Step-by-Step Project Management for Team Events
The secret to an unforgettable team event? Tight project management that ensures nothing is overlooked! Especially when it comes to organizing a larger team event, managing all the moving parts can be overwhelming. But with proper planning, you can keep everything on track, avoid costly mistakes, and most importantly, save time.
Ready to streamline your planning process? Below you’ll find the project management framework we use for every successful event. From idea to party, we’ll guide you through each step, letting you know how much time to plan for each and highlighting things you might otherwise miss.
The Project Management Steps
Planning a team event takes more than just choosing a date and venue. It's about coordinating every detail, ensuring that your event’s activities flow seamlessly, and keeping your budget in check. Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of what the planning process looks like, including how much time you’ll need for each when planning a larger team event:
Step 1: Decide on a date and define the budget
First things first—locking in a date and setting a budget. This step is essential to create boundaries for your planning. It keeps your team event grounded and sets expectations early on.
When deciding on a date for your team event, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to please everyone. Here are some rules of thumb:
- Check for school holidays and avoid planning events during those times
- Check with your senior leadership's availability
- Thursdays are the best days for team events; Tuesdays and Wednesdays work, too
- Avoid Mondays and Fridays
- For summer team events, May, June, late August, and early September work best for companies in Germany.
- For winter team events, the last week of November, the first week of December, and mid-January are generally good times to celebrate in Germany.
If you have an annual budget, we recommend using 30% of it for your summer team event and 70% for your winter team event. This is because winter team events generally take place indoors and you’ll need to plan more budget for the location. During the summer, you also have more options for less expensive catering (think food trucks and finger foods); for winter team events it’s nice to have the option of having a buffet or a sit-down dinner.
Average time spent: 2 hours
Step 2: Location Research & Visits
Finding the perfect venue that aligns with your vision and budget takes time. When researching locations, keep the following in mind:
- Proximity to your office (the closer the better!)
- The overall vibe and setting
- Cool factor (an interesting location makes it more likely that people will come!)
Once you’ve found your options, reach out and ask for quotes. This will help you eliminate the places which aren’t in budget. From there, narrow in on a short list of three locations and schedule visits.
You’ll want to plan 30 minutes per venue visit plus travel time. When you do the location visits, make sure to check the following points:
- How much time people will need to get to the venue
- How close the venue is to public transportation
- How safe the venue’s location is and what it might feel like at night
- How accessible the event space is (e.g for people in wheelchairs)
- Whether there’s an area you can use as a ‘chill out space’ for folks who need to take a break
- Whether the dance areas have proper ventilation
- Whether there’s a tech setup for the DJ
- The party lighting possibilities
- Whether the bathrooms look clean and presentable
- Where folks will hang up their jackets and leave bags
Average time spent: 7 hours: an hour to organize the visits, plus 2 hours per visit
Step 3: Team Event Communication Planning
Planning Every great team event needs effective communication! Aside from the initial invitation, sharing details about the venue, the catering, and the activities helps to build excitement and encourage more people to attend the event. Create a communication plan and share something about your event once a week. Here are some points that should definitely be on your plan:
- A save the date email with a link to a form for dietary restrictions
- An intranet post about the location of your party
- An intranet post about the party menu and drinks
- An intranet post about the DJ with a form to collect your team’s favorite dance hits
- An intranet post about any games or activities planned for your team event
- A reminder email to anyone who didn’t sign up a week before the deadline
- The day of/ the day before: An email with directions to the location and a picture of the entrance
Average time spent: 7 hours for creating the plan, drafting the posts, gathering pictures, and publishing the posts
Step 4: Event Coordination
Once you’ve chosen your location, the coordination begins. Your budget template and timeline will be key for this step. Having a sound folder structure will help you stay organized and work more efficiently (get a head start by downloading our free template at the end!). Here are the most important steps for team event planning:
- Menu definition: Check the dietary restrictions your team members provided during the sign-up phase and try to avoid these in your team event menu.
- Décor: Flowers and decoration will help you bring the theme of your team event to life. Ask your branding team for your company’s corporate identity so that you get the colors right!
- Event Agenda: Make a plan for how the activities at your team event will flow, including when the doors open, when the catering starts, and whether there’ll be a speech from leadership.
- DJ Briefing: Use the input you collected from your team and tell the DJ what kind of music you’d like them to play. Create a crescendo at your event by starting off with something chill before building to dance hits!
- Photographer/ Videographer Briefing: Align with your Employer Branding and ask them what kind of photos/ video footage would be useful to have. Check with your Marketing team to see if there is anything from your Corporate Identity that needs to be taken into consideration.
- Additional Signage: Prepare signs to let folks know when the catering starts. Check if the bathrooms and the cloak rooms are easy to identify - if not, prepare additional signage for these.
- Icebreaker Game: Consider creating a game that will help your team mix and mingle at your team event.
- Safety Plan: We recommend establishing a plan for large emergencies (e.g how guests will be evacuated if there’s a fire), for individual emergencies (e.g if someone cuts themselves or needs First Aid), and for how cases of heavy intoxication will be addressed.
- Master of Ceremonies: We recommend identifying someone who you can tap for ad-hoc announcements at your team event. This doesn’t have to be a leader, but it should be someone who your team recognizes and who is comfortable on stage.
- Extension Plan: If you have the option of extending your team event, define how much it costs to do so, who will make the decision onsite, by when the decision needs to be made, and how you’ll communicate to your group.
Average Time Spent: 25 hours, spent over 2-3 weeks
Step 5: Onsite Setup and Coordination
The big day is finally here! Plan to arrive at the venue two hours before the event starts to do the following:
- Check that the décor has been set up correctly
- Set up any additional signage
- Set up your Icebreaker Game
- Brief the staff who will be handling check in (make sure to bring a copy of the final guest list!)
- Meet with the onsite security team to discuss the Safety Plan
- Touch base with your Master of Ceremonies and let them know where any ad-hoc announcements will be made
Average Time Spent: About 2 hours
