Planning a successful company offsite can be a daunting task, especially for a fully remote organization like Knack who helps colleges and universities scale up tech-enabled peer-to-peer tutoring programs. They recently closed their Series A and wanted the opportunity to bring their team together for an offsite.
Knack had previously run an offsite and knew what a heavy lift planning can be, especially without anyone dedicated to planning internal events, and turned to Zinnia for support. As a software-enabled event planner with an intuitive end-to-end platform, Zinnia’s vision was to take the heavy lifting off of their leadership's shoulders and create an action plan and agenda that aligned with their objectives and budget.
Zinnia’s expert event planners connected with Knack’s leadership early on to identify their high-level goals and the overall vision for the event and created an effortless plan and curated agenda that aligned to their scope. Knack’s Founder and CEO, Samyr Qureshi shared, “We learned the hard way doing it on our own for the first time. So the second time it was so much easier to say ‘here are our goals, here’s our budget, here’s what we’re thinking at a high level’ and watch it come together…”
The team ended up choosing Chicago for a 3-day event for their entire company and Zinnia helped coordinate all of the logistics. The offsite included everything from karaoke, to attending to a performance by the famous improv group, Second City, to completing the DiSC workplace styles assessment, to team presentations and strategic alignment as a group.
It is undeniable that bringing a team together, especially a remote team, ignites a special type of magic. A study published in the Harvard Business Review found that remote teams can struggle with feelings of isolation and disconnection, which can lead to decreased motivation and productivity. However, the study also found that teams who prioritize social connection and team building activities tend to perform better and experience higher levels of job satisfaction.
Samyr shared, “Seeing everyone together energized in our company swag and speaking the lingo was motivating for me, and validating to know that we’re not just faces behind screens, we’re real people. The connection and collaboration that occurs during the offsite can carry on into the remote environment and provide excitement across the organization.”
As Samyr and the Knack team look ahead, they’re already in chats with our event experts on how Zinnia can support their next company offsite this coming Fall. If you’re looking for a curated Chicago event (or perhaps a visit to Cancun 🏖️) don’t hesitate to reach out today.
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