Company Picnic Ideas & Planning Tips

Company picnics! A Fantastic great way to get everyone and their families together to kick back, enjoy the day and have a lot of fun. The annual company picnic is a long held tradition with many companies, large and small.

With some excellent Planning and Tips and company picnic ideas for Company picnics it is a day for eating, entertainment and getting to know your coworkers in an informal way that the work place environment does not often afford.

Many company picnics are very well organized events that take a lot of advanced planning and brainstorming to come up with ideas around the sources for entertainment, themes, games, food and general activities. But the main concern for the company picnic has to be the location. Where is the event going to happen, will accommodations at the location be able to handle the volume of people attending the event, etc.

Planning is Essential

Planning the company picnic should start months in advance. This is to ensure that everything is coordinated down to the specific date and time of the picnic.

1. Taking a head count of the number of employees and their family members who will be attending this picnic is crucial. By arriving at this figure, you are then more prepared to plan out the rest of the events and accommodations for the upcoming picnic. If the company is a large one with a couple of thousand people, the planning can take on epic proportions.

An invitation with an RSVP date with a section for numbers attending, food suggestions, activities, music etc. will give you a general idea of how to plan out a more focused event.

After arriving at a head count of the number of employees and family members that are planning on attending the picnic, you are now in a much better position to actually do the real event, planning for the company picnic that everyone will love.

2. Determine your budget

3. The next step in this process is to secure a great location for the event. When you have a general idea of the number of people that will be attending the picnic, you can scout locations to have it. You will want shelter from possible rain or shade from the sun.

The cheapest way out, of course, is going to set up a large tent on the company's site, then let everything happen as it may happen. This will often be viewed by the employees as "the cheap way out".

You can offset this general employee sentiment by offering good food catered in, along with some inventive outsourcing to hire a great band and unique activities for the kids to enjoy.

If the company's picnic budget is in better shape, finding a good location for the picnic should be done a few months in advance to nail down a reservation to secure the location. If a multitude of people are attending, it will be fruitless to even consider any parks that are on a "first come, first served" basis. This will spell disaster if everyone in the company shows up and there are only a limited number of picnic tables and space is not accommodating.

If you spend some time making a few queries, you will find many county and state parks with pavilions can be reserved in advance for large gatherings.

If you have a decent budget, a better idea is to check out a few different theme parks in the general area that can accommodate the crowd and offer group package deals.

River cruises are another excellent idea if they are offered in your area. They will offer excellent package deals and other perks included into the group package, depending on volume.

4. Once you have a location secured, now you can look at different ideas for food, musical entertainment, activities, contests, first aid and any other ideas that will help fill up the day and make that company picnic something that everyone will be talking about for years to come.

Food
Hire a catering service or decided on provide hot dogs and hamburgers. Consider the vegetarians or others with special dietary needs.

Activities
Enlist or Hire someone to organize Corporate Games, a nature walk, a swim n whatever. Something that everyone including any children can enjoy.

Musical Entertainment
Will a Stereo in the back of the tent do? What about hiring a juke box instead? Does one of the employees have a garage band that could play? Does the budget extend to the hire of an outside band?

First aid
Have a checked and complete first aid kit! Having qualified first aid people on hand will also mitigate risk both legally and practically.

Insurance
Make sure you are covered by Insurance for the picnic. This should be your first consideration of course but it's here because you probably can't organize it properly until you know all the above detail.

The most important key to pulling off any successful company picnic will be securing everything months in advance. The longer you wait to begin planning the picnic, the more options that will be closed off from you. Therefore, the more work you will have to do finding locations and other resources that will be available to use on the day of the picnic. Advance planning means everything when your employees are involved.

For more articles see Company & Church

Other relevant articles - Picnic Safety

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