HOW COMPANY OFF-SITES ARE CHANGING BUSINESS TRAVEL

Business travel used to mean sending employees from their home office to somewhere else — to meet with clients or coworkers at other offices. But for many remote-first companies, it now means the opposite: Bringing employees together from their far-flung homes to work and meet in person.

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These so-called “off-sites” — a holdover term from when these companies had actual sites — have the potential to change the face of business travel.

While consumer travel has roared back in 2022, business travel has been slower to rebound. Company off-sites could make up a larger share of that budget than in years past.

Doist, a software company with employees distributed around the globe, wanted something different for its companywide retreat in July.

“We rented a small village in the Austrian Alps,” says Chase Warrington, head of remote at Doist. “We did a lederhosen party and went to traditional lodges for dinners.”

Warrington says the purpose of these off-site gatherings differs markedly from the goals of traditional business travel. Rather than hunkering in meetings to get work done, these retreats aim for connection and fun. That means throwing out the traditional business travel playbook.

BUSINESS OR PLEASURE ... OR SOMETHING ELSE?

Rather than replacing traditional business travel, the off-site retreat is seen by many as an emerging trend of its own.