Looking forward to the weekend and getting away from work? Not anymore, you’ve been invited to attend your Annual Company Picnic! Sure it will be fun but you spend Monday through Friday with your colleagues and were really just looking forward to not thinking or talking about work for two full days.
So you are in charge of planning the company picnic for the team this year. The rumblings above about Saturdays are what you are hearing around the office. Then on top of that every great venue, park, or fairground is booked or more expensive on Saturdays. This is killing the budget. You are having trouble finding a caterer or other vendors for the corporate summer party too.
Hint: plan something during the week!!! Close up shop at 2-3pm on a Thursday or Friday and head out to enjoy work colleagues with your family. Employees polled feel like this is a much better benefit. They feel like it is a great use of business time to socialize and get to know coworkers better. They feel cared about when you are not monopolizing their off days. Guests will look forward to the company picnic and end up staying longer. The sun is out until 8-9pm, host the corporate summer party from 3-7pm.
Not only are weekday events (or even Sunday events) a better option, but vendors are more readily available. Some may even offer discounts for those weekday events, as they’re not peak dates for events (since your sister is getting married the same weekend as the office has planned your picnic…). See our great Themed Company Picnic packages or take a look at our Picnic Package Worksheet.
Another great option if your budget is not able to accommodate a large weekend event for all employees plus their families, think about an “office picnic”. We have seen a cool trend when businesses are increasingly to busy, we bring the fun to them! Employees can pop in for lunch or snacks and take a few minutes to relax, play games and spend some social time with coworker’s right in the conference room, lunch area, lobby or parking lot of the building. We have lots of ideas to see package themes that are available to bring into the office Monday-Thursday at great discounted prices.
Now do not misunderstand, the Saturday corporate summer picnic is alive and hugely popular and if you have had great success in the past we are here for you!! We love Saturday picnics. If you need some helpful tips and tricks from the Fun Pros who have been doing this for 25 years, download our free complete picnic planning guide.
Let’s get out to the grass and have some corporate fun this summer, whatever day of the week you choose!
