Not all away days are worth the effort.
The ones that tend to work share two qualities: a clear purpose and the right environment. When both are in place, a day out of the office can genuinely shift how a team thinks, communicates and works together. When either is missing, it usually shows before lunch.
If you are planning a team away day in London, the formats below cover the ideas that work best in practice, along with what each one needs from a venue to actually land.
What makes a team away day worth doing?
The format matters less than most teams assume. Some of the most effective away days have taken place in a single room with a whiteboard and a clear agenda. Others have cost considerably more and achieved considerably less.
What tends to drive the difference is:
- A defined objective beyond “team bonding” or “getting out of the office”
- Enough variety to hold energy and attention across a full day
- A venue that adapts to the agenda rather than constraining it
- Space to work in different configurations: full group, smaller breakouts, informal
Once the objective is clear, the choice of format becomes more straightforward.
Strategy and planning days
The most commonly requested away day format, and consistently one of the most valuable. Taking a leadership team or whole company out of the daily environment to focus on direction, priorities or the year ahead is genuinely difficult to do in a normal office setting. The practical and psychological distance helps.
For this format, the venue needs to support a full-group session, breakout capacity for smaller working groups, and somewhere to reconvene and share output at the end of the day. Catering that runs continuously rather than as a single break also makes a material difference to sustained focus across six or eight hours.
Strategy days tend to produce better outcomes when the space signals that the conversation matters. A venue that feels distinct from the office does some of that work before anyone has said a word.
All-hands meetings and company presentations
Larger organisations often structure away days around a company-wide session: leadership updates, department showcases, a look back at the year, or a forward look at the next quarter. For hybrid or distributed teams, this may be the only occasion when everyone is in the same room.
AV capability is central to this format. You need reliable projection or display screens, clear audio without echo or feedback, and a space that can shift from theatre-style for the presentation into something more relaxed for the rest of the day. Venues with broadcast-capable infrastructure also give you the option to record the session or extend its reach to people who cannot attend in person.
Creative workshop days
Away days built around a creative output or skill work well for teams in brand, marketing, content or communications, though they transfer across industries more often than people expect.
The format can range from a tightly facilitated workshop to something more exploratory. The venue environment plays a more direct role here than in most other formats: a space with interesting architecture, natural light or a sense of character gives people something to respond to. London’s cultural geography also means that a venue close to galleries or cultural institutions can add an easy dimension to the day without needing to plan a separate excursion.
Internal conferences and showcases
For companies with multiple teams or departments, an internal conference format can work exceptionally well as an away day. Each team presents a project, initiative or update to the rest of the organisation. The structure creates accountability, cross-team visibility, and the kind of awareness of what colleagues are actually working on that rarely comes through in day-to-day communication.
This format benefits noticeably from a venue that feels like a genuine occasion rather than a meeting room scaled up. When the environment signals that the day is worth being present for, people tend to show up that way.
New year and quarter kick-off events
Kick-off events sit at the intersection of an away day and a launch: part alignment session, part cultural reset, part shared moment of momentum. They work well at the start of a new financial year, before a significant product or campaign push, or after a period of major organisational change.
A kick-off typically combines a presentation element with breakout workshops, a shared meal and a social close. The full sequence can sit within a single venue hire if the space is configured to move naturally through those stages without significant downtime between them. For companies with team members commuting in from outside London, a venue close to King’s Cross or Euston means most national rail routes converge within a short walk.
Milestone celebrations with a working element
The line between an away day and a team celebration can blur, and not always in a bad way. A company anniversary, reaching a significant commercial target, or the close of a major project are all worth marking with something that combines genuine recognition with a forward-looking agenda.
The risk with purely celebratory formats is that they can feel hollow if there is nothing substantive to anchor them. A structure that opens with real reflection on what was achieved, moves through something forward-facing, and closes with a social element tends to land more meaningfully than an evening dinner with a speech attached.
What to look for in an away day venue in London
Once you have settled on a format, venue selection becomes more practical. For most away day formats, the criteria that matter most are:
- Flexible layout configuration. Most away days run through several different setups across the day. A venue that can shift from theatre to workshop to dining without long changeover gaps is substantially easier to work with.
- Reliable AV. Built-in screens, quality audio and stable connectivity remove the delays that can quietly dismantle a tightly scheduled day.
- Catering that fits the agenda. Continuous food and drink is part of how a long day holds its energy. The ability to structure catering around your programme rather than fixed restaurant sittings gives you meaningful control.
- Central location and transport access. For teams spread across London or with members travelling in, somewhere close to major rail or underground connections reduces friction and improves punctuality.
- A sense of occasion. A space that feels different from your usual office environment does part of the motivational work before the day even starts.
Town Hall Spaces in King’s Cross operates as a corporate event venue on a dry hire basis, which means you bring your own suppliers and structure the day entirely around your agenda. The venue’s flexible configuration supports the full sequence from full-group presentation to breakout workshops to a social close, without needing to move between locations.
A well-run away day pays back in ways that are difficult to quantify directly but easy to feel: clearer priorities, better working relationships, a shared sense of direction that tends to outlast the day itself.
London offers a wide range of venue options, from hotel function rooms to purpose-built event spaces. The right choice usually comes down to how clearly you have defined what the day needs to achieve and whether the venue can genuinely support that.
This article is part of Town Hall’s series on planning corporate events in London. You may also find it useful to explore our pages on corporate event hire, gala dinners and private celebrations.
