A 350-Person Global Team's First In-Person Gathering: Company Away Day Built for Real Connection
SERVICES DELIVERED
CONTEXT
A global energy group came to Stacked Events with an unusual starting point: 350 employees, across nine countries, who had never been in the same room. The brief was to design a full-day event that would serve as a company all-hands, a team-building programme, and an end-of-day celebration. The client wanted the day to feel purposeful and reflect their sustainability values — without being lecture-heavy or over-produced.
The most significant constraint was also the most human one: these were colleagues who, for many, had only ever appeared as a profile picture. Standard team-building formats assume a base level of existing rapport. They rarely account for a room full of people who are, in effect, meeting for the first time. Activities that felt engineered or staged would undermine the very thing the day was trying to achieve.
Aligning 350 people from nine countries required a conference format with genuine substance. But the day could not start and end with leadership presentations.
The sustainability brief added further specificity. The client's values needed to be expressed through what happened at the event — not just in the branding around it.
Stacked Events structured the day in three distinct phases: alignment, collaboration, and celebration. Each phase had a different energy and a different purpose, and the programme was designed so that one built naturally into the next.
The morning all-hands was kept focused: full AV production, staging, and technical support, so the leadership communications could land without distraction. The format was straightforward. The focus was on the message.
For the afternoon, Stacked Events developed the Eco Apprentice activity — a team challenge built around designing and pitching a sustainable product using only recycled materials. The format was chosen because it required genuine collaboration between people who hadn't worked together before. It also embedded the client's sustainability values into the action of the day, not just the décor.
Teams designed a product, built a prototype, named it, and pitched it in five minutes — any format they chose. The judging rounds created shared stakes and, with them, shared experience. People who had never spoken were suddenly arguing over packaging design.
The evening festival, Nextival, was designed for decompression: no agenda, roaming entertainment, street food, and a DJ to close. After a full day of structured content, the evening gave people the freedom to find their own conversations.
350 employees from nine countries attended a single full-day programme that moved from all-hands conference to sustainability team build to festival celebration. For many, it was the first time meeting a colleague they had worked alongside for over two years. The Eco Apprentice activity produced cross-functional teams collaborating on a shared brief — relationships formed through the work itself, not through a facilitated icebreaker.
The evening celebration ran to schedule, with the full group staying through to close.
The event landed exactly as we’d hoped — clear, engaging, and genuinely memorable. It gave the moment the weight it deserved.
IF THIS FEELS RELEVANT
Planning a company away day or first in-person gathering?
Stacked Events works with UK and global businesses to design away days that do real work — not just fill a calendar date. Tell us about your brief and we'll come back to you within 24 hours.
