Company outing for a large group: what changes above fifty

A company outing for eighty or a hundred and fifty people isn't an enlarged outing for twenty. It's a different kind of job, with different risks. A concept that works brilliantly for a small team often stalls with a large group for reasons that have nothing to do with the game: queues, noise, people who didn't hear the instructions. Below is what exactly changes above fifty participants, and how to set up a programme that keeps running at that scale.

From what size is a group a large group?

A group behaves differently from around fifty participants. That's not a hard number, but it's the point where three things change at once: you can no longer address everyone at the same time without a sound system, two hosts can't keep an overview any more, and the chance that part of the group is standing around waiting becomes real.

Between fifty and a hundred participants the set-up is still manageable with fixed teams and a clear schedule. Above a hundred something changes again: you need parallel activities running at the same time, because a single activity that a hundred people have to go through takes too much time. Above two hundred the venue becomes the deciding factor, not the programme.

What breaks above fifty participants

Above fifty participants, what mostly goes wrong is logistics, not the content of the programme. That's good news, because logistics can be planned.

The instructions don't reach everyone

With twenty people you explain what's expected once and everyone has heard it. With a hundred, a third are standing too far away, a quarter are still chatting, and the rest are checking their phones. You only notice the result ten minutes later, when two teams are doing something completely different from what was intended. With large groups we therefore never explain once to everyone, but briefly to everyone and then again per team.

Waiting time, and it's the biggest one

With a large group, waiting time is the main reason people drop out. If ten teams all have to do the same activity and it takes ten minutes, the last team waits an hour and a half. By then those people are already busy with something else. This isn't a game problem but a sum you can do in advance, and yet it's the mistake we see most often.

The group splits into familiar faces

Put a hundred colleagues in a hall and they stand with their own department, exactly as in the canteen. If the team allocation follows that, you've organised a day on which nobody talks to anyone new. That's a waste of the opportunity, because with a large organisation that's often the very reason an outing is organised.

Nobody keeps an eye on the time

At a small outing the host can keep track of the time as well. With a hundred participants they can't. Someone has to do nothing but watch the schedule and be able to say firmly that an activity stops, even when it was just getting fun. Without that role the programme runs over, and the delay always lands on the last activity, which then gets dropped.

How many hosts do you need?

For a large group, plan on one host per twenty to twenty-five participants. With a hundred participants that's four to five, plus someone who only watches the time and the flow. That timekeeper doesn't count towards the ratio, because as soon as that person starts running an activity, nobody is left who sees the whole picture.

For activities where safety is involved or where equipment needs explaining, the ratio is tighter. For activities where teams carry out a task independently, it can be looser. So the ratio isn't a fixed rule but varies per activity, which makes the layout of the day a staffing question too.

Which formats scale and which don't?

Formats where teams work independently and in parallel scale well, formats with a single central point don't. That's the core of the choice.

A team games day scales extremely well, because you can set up as many activities side by side as you have teams. Each team starts at a different activity and moves on. Nobody waits. The same goes for a city game where teams walk a route: you can run it with five teams or with twenty-five, provided the start points are spread out.

A pub quiz also scales well, but in a different way: everyone takes part at the same time from their own table. With large numbers you do need proper sound, though, and someone keeping score without the room having to wait for it.

What scales badly are activities with a single set-up that everybody has to go through, and activities where the whole group has to listen to one person before each next step. With eighty people those become queues. They can sit perfectly well in the programme, but then as one activity alongside others running at the same time.

How do you split into teams with a hundred participants?

Allocate teams in advance and display the allocation visibly on arrival. Letting people choose for themselves takes at least twenty minutes with a large group and also produces teams that follow the existing departments exactly.

A workable team size is between six and ten people. Smaller means too many teams to supervise, larger means some people within the team have nothing to do. With a hundred participants you end up with ten to twelve teams, and that number in turn determines how many activities have to run in parallel.

If you want people to really talk to each other, mix by department and by length of service at the same time. For that we ask in advance for a participant list with the department added. That's five minutes of work for the organiser and it largely determines whether the day achieves anything beyond a good time. In the article on active company outings , you'll find more on how to divide roles within a team.

What does the venue need to offer for a large group?

A venue for a large group mainly needs space to spread out, not just to sit. Hall capacity is usually quoted in chairs at tables, and that number says little about whether a hundred people can move around.

Four things we ask about in advance: how many square metres of clear floor there are, whether there's more than one exit to the outside, where the power points are, and whether there's a space where the group can stay dry if the weather turns. That last one is harder with a large group than with a small one, because eighty people can't just squeeze in somewhere.

Your own company grounds often work better for this than a hired hall, because you can combine indoors and outdoors without needing two venues. We come to your own venue, and check in advance whether the set-up fits there.

Food and drink for a hundred people

Feeding a large group takes more time than people estimate, and that time comes out of the programme. For a buffet, allow at least thirty to forty minutes before the last person sits down, just because of the queue.

That's precisely why food seldom belongs in the middle of a programme. Put it at the start or the end, or plan an activity that carries on while people eat in shifts. What doesn't work is stopping the programme and assuming everyone will be done within a quarter of an hour.

What does a company outing for a large group cost?

For a large group, a custom programme starts at €1,250. That's down to two things: more equipment, because activities have to run in parallel, and more hosts, because the ratio of hosts to participants stays the same.

If you only want to add one activity to a day you organise yourselves, for example a quiz after dinner or a one-hour games block, that starts at €195. A more extensive custom programme for a mid-sized group is between €550 and €1,250. Venue, catering and any travel costs outside Overijssel and Gelderland come on top and are listed separately in the quote.

Timeline for a large company outing

For a large group you start about three months ahead, mainly because of the venue. The sequence that works in practice:

• Three months ahead: set the date and book the venue, because that's where the scarcity is
• Eight weeks ahead: decide the programme and concept, so you know how much space you really need
• Six weeks ahead: send out the invitation with a clear registration deadline
• Two weeks ahead: final numbers, create the team allocation, pass on catering
• Two days ahead: settle the wet-weather plan if there are outdoor activities

The registration deadline matters more for large groups than for small ones. With twenty people you can still shuffle things around on the day. With a hundred, the number determines how much equipment comes along, and that's fixed a week in advance.

Four mistakes we see most often

Four things go wrong so often with large groups that they're worth mentioning.

• Choosing a concept that worked well for a small team, without calculating how much waiting time it produces at these numbers
• Making the team allocation on the day itself, so twenty minutes disappear and the teams end up forming by department anyway
• Not appointing a separate timekeeper, so the last programme item gets dropped
• Going by hall capacity in chairs instead of in free square metres

What you get from this

A company outing for a large group stands or falls on flow. Make sure nobody waits longer than five minutes, allocate the teams in advance, appoint someone who only watches the time, and choose activities that can run in parallel. Do that and a hundred participants is no harder than twenty, just organised differently.

If you'd like to know what suits your numbers, describe the group and the venue, and we'll work out how many activities need to run in parallel. The page on company outings in Twente shows what else we do, and on the overview page you'll find all the formats in one place.