists they used to go shooting at "when they were a bit younger." It's a fun, low-pressure way for the staff to get over any squeamishness about weaponry.
And because the rifles fire laser beams rather than actual bullets, you don't have to worry about your one-eyed colleague Bill, who's been firmly told to stay away from any optical apparatus. (We don't talk about what happened at the Christmas paintball outing.)
There are venues all over the UK - particularly through the Cotswolds and the West Midlands, where country estates host corporate away days as their main weekday business. Pair it with lunch at the clubhouse so the post-mortem can play out properly.
Skills required: patience, hand-eye coordination, and a vague awareness that this is a corporate away day, not actual hunting.
Adrenaline, queues, dignity loss.
The team will lose their balance, their dignity, and probably their lunch — all in the heart of the British Midlands.
As away day ideas go, this one's pure adrenaline. Alton Towers is the UK's biggest theme park - the world's fastest, scariest, wettest, most vertical-drop, water-sliding theme park, depending which corner of the ride map you start from. Take your team along, ride everything, regret most of it.
It's a particularly good shout for corporate away days in the Midlands - effectively in the middle of the UK, so wherever your office is based, the drive isn't punishing. Group bookings get sensible discounts and there's an early bird offer when the park reopens for spring, so if you book around February you'll save real money.
Skills required: balance, hand-eye coordination, an iron stomach, and the ability to queue for 45 minutes without complaining.
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From harness chaos to Tarzan.
Picture it. Bob and Karen, fumbling with harnesses.
There's something about a corporate away day idea that involves heavy harnesses, multiple buckles, and zero patience - it brings out the worst in everyone. The half-hour suiting up is usually the most chaotic part of the entire company away day.
Once that bit's done with, the actual zip-lining is genuinely magnificent. As far as team away day activities go, it sits squarely at the high-energy end. You leap from heights, traverse the most beautiful UK countryside, and soar above the trees like Tarzan. By the bottom of the run, all is forgiven. Mostly.
Skills required: a high pain threshold, courage, the ability to dangle calmly, and a forgiving attitude towards your harness partner.
Bob can't find the buckle.
Karen blames Bob. Bob blames Karen. Neither, frankly, had the necessary skills.
Wind in the hair, scream in the throat.
Once airborne, all is forgiven. UK countryside below. Blissful screaming above.
Memory lane, with grass stains.
Egg and spoon. Sack race. Tug of war. The classics work.
Sports days as a corporate away day idea are deeply, beautifully British. A trip down memory lane of egg and spoon races, sack races and the slow bicycle race - with a few of your team no doubt running in three-legged races and ending up with a face full of grass.
Other team away day games worth slotting in: the team-building leap, a wheelbarrow race, a skipping race, and a backwards run. As far as company away days go, this one rewards organisers who lean into the silliness over the athleticism. The point isn't winning - it's that Steve from IT got beaten by Karen from finance in a sack race, and now the office has lore.
Skills required: grim determination, hand-eye coordination, agility, sportsmanship, speed, grit - pick whichever ones you've still got.
Take to the lakes.
Rowing races are the kind of corporate away day idea that sounds genteel until someone capsizes. Take to the lakes and waters of the UK and embark on an old-school race - if your team has ever quietly fancied living out their Oxford or Cambridge fantasies, this is the day.
Most rowing centres run corporate packages with safety boats, coaches who'll teach the basics in 20 minutes, and enough Pimm's afterwards to make the bruises forgivable. Plenty of venues across the UK - the Thames Valley, the Lake District, the Norfolk Broads, all set up for team away day activities of this exact shape.
Oxford or Cambridge fantasies. Now optional.
Skills required: stamina, the ability to swim should the situation arise, and a vague tolerance for being shouted at by a cox.
Send the corporate guy in a tie up on stilts.
Group workshops for the team that doesn't fancy the active stuff.
I particularly enjoy the spectacle of a corporate guy in a tie wearing an oversized clown nose and walking on stilts. The story of that guy in the tie wearing an oversized clown nose and walking on stilts is sure to be told for years.
These workshops come with a "how to" instructional teacher, so your team can learn juggling, slack lining, acrobatics and more. The post-event tales of who can't catch and who can't balance will be a never-ending source of pub conversation.
Best of all, circus skills appeal to the team members who don't necessarily fancy the active stuff - allowing them to attend a corporate away day and not be left out. Plenty of facilities across the UK, including dedicated circus schools in London, Bristol, and the West Midlands.
Three balls, two hands, one ego. Easier than it looks. Just. The most achievable skill for any team to actually finish the day with.
The man in the tie. The oversized clown nose. The stilts. Pure spectacle. There is no greater corporate sight on earth.
Two metres up, one tightrope, zero balance. The CEO went first. The CEO never came down.
Skills required: a clown face, balance, the ability to laugh at other people's misfortune, and knowing how to herd at least one elephant.
From foodie to master chef.
Multiple pasta sauces. One master chef. Complementary wine.
If your team is a bunch of low-level, talented foodies, this is the perfect corporate away day idea. Cooking classes let your team learn from a master chef - practical sessions experimenting with multiple pasta sauces, then bouts of cooking by competing teams. It's an excellent shape for company away days where the office wants something less knackering than zip-lining and more interactive than a quiz.
Most workshops include the venue, all the ingredients, and the tools you need - so all your team brings is appetite. Plenty of cooking schools across the UK, from London out to the West Midlands, running corporate away day activities of exactly this shape. Be the master of your cooking class with a complementary glass of wine.
Skills required: reading ability, the patience to follow instructions, basic knife skills, and the ability to fluff an egg without getting flustered.
Foosball, but you're inside it.
As fascinatingly daft as it sounds.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you human table football. You and your team play foosball on an absurdly massive inflatable pitch. Just like the actual game, you're tied to metal pipes, meaning the only way to move is sideways. The only goal celebration that doesn't end in injury is a polite golf clap.
It's the kind of corporate away day idea you reach for when the team has done everything else and you want something less about competence and more about visible humiliation. Inflatable pitches travel - hire venues across the UK will deliver to a warehouse, a field, or a car park near you.
Skills required: balance, awareness of where to stand, the ability to take a beating, and a forgiving attitude towards your own forehead.
Planning a team away day
Five things to nail before anyone leaves the office.
What is a corporate away day?
A corporate away day is exactly what it says on the tin: a day spent away from the office, dedicated to your team doing something together that isn't work. The goal isn't strictly the activity - it's the morale, the team cohesion, and the inside jokes that get carried back to the office on Monday. A good one rewires the team without anyone realising they've been rewired.
What makes a good one?
Three things, really. First, you've picked an activity people will actually engage with - not "enforced fun", but something that genuinely lets people relax. Second, you've built in space for the team to chat - the activity is the catalyst, the conversation around it is the point. Third, you've avoided the trap of making it feel like an extension of work. If your colleagues spend the day getting graded on something, it's not an away day - it's training in casual wear.
Building the agenda
A workable team away day agenda looks roughly like this: 30-minute icebreaker over coffee, then your main activity (2-3 hours), then a long lunch, then a second lighter activity in the afternoon, then a debrief over drinks. The mistake most companies make is packing it - resist. Three solid moments are better than seven scrappy ones.
If you're running a workshop format - Close-Up & Crooked, a cooking class, circus skills - build in real practice time. If you're running an outdoor activity, build in real recovery time.
Icebreakers, games & exercises
The classic team away day icebreaker - "two truths and a lie", "tell us something nobody knows", a quick Q&A round - works because it lowers the bar before the main event. Don't skip it, but don't milk it either.
Beyond that, the team away day session ideas worth running are the ones that involve everyone equally. Games and exercises where the quiet ones can contribute without performing. They're connective tissue between the main activities, not the main meal.
Choosing where to hold it
Most companies rent a space for a team away day - dedicated event venues, country estates, outdoor activity centres. Pick somewhere within 60 minutes of the office if you want everyone there on time, or somewhere properly "away" (2+ hours, plus an overnight stay) if you want the immersion.
London, the West Midlands, and the home counties all have an oversupply of venues set up specifically for corporate away days - food, beds, breakout rooms, and someone to take the call when the office printer breaks at 9am.
What makes a good corporate away day? Less the activity. More what the team carries back to the office on Monday.
Pick the format that fits your team. If you're after something lighter and shorter than a full away day, a corporate fun day works in a different shape. If your event is evening-led with dinner or drinks, see evening corporate entertainment ideas for what fits that format. And if you want close-up magic running through any of it, you know where to find me.
Now go run an away day they'll actually talk about.
If close-up magic happens to feature in the day - drinks reception, dinner entertainment, or a Close-Up & Crooked workshop as the main team-building format - that's me. 28 years, 200+ five-star reviews, no cheese. Drop me a quick enquiry or see the corporate packages.
