What's an offsite?

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?? "Did you just go on vacation for a week in San Diego?" — all my non-tech friends

??"Where were you last week?" — my neighbors who missed me during my evening walks

?? So, what exactly is an offsite?

According to the Oxford Dictionary, an offsite is defined as 'a meeting or other event that happens away from an office building, factory, etc.'

Since the pandemic, I've noticed that many offsites are actually onsites, where teams come together at the office to brainstorm and plan ahead for the upcoming quarter.

I've been to plenty of onsites at the LinkedIn office (including one in NYC!) where our product marketing team brainstormed, aligned on business strategy, and walked away with connective tissue and deeper relationships.

In larger, org-wide offsites, like the one I just attended in San Diego, our objectives are two-fold:

1. Building and deepening relationships
2. Learning about strategic work happening across the company and understanding the unique roles we each play in accelerating that strategy

This translates to:

• Spending a ton of unstructured time IRL with your team
• Attending sessions to expand your knowledge of the business
• Deepening relationships with others through fun breakout sessions / excursions
• Lots of karaoke ??

As someone who's chronically online all the time for work, I follow my leader's #1 rule at offsites (h/t: Julia (Cabral) Flavin ), which is to ?? HAVE FUN ??. I do this by setting clear expectations with my partners that I'm going to be out of pocket — Gen Z, stay with me now.

?? My personal tips for a successful offsite:

?? Connection:

• Purposefully build in downtime: In our most recent offsite, it felt like we had just the right amount of time to take breaks in between sessions, mingle with others, and take a breather.
• Communicate intentions and whereabouts: Don't be shy about popping in the team chat to share where folks can join you so that the entire team feels included. For those of you who are introverts, let others know your intentions so folks can respect your space when you need it.
• Be inclusive of new hires and remote colleagues: Offsites can be a great opportunity for new hires to get to know the rest of the team, so help them feel welcome! For any remote colleagues who can't join IRL, send them a note to make them feel included.
• Set clear expectations with your partners: Give a heads up to your cross-functional partners that you’re going to be unavailable during the duration of the offsite so you can be present. Update your Slack status with a big ?.
• Connect with colleagues you don’t regularly meet: It's good to strengthen relationships with your immediate team, but make an effort to also connect with folks who you usually don't get to interact with. Shoutout to Deepanjali Mensinkai , Larissa C. , Leticia Cheng , Emi Yamada , Evelyn T. , Jon Luigi Ca?a , Jane Yi , Laura Wen , Andrea Tang , and Nancy Li for the fun chats!

?? Education:

• Attend the sessions: Show up to the sessions with a positive attitude and be ready to learn! Respect the speakers and the planning team, who pour so much energy into preparing for each session.
• Follow up: Whether it's sharing learnings, memories, or expressing gratitude, follow-up with your team, new connections, and the offsite organizers. Bonus points if you share your learnings in a LinkedIn post! ??

?? What's it like to plan an offsite?

This year's Marketing offsite was announced last year, and the events planning team had to secure a new location due to a hotel worker strike just one week before the offsite.

I asked Jane Lee , who was on the offsite planning team, to share more about what went into planning an event for 700+ employees, and here's what she said:

"So much goes on behind the scenes when planning an offsite, and the recent Marketing Offsite was no exception. We had been planning a thoughtful offsite for over a year when we faced a last-minute challenge that could have resulted in the program being canceled. However, the stars aligned, and with the support of our outstanding partners, we were able to relocate the program and deliver a seamless experience, a testament to our partners."

Massive gratitude to Jane Lee , Dhara Kothari , Diana Alvear , Charlene Carr, MPA , Jackie Waldorph , Lisa Mudge , and many more for planning a memorable event and pivoting with such grace.

?? My favorite offsite memories

?? My wonderful Flagship PMM teammates: Audrey Kettler, Brett Jansen, Carolyn Crimi, Cathy Liu, Claudia Johnston, Domonique Powell-Austin, Hien Mai, Jessica Lee, Julia (Cabral) Flavin, Kathleen (Shim) Hoyt, Kavi Kapadia, Krisana Jaritsat, Lauren Muniz, Leah Shin, Linh Nguyen, Martine Glickfeld , Megan (Falvey) Wilder, Myles Swoopes, MBA, Pai Chen, Ryan Bast, & Sohyung Kang.

?? Check out the video below for highlights from my most recent offsite!

I’d love to hear from you in the comments — what are your best offsite memories? What tips would you add for someone who's planning or going to an offsite soon? Where do you think the LinkedIn Marketing team should go next?

Until next month,

Apoorva