Having to plan a team building event for your organisation or department can feel like a daunting process especially if it’s your first one. With tons of things to consider and even factors beyond your control, it can often seem scary and overwhelming.

Here at PulseActiv, we gain our satisfaction not from winning as many clients as we can but helping organisations make informed decisions and if that results in engaging us, of course we will not complain :).

So here’s our 8-step guide that will help greatly simplify your planning process and organise a memorable, fun and meaningful event for your team.

Step 1 – Understanding Your Position, The Scenario & Your Goals
Before jumping straight into costs and other matters, the first step is understanding what your organisation’s goals are, what you want to accomplish and what resources you have to help you move forward. Having all these in hand will help provide some context and make the next few steps easier.

For example, why is your organisation conducting this activity?

a) To thank staff for their hard work for the year.
b) To set the tone for the upcoming year
c) To announce adjustments in the organisation’s plans, values & goals
d) To focus on a specific topic

Are you able to cope with the added responsibility on top of your main job?  That is an answer we will not be able to help you with however here are some questions to ask yourself.

a) What is your current workload?
b) Are you able to get help internally eg. setting up a committee to help you?
c) What kind of timeline are you working with?

Once you’ve asked yourself the questions, you are ready to move on to the next step.

Step 2 – Budgeting
Budgeting is key to any organisation and similarly key to the success of an event and comes in two folds. It helps set standards and expectations prior to the event.

Part A – Research and understand the different expense types and the expected spending based on a low-budget, mid-budget & high-budget event.  Here are the few key cost components:

a) Team Building Organization & Management & Logistics – This could be in the form of engaging a team building events company with everything included in one package or heading to a concept activity venue such as an escape room / bowling or purchasing logistics to organise your own DIY event.
b) Venue Booking & Permit Requirements
c) Food & Beverages
d) Other Optional Items – Prizes | Door Gifts | Banners | Event Insurance

Such costs can be easily obtained by reaching out to all-in-one team building providers such as ourselves or reaching out to vendors of each segment and consolidating costs for each aspect.

Want to learn more in each category? Click here for an in-depth guide to budgeting for your event.

Part B – Speak to your team, management and bosses to check how much money is allocated for the event. If they do not have any numbers to work with, try to dig up previous activities conducted to get a sense of the budget in the past. If no information is available or if your organisation is new to team building, fret not, focusing on part A will still help you move along.

Step 3 – Selecting The Right Provider
Finding the right fit and vendor for your event is an important aspect of an event’s success and failure so here are some quick tips on that.

a) Google is your best friend – Google is the most used search engine in the world so we highly recommend that as a starting point when searching for a provider as they will lead you to many results.

b) Shortlist a few vendors to contact – Look through each vendor’s website to get an idea of the activities they do & their client portfolio. A picture is worth a thousand words.

c) Reach out to the respective vendors to get a quote and proposal – Try to provide the vendor with as much information as possible as this will help the vendor to get a more in-depth understanding. Here are some key details we often ask our clients.
– Event Date & Time
– Demographics Of Your Participants
– Objectives
– Past Activities Conducted
– Preferred Locations
– Budget

d) Vet through the proposals you receive. Here are some guiding points.
– Pricing – Compare packages across the various vendors and shortlist those that fit your budget.
– Activity options – Based on your team’s interest and objectives, select an activity you feel best fits your needs.
– Experience & reputation – Due diligence is essential when appointing a team-building vendor as you’ll be depending on them to execute your event to perfection. Ask for past event videos and photos as well as their past client portfolio.

e) Shortlist your preferred providers and request a meeting with them – Meeting the provider will allow you to better understand the activities they do and what they can offer you.

From there, select the vendor that’s the right fit for you.

For a more in-depth guide on selecting the right team building vendor, click here.

Step 4 – Finding The Right Venue
With so many venue options in Singapore and so many different configurations, it’s hard to decide what’s right for you. Here’s a quick sneak peek in the world of venues starting with venue types.

In essence, there are two types of venues in Singapore.

a) Venue + Food Places – Venue + Food places refers to venues where you have to pay a rental fee for the venue and have to cater food separately either from food caterers in Singapore or from the venue’s catering partners.

Why consider this option. Although there might be more cost elements to consider, venue + food options tend to be much cheaper with such venues often working out to be less than $10-$20/pax. Add that in with catering of $10-$15/pax and other misc items above adding an estimated additional $5/pax, it could work out to roughly about $25/pax-$40/pax.

b) Venue With Food Places – Venue With Food places refers to venues where you pay a package price per pax and includes usage of the venue and food. Examples of such venues are hotels or country clubs or convention centres. Venues like this tend to start from $45/pax up to potentially a $100/pax although there are some attractive promotions occasionally.

With that out of the way, it’s time to look into other consideration points when selecting your venue.

a) Venue size – Is the venue size suitable for your group and for the activity selected?

b) Nature Of Activity – What is the nature of the activity? Is it suitable for the venue proposed?

c) Has time been buffered in for setup before the event and teardown after the event?

d) Does the venue have a wet weather contingency for outdoor events?

For a more in-depth guide on selecting the right team building venue, click here.

If everything has been considered,  congratulations, you are done with venues and are ready to move on to the next step.

Step 5 – Customising To Your Needs
Once the vendor has been appointed, it’s time to get down to customising the little details. No two companies are the same and hence, their needs and requirements might also differ.

Here are the different areas you should think about.

a) Demographics of your participants – Do the activities proposed suit their needs? Is there a need to make revisions based on the vendor’s proposed program?

b) Timeline – Is the timeline proposed what you are comfortable with?

c) Add on requirements – Do you require any other items apart from the team building package? Prizes? Door Gifts? Banners?

Step 6 – Marketing To Your Participants
Now that you’ve got all the details down, it’s time to settle the next most important thing in getting your event together, gathering the participants. To do so, we suggest putting up an e-poster to inform them of the event in a fun and exciting way and perhaps a google form if you need to collate attendance, dietary requirements or even shirt sizing.

Step 7 – The Final Touches
The final touch typically comes into play 1 week before the event where you’ll need to finalise your participation as well as clear up any queries you have and approve any outstanding items.

Step 8 – It’s Time To Have Some Fun, Let Your Vendor Do The Work
It’s an event day so enjoy yourselves.

To head back to read another article in our blog or for more tips on team building, click here.