Leveraging synergies: Offsites and FOMs

FOM software is also suitable for organizing larger events such as offsites - making it a must for all remote-first companies.

An Editorial of the FOM Magazine

"Offsite" is the new German term for conference. Employees of a company meet for one or more days for workshops or leisure activities in order to work on specific topics away from day-to-day business and to cultivate personal relationships.

Offsites are nothing new. In the digital age, however, they are becoming increasingly important. Since more and more employees are in home offices, face-to-face contact with colleagues has diminished. While it's possible to exchange ideas in person in online meetings, a video call is no substitute for face-to-face contact. This is where offsites come into play!

How do offsites work?
When it comes to organizing offsites, the sky's the limit. First and foremost, you should be clear about the goal of the event: Is it predominantly about content or about cultivating relationships?

For most offsites, both play a role. That's why it's a good idea, for example, to plan one day of a two-day offsite for content workshops and one for team building. This way, the event has a clear structure and both days have a clear objective.

Workshops
Workshops are a good way to develop content. For example, you can set up a new product positioning in a sales workshop.

The success of such workshops stands and falls with the preparation. All participants should therefore be sure to receive an agenda in advance and prepare specifically for the workshops.

All-hands meetings
Depending on the size of the company and its objectives, it can also make sense to hold "all-hands meetings" in which the entire workforce participates. This is useful, for example, for strategic topics that concern all offsite participants.

All-hands meetings, on the other hand, are not useful for topics that require special expertise, such as the implementation of a new accounting system.

Teambuilding
In teambuilding, the focus is not on content, but above all on cultivating relationships.

For example, you can go on a joint excursion and organize sightseeing or group games. Here it depends mainly on the personal preferences of the offsite participants.

What are FOMs?
The regular FOM Magazine reader is already in the know. Here again briefly for all newcomers:

FOM stands for "Formal Online Meeting", i.e. all meetings that require a defined procedure. Software solutions help to organize FOMs more efficiently. Standardization and automation can simplify processes and meeting structures and facilitate preparation, execution and follow-up.
For example, FOM software provides tools for digital voting & elections, attendee and voting records, automated minutes, and more.

What do FOMs have to do with offsites?
Strictly speaking, offsites are not FOMs, but the FOM structure is still very helpful for organizing offsites.

For one thing, offsites involve a series of meetings within a larger event. Automation and standardization thus simplify the processes.

On the other hand, offsites are usually recurring events. Once templates have been created in the FOM software, they can be reused at any time.

Offsites are also often hybrid events. Particularly in international or remote-first companies, the workforce is often spread around the globe. It therefore makes sense to connect participants to individual workshops of the face-to-face event online.

The hybrid format also gives you a plan B in case a participant is unable to attend at short notice, for example due to health reasons or travel restrictions or traffic jams.

A practical example
The various tools of the FOM software support the preparation, execution and follow-up of offsites:

• Attendee directories
  In smaller companies, the entire workforce usually participates in an offsite. In larger companies, offsites are usually limited to individual departments, sometimes even to individual teams. It must therefore be determined in advance who is to participate in the offsite in the first place.
  During the offsite, various workshops and activities are held in parallel, and not everyone present takes part in all of them. So separate participant lists must be created for these meetings as well.
  FOM software provides attendee directories, both for the entire event and for the individual workshops. Once saved, the attendee directories can be reused for all recurring offsites. One can also see who attended which workshop after the fact.
  
• Coordination
  Especially for teambuilding events, the staff should be involved in the organization of the event.
  The voting tools of the FOM software are ideal for this. For example, employees can vote on the conference location, the excursion destinations or the menu.
  
• Agenda templates
  Offsites are only successful if all participants are well prepared. Therefore, an agenda should be created in advance for the entire offsite as well as for the individual workshops. FOM-Software provides ready-made templates based on best practices for this purpose, which can be reused for subsequent offsites.
  
• Speaker list
  During each workshop there is a moderator and possibly also different speakers. All this can be set in the FOM software.
  Since the success of an offsite depends primarily on the participation of those present, the question and chat functions are particularly important. This allows participants who are connected online to contribute to the meeting in an uncomplicated and organized manner.
  
• Minutes
  FOM software creates automated meeting minutes that meeting participants can then download in a protected area. So you know afterwards who participated in which meetings and what was decided.
  
• Data evaluation
  FOM software records relevant meeting data during meetings, such as how long each workshop lasts, whether they start on time and are completed within the allotted time, how long breaks were taken, the number of attendees, and more.
  Organizers can take this data into account when planning future offsites to continuously improve event efficiency.

In addition to offsites, FOM software can also be used to organize other events, because in principle every event is also a meeting. Since standardization and automation often add value, FOM software is the ideal organization tool.