ResourcesAgenda template · 9 min read · reviewed 2026-11-14
An offsite is for a decision the team cannot make in its weekly meeting. The agenda follows from the decision, and the venue follows from the agenda. Here are two agendas to copy, what each asks of a venue, and the brief to send once you know.
Start here
Most offsite agendas are a list of topics. A list of topics produces a discussion. Start instead from one question the team has to answer before it goes home, specific enough that you can tell whether it was answered.
“Which two initiatives will we fund next quarter, and what will we stop to make room for them?”
That question already says what the sessions are for. The team needs criteria to choose by, a case for each candidate, a way to test those cases, and a moment to choose and to name what stops. It also says what is not on the agenda: updates, anything that can be read in advance, and any topic that does not help answer it.
Two days, one night
For a team that still has to agree how it will choose, as well as what. Twelve leaders arrive by 13:00, work through the afternoon, have dinner, and decide the next morning.
Before arrival
Each leader reads a short brief and submits one priority and one trade-off.
Leaves with: The proposals, ready for discussion.
Day 1, 13:00–14:30
Agree the decision criteria and hear the case for each proposal.
Leaves with: Shared criteria and the main disagreements.
Day 1, 15:00–16:30
Two groups of six challenge the assumptions, then reconvene.
Leaves with: A shortlist and the questions to resolve overnight.
Day 1, evening
Shared dinner, with the working programme finished.
Leaves with: Time for informal conversation.
Day 2, 09:00–12:00
Choose the priorities, agree what stops and assign the work.
Leaves with: A decision record, named owners and a 30-day review date.
The same agenda as plain text, for an email or a document. Replace what is in square brackets.
LEADERSHIP OFFSITE AGENDA: TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT [Company name], [dates], [12] leaders The decision [Which two initiatives will we fund next quarter, and what will we stop to make room for them?] Before arrival Session: Each leader reads a short brief and submits one priority and one trade-off. We leave with: The proposals, ready for discussion. Day 1, 13:00–14:30 Session: Agree the decision criteria and hear the case for each proposal. We leave with: Shared criteria and the main disagreements. Day 1, 15:00–16:30 Session: Two groups of six challenge the assumptions, then reconvene. We leave with: A shortlist and the questions to resolve overnight. Day 1, evening Session: Shared dinner, with the working programme finished. We leave with: Time for informal conversation. Day 2, 09:00–12:00 Session: Choose the priorities, agree what stops and assign the work. We leave with: A decision record, named owners and a 30-day review date.
Nobody travels the night before, the morning is free for the journey and the inbox, and work starts at 13:00. One night away is enough. If you want the group to eat together first, add an arrival lunch for 12 to the brief.
Challenging each other's assumptions is the uncomfortable part. Doing it on day one means the disagreement is on the table before dinner and people have a night to think about it, instead of meeting it for the first time an hour before they have to decide.
Dinner has no agenda and no presentation. The conversations that change minds overnight happen in pairs at the table, and they do not happen if the evening is another session.
The second morning has one job. The criteria were agreed yesterday and the shortlist is known, so three hours go on choosing, on saying out loud what stops, and on putting a name against each piece of work.
A fixed end keeps the decision from sliding into the afternoon, and everyone is home that evening. The 30-day review date goes into diaries before anyone leaves the room.
One day
For a team that arrives with a shortlist already prepared. The order is the same: criteria, challenge, decision, owners. What the night between did in the two-day version, the pre-work and lunch have to do here, so the pre-work is not optional.
Before the day
Circulate the shortlist with a one-page case for each option. Each leader sends back the one question they need answered.
Leaves with: Everyone has read the same material, and the questions are known.
09:00–10:30
Agree the decision criteria and answer the questions sent in.
Leaves with: Shared criteria and the main disagreements.
11:00–12:30
Two groups of six challenge the assumptions behind each option, then reconvene.
Leaves with: The objections that survived, and what would settle each one.
12:30–13:30
Lunch together, away from the meeting room.
Leaves with: A break before the decision.
13:30–15:30
Choose the priorities and agree what stops.
Leaves with: The decision, and what it displaces.
16:00–17:00
Assign the work and set the review.
Leaves with: A decision record, named owners and a 30-day review date.
The same agenda as plain text, for an email or a document. Replace what is in square brackets.
LEADERSHIP OFFSITE AGENDA: ONE DAY [Company name], [dates], [12] leaders The decision [Which two initiatives will we fund next quarter, and what will we stop to make room for them?] Before the day Session: Circulate the shortlist with a one-page case for each option. Each leader sends back the one question they need answered. We leave with: Everyone has read the same material, and the questions are known. 09:00–10:30 Session: Agree the decision criteria and answer the questions sent in. We leave with: Shared criteria and the main disagreements. 11:00–12:30 Session: Two groups of six challenge the assumptions behind each option, then reconvene. We leave with: The objections that survived, and what would settle each one. 12:30–13:30 Session: Lunch together, away from the meeting room. We leave with: A break before the decision. 13:30–15:30 Session: Choose the priorities and agree what stops. We leave with: The decision, and what it displaces. 16:00–17:00 Session: Assign the work and set the review. We leave with: A decision record, named owners and a 30-day review date.
What the agenda asks of the venue
Read the two-day agenda again as a list of things a venue has to provide. This is the list to check a venue against before you ask it for a price.
A private boardroom for 12 from 13:00 on day one until noon on day two
The same room throughout, so the criteria and the shortlist can stay on the wall overnight. Ask whether the room is yours for the whole period or re-let in the evening.
Because of: Both working days
Two separate spaces for six on the first afternoon
The boardroom can be one of them only if the other is a real room out of earshot. A lounge that other guests walk through is not a breakout room.
Because of: Day 1, 15:00–16:30
12 single-occupancy bedrooms for one night
One room each. Say whether breakfast is included, and ask what happens if one leader drops out late.
Because of: The night between
A private dinner for 12
One table, in a private room or a part of the restaurant set apart, so the conversation can carry on without being overheard.
Because of: Day 1, evening
Lunch on arrival, breaks and breakfast
Not in the paragraph below; add them if you want them priced, and ask for them itemised under catering.
Because of: Day 1 before 13:00; both days
Late check-out, or room access until noon
The session ends at noon. Check-out times are set by the venue and can fall earlier, so ask for bedrooms, or at least the boardroom and a luggage store, until 12:00.
Because of: Day 2, 09:00–12:00
Basic AV
A screen the whole table can read, flipcharts or wall space, and wifi that holds for twelve laptops. Ask for it itemised: a quote that leaves AV 'on request' cannot be compared with one that prices it.
Because of: Every session
Privacy
A room that is not overlooked or overheard, with no shared foyer outside the door. If the subject is sensitive, ask who else is in the building on those dates.
Because of: The decision itself
If nobody outside the team should know what is being decided, the simplest answer is a property the group has to itself. Spicers Peak Lodge in Queensland publishes an exclusive-use package: our record of it lists 12 suites (a total we reached by adding the suite types it publishes) and a boardroom listed at 14 in boardroom layout (its exclusive-use page says it seats 16), which fits this example either way. It also shows why the agenda has to be read against the terms. In the record's words, "Exclusive use runs from 12pm on day of arrival to 11am on day of departure." This agenda runs until noon on day two, so a planner using it would need to ask for the boardroom until 12:00.
Spicers Peak Lodge in the exclusive-use guideTwo groups of six need two rooms. Thirty leaders in five groups need five, and not every hotel has them. Ashridge House in Hertfordshire is the opposite case: our record lists "More than 50 conference and function spaces, including 50 syndicate rooms" and 189 bedrooms. It is not private in the way a buyout is. The record's limitation reads: "Shares the site with an active executive-education campus."
Ashridge House in the unusual venues guideA city hotel is easier to reach and easier to leave, which is its weakness as well as its strength. Our Vienna itinerary is written for this kind of meeting at twice the size. Its brief reads: "Twenty-four people, a board and leadership offsite over a day and a half, one private dinner, one cultural evening the partners are invited to. Two nights in the first district." Its working sessions are an opening afternoon and a full day, and it explains how Viennese hotels quote a day and a half.
The Vienna itineraryThese are examples of what to look for, taken from our own guides, where each figure is sourced to the venue's own site and dated. We do not book a named venue and have no relationship with either property; terms change, so confirm them with the venue.
The matching venue brief
The requirements above, as a request for a quote. Send it unchanged to each venue you are considering, so that what comes back is the price of the same meeting from each.
Please quote for 12 single-occupancy bedrooms for one night, a private boardroom for 12 from 13:00 on day one until noon on day two, two separate spaces for six during the afternoon breakout, and dinner for 12. Please itemise room hire, AV and catering.Copy it, then paste it into our brief form
Please quote for a private boardroom for 12 from 08:30 to 17:30, two separate spaces for six from 11:00 to 12:30, and arrival refreshments, two breaks and lunch for 12. Please itemise room hire, AV and catering.Copy it, then paste it into our brief form
A paragraph is enough to find out whether a venue can do it. Before you compare prices, add the dates with one or two alternatives, the meals the paragraph leaves out (lunch on arrival, breakfast and the breaks), late check-out or luggage storage until noon, the taxes and fees you want included, and the cancellation terms you need. The meeting venue RFP template has a line for each. Or copy the paragraph and paste it into our brief form: we fix it into one package, ask comparable venues to quote that same package, and you choose. Our service is free for buyers.
How to adapt it
Criteria, then challenge, then a night or a break, then the decision and the names. That order survives most changes of size and purpose.
Keep the timings. Run the challenge session as two groups of four, or as one group if the room is honest enough; a second space is still worth having. The brief becomes eight bedrooms, a boardroom for eight and one breakout space.
Hearing a case from every leader no longer fits in ninety minutes, so group the proposals by theme before arrival and hear the themes. Challenge in three or four groups, which means three or four rooms. Ask for a main room set in a hollow square or cabaret, not a boardroom table.
Add a night, not more of the same discussion. Use the extra day for a second decision with its own question, or for an afternoon out of the room between the challenge and the choice. Keep the deciding session on the last morning and still finish by noon.
The structure holds. The pre-reading is longer, and the first session is spent on what has changed since the strategy was set. The output is the same: what continues, what stops, who owns it.
The question is about how the team works, so there is less to present and more to say. Shorten the sessions, lengthen dinner and give the first afternoon to something done together. The setting matters more here. Still end with commitments, names and a review date.
Questions
Tell us the city or region and the dates. We fix the brief into one package and ask comparable venues to quote it like-for-like. The contract and payment are between you and the venue you choose. Our service is free for buyers.