How to Plan a Corporate Away Day in a Unique Derbyshire Venue

A change of scenery can completely change the way a team thinks, talks and works together.

Taking an away day beyond the usual office or meeting room gives everyone an opportunity to step outside their everyday routine. Whether the aim is to plan for the year ahead, bring different departments together, celebrate a milestone or simply spend some valuable time as a team, the setting can play an important part in making the day feel worthwhile.

At The Old Town Hall, we offer something a little different from the traditional corporate environment.

Set in the heart of Glossop, our beautifully restored Victorian hall combines historic character with a light, versatile interior, creating a unique Derbyshire venue for businesses looking to bring people together.

So, where should you start when planning your next corporate away day?

Begin with what you want to achieve

Before thinking about timings, food or activities, decide what you want everyone to take away from the day.

An away day built around strategy will naturally look different from one designed to celebrate a successful year. You might need plenty of time for presentations and discussions, or perhaps the priority is creating opportunities for colleagues who rarely work together to connect.

Having a clear purpose will help you shape everything that follows. 

But it’s also worth resisting the temptation to fill every minute. One of the benefits of leaving the office is having more room for conversations that might not happen during a normal working day. So, a little breathing space between sessions can be just as useful as the sessions themselves.

Choose somewhere that feels different from the office

If you are asking your team to step away from their usual routine, the venue should help them do that.

The Old Town Hall has been part of Glossop since the 1830s. Its high ceilings, expansive Victorian windows and historic character immediately create a different atmosphere from the average boardroom or conference space. Following its restoration, the Hall’s heritage now sits alongside a fresh, contemporary interior. The result is somewhere that feels impressive without becoming overly formal.

The room can also be adapted to suit the style of your event. Whether you are bringing everyone together for a company-wide presentation, creating a more relaxed setting for conversation or planning a day with several different activities, the open space gives you flexibility to shape it around your plans.

Choosing a unique Derbyshire venue can help signal that this isn’t just another day at the office from the moment everyone arrives.  

Build a schedule with room to breathe

It can be tempting to pack an away day with activities to make the most of having everyone together. But in reality, a little less can often achieve more.

Think about the natural energy of the day when creating your schedule. A focused morning session could be followed by lunch and a more collaborative afternoon, for example. Or you might use shorter sessions throughout the day with regular opportunities for people to talk and reset.

And breaks matter too.They give colleagues a chance to discuss what they’ve heard, speak with people outside their immediate teams and return to the next session with clearer heads.

A corporate away day should feel productive, but that doesn't mean every conversation needs to happen according to an agenda.

Think carefully about the room layout

How you arrange the room can influence how people interact.

For instance, rows of chairs might work well when everyone needs to focus on one speaker, while smaller tables can encourage discussion and collaboration. And a more informal arrangement can help create an atmosphere where people feel comfortable contributing ideas.

It’s best to start with the purpose of each part of your day and work backwards. So, if collaboration is the priority, make it easy for people to speak to one another. If you have an important presentation to deliver, make sure everyone can focus comfortably. And, if the event is partly a celebration, consider how the room can transition into something more social later on.

At The Old Town Hall, the light-filled, neutral space provides a versatile backdrop for different event styles, with tables and chairs available as part of the venue.

You don't have to make the room complicated for it to work well.

Make food part of the experience

Food is often the moment when a corporate event begins to feel less corporate.

Once everyone steps away from presentations and sits down together, conversations change, people catch up, colleagues who don't usually work together mix and attendees have time to process the morning.

Our position directly above Glossop Market Hall creates some particularly interesting possibilities for corporate events at The Old Town Hall.

Food can be provided through the food vendors within Glossop Market Hall, giving businesses the opportunity to incorporate the character of the building into the day.

Think about what works with your schedule rather than automatically opting for the most formal approach. A relaxed lunch might suit a collaborative day, while a more substantial meal can become part of an end-of-day celebration.

Whatever you choose, give people enough time to enjoy it, because nobody's best idea arrives when trying to eat lunch in ten minutes.

Take advantage of being in central Glossop

A corporate away day doesn't necessarily have to remain inside the venue from arrival until departure.

The Old Town Hall sits in the heart of Glossop, above the Market Hall and close to the wider town. This central location can add another dimension to the day, particularly if you want to build in some time away from the main sessions.

Glossop also sits at the gateway to the Peak District, giving businesses an opportunity to combine focused time indoors with the surrounding area.

Depending on the structure of your day, you could build in time for a walk, give colleagues a longer break to explore the town or simply encourage everyone to step outside and get some fresh air between sessions.

Sometimes the best way to solve a problem is to stop staring at it for half an hour.

Give people opportunities to connect

Team building doesn't always need to mean organised games. And for many businesses, simply giving colleagues time together away from their usual roles and responsibilities can be valuable. 

This is particularly relevant for teams working across multiple locations or spending part of their week remotely. So, plan opportunities for people to mix beyond the colleagues they already know well.

You could change seating arrangements during the day, create smaller discussion groups or include a collaborative session where different departments work together.

Lunch and breaks are equally useful. Leaving enough time for informal conversation allows connections to develop naturally rather than forcing every interaction into an exercise.

The aim should be to create the conditions for people to talk, share ideas and understand one another a little better.

Don't forget the social side

Not every corporate away day needs to finish when the final presentation does.

If your team rarely gets everyone together, extending the day into drinks or a celebration can make the occasion feel much more memorable.

The Old Town Hall has its own private, fully stocked bar, making it easy to shift the atmosphere once the working part of the day is complete.

That transition can be as simple as closing the laptops and opening the bar.

For milestone events, company celebrations or annual gatherings, you might choose to make the evening a bigger part of the occasion. For a strategy-focused day, a relaxed drink afterwards may be all you need.

Either way, it gives everyone an opportunity to finish the day together without immediately heading back to their inboxes.

Keep the details straightforward

The best away days often feel effortless to the people attending them, even when plenty of thought has gone into the planning.

Clear communication beforehand makes a big difference. Let your team know where they need to be, when they should arrive and what they can expect from the day.

And you need to think about practical details early too. Consider the layout you need, how food will fit into the schedule and how much time is required for each part of the event.

Always leave a little flexibility. Because conversations may run longer than expected and a particular session might generate more ideas than you anticipated. Your team may simply benefit from an extra coffee and ten minutes to talk.

An away day doesn't need to run like a stopwatch to be successful.

Bring your team together at The Old Town Hall

A good corporate away day creates space for something different.

It might be a new idea that would never have surfaced during a normal meeting, a conversation between two colleagues who rarely cross paths or simply an opportunity for everyone to reconnect away from everyday distractions.

The venue helps set the tone for all of it.

At The Old Town Hall, Victorian heritage, contemporary surroundings and a central Glossop location come together to offer an alternative to conventional corporate spaces. Add the food and energy of Glossop Market Hall downstairs and the Peak District on the doorstep, and you have a setting that can turn an ordinary day away from the office into something people genuinely remember.

If you're planning a corporate away day, team gathering or company event, please don't hesitate to contact us. Our team would love to hear what you have in mind and help you explore how The Old Town Hall could work for your next event.

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