Company Picnic Ideas and Planning Tips
By
Ellen Zucker
The company picnic is a beloved tradition at many firms.
It's an opportunity for employees to mingle and "let down their hair."
A well organized company picnic with planned activities can help integrate employees with each other. This is particularly important if the company has undergone recent reorganization. As such it functions as a "team bonding" mechanism.
A company picnic can be held for an entire firm of thousands or for a single department of 30.
In my role of party entertainer (and prior to that corporate employee), I have attended countless such events. Here are some observations, tips, and ideas I picked up along the way.
General Considerations
Like any other type of event, you need to decide what you want your picnic to be like and how much you want to spend.
As with any event, it is important to keep the needs and tastes of your attendees paramount.
Allow yourself sufficient time to book your venue if the picnic is offsite. Demand for some venues is at a premium during peak periods. It is not uncommon to make reservations several months or more in advance of a given date.
You'll need to plan food and beverages, and activities and entertainment and, in some cases, transportation to the picnic site.
Allow enough time so you can give your employees sufficient advance notice to include the picnic into their plans. This is especially important if you'll be inviting family members or if it is held on a weekend.
Company picnics and company picnic ideas can range from the very simple to a pull-out-all-stops extravaganza. My observation is that people have a good time at both.
Do you want to have a theme? A theme is fun! Plus it makes it easier to organize food and activities.
WHEN do you want to hold you company's picnic?
Here, in the Philadelphia area, companies hold their picnics beginning in June through early October.
Considerations such as your company's workflow, availability of a desired venue, etc., will help you determine the date. Employees are less apt to be away on vacation in June or September, but they will really enjoy the chance to kick back in July or August.
There are pros and cons to weekday picnics versus weekend picnics.
Company picnics held during a workday will ensure a greater attendance for employees when they would normally be in the office. And, they don't cut into precious personal time.
But spouses and children are generally more available for a weekend date.
WHOM do you want to invite?
Staff only? Members of the employee's immediate family? What about significant others, friends? Decide where to draw the line.
Family picnics are a great way for employees to meet co-workers’ families. It humanizes co-workers by allowing them to relax their at-work personas.
On the other hand, single or divorced employees can feel like the odd wheel at a very family oriented event. That can be overcome by planning activities suitable for people of all ages.
Activities that require participants to form groups can help integrate the attendees. And it keeps your guests occupied.
WHERE do you want to have your company picnic?
While many picnics take place under a tent in the company's parking lot, offsite venues can make people feel more relaxed. If you're on a strict budget, one option is a nearby state park. Many have large pavilions ideally suited for such events.
I've also been to company picnics given at the home of the firm's CEO or owner. This kind of setting adds a homey touch to the festivities. In some instances, facilities were set up
Ansonia Lodge, located on Route 6, is
one of the few remaining vestiges of
early 1900s Mohegan Lake architecture.
The house is formerly Mrs. Billings Seminary,
a boarding house used at the turn of the century.
Lake Mohegan, New York
Lake Mohegan received its name in 1859, given by William Jones, a Welshman who owned the Mount Pleasant Hotel on the East side of the lake, and some 300 acres in the vicinity.
The Mohegan Colony was established at the South end of the lake in 1930 as a utopian attempt to provide an egalitarian way of living and raising one’s family. Part of the Modern School movement, Mohegan Colony was a hotbed of new thinking. The Colony established its own school, and had some 300 families. The homeowner association survives, and strives to retain some of the history. However, in the 1950s, deeded restrictive covenants (which required people in that area to join the homeowner association) expired after a court decision.
What all of them had in common was the enjoyment of the lake, the centerpiece of their community. Most had "swimming cribs" which provided a safe area within which to swim, safe from the denizens of the lake depths, and allowing others to boat freely on the lake. Children played games of finding colored stones on the bottom of the lake-as the water was clear to depths of 10 feet or more. And, up to 1991, power boats zoomed back and forth on the one mile long lake.
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