Away Day Agenda Template (With Timings)
A practical, timed away day agenda you can adapt for strategy, team building and company updates.
The short answer
A good away day agenda balances business outcomes, team connection and enough breathing space. For a full day, plan 5.5 to 6 hours of structured content, 90 minutes for lunch and breaks, and one active team session. Start with clear objectives, finish with owners, actions and follow-up dates.
What should an away day agenda include?
An effective away day agenda should do three things: give people clarity, make good use of time away from the office, and leave the team with specific actions. The best agendas are not packed minute-by-minute with presentations. They create a rhythm: context, discussion, activity, decision, reset.
For most UK company away days, a full-day format works best when it includes:
- A clear welcome and purpose-setting session
- One or two business-focused workshops
- Proper breaks, not just five minutes between slides
- A hosted team building or wellbeing activity
- Time for informal conversation over lunch
- A structured close with actions and owners
As a rule, avoid more than 90 minutes of seated content at a time. Attention drops quickly, especially if people have travelled. Build in movement, table discussions and short outputs so the day feels useful rather than performative.
If you are still shaping the wider plan, use this agenda alongside How to Plan a Company Away Day, which covers objectives, venues, suppliers and communications.
Full-day away day agenda template
This template works for a typical 9:30am to 4:30pm away day. It suits teams of roughly 15 to 120 people and can be adapted for leadership groups, departments or whole-company sessions.
| Time | Session | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| 09:00-09:30 | Arrival, coffee and informal networking | Give people time to arrive without starting late |
| 09:30-09:45 | Welcome and objectives | Explain why you are there and what success looks like |
| 09:45-10:15 | Business context update | Share the key information people need before discussion |
| 10:15-11:00 | Workshop 1: priorities or challenges | Gather input, spot themes and involve the group |
| 11:00-11:20 | Break | Reset and allow informal discussion |
| 11:20-12:15 | Workshop 2: solutions or planning | Turn discussion into options, actions or decisions |
| 12:15-13:15 | Lunch | Protect this time; do not make lunch a working session |
| 13:15-14:45 | Team building, charitable or wellbeing activity | Build connection and energy after lunch |
| 14:45-15:05 | Break | Allow transition back into business content |
| 15:05-15:45 | Team commitments | Agree behaviours, next steps or ways of working |
| 15:45-16:15 | Action planning | Confirm owners, deadlines and communication points |
| 16:15-16:30 | Close | Summarise decisions and thank attendees |
| 16:30 onwards | Optional drinks or informal time | Useful for networking, but keep it optional |
This structure gives you roughly 3 hours of business content, 90 minutes of active team time and enough space for travel, food and informal conversations. If your group has travelled more than 90 minutes, consider starting at 10:00am or finishing by 4:00pm.
How should you time each session?
Timings matter because away days often fail when the agenda is too ambitious. A practical starting point is to divide the day into four types of time.
1. Arrival and transitions
Allow 30 minutes for arrival, registration, coffee and late trains. Build in five-minute buffers between rooms or activities if the venue is large. If people need to store bags, collect name badges or find tables, do not schedule a critical update at 9:00am sharp.
2. Business content
Keep presentations short. A senior update should usually be 20 to 30 minutes, followed by questions or table discussion. If you need several leaders to speak, give each person a strict slot and a shared brief: what has changed, what matters now, and what the team needs to do next.
3. Workshops
A good workshop block is 45 to 60 minutes. That is enough time for a prompt, group discussion, outputs and a quick share-back. For larger groups, avoid lengthy plenary feedback from every table. Ask each table for one priority or use a simple voting method.
4. Breaks and meals
Plan at least 20 minutes for a morning break and 20 minutes in the afternoon. Lunch should be 60 minutes for most groups, or 75 minutes if there is a buffet queue, dietary requirements to manage or networking is a key aim.
The most common agenda mistake is treating breaks as spare time. They are part of the event design and often where the most useful conversations happen.
What should happen before lunch?
Use the morning for the more demanding business content. People are fresher, travel delays are behind you, and you have time to recover if a discussion runs long.
A strong morning usually follows this format:
- Set the purpose: why the away day is happening now.
- Share the context: what people need to know before contributing.
- Ask for input: what is working, what is stuck, what needs focus.
- Narrow the themes: agree the few areas that matter most.
For example, if the aim is to improve cross-team working, the first workshop might ask tables to identify the three biggest friction points between teams. The second workshop can then focus on practical fixes: decision rights, handover rules, meeting habits or communication channels.
Avoid starting with an icebreaker that feels disconnected from the day. If you want an energiser, make it short and relevant. A five-minute table question such as “What would make today genuinely useful?” is often better than a forced game.
What should happen after lunch?
The post-lunch slot is ideal for an active session. People rarely respond well to dense slides at 1:15pm, so use this window for a facilitated activity, outdoor challenge, creative task, volunteering-style session or wellbeing format.
Depending on your objectives, you could use:
- Team building events for collaboration, communication and energy
- Wellness events for recovery, resilience and stress management
- Charitable events when you want purpose-led teamwork
- Kickstarters for shorter energisers within a wider agenda
For a full day, 75 to 90 minutes is a good length for the main activity. Less than 45 minutes can feel rushed; more than two hours can squeeze out action planning. If you are booking an external facilitator, share your agenda, group size, venue layout and any accessibility needs early so the session fits the day rather than feeling bolted on.
Costs vary by format, location and group size, but as a rough UK planning range, facilitated team activities often sit around £35 to £120 per person. Venue hire, catering, AV and travel are usually separate unless you are booking a packaged event.
How do you adapt the agenda for different away day goals?
The same away day agenda template can work for different objectives, but the emphasis should change. Do not try to cover strategy, culture, training, wellbeing and celebration in equal depth on the same day.
Strategy away day
Spend more time on context, choices and trade-offs. Use the morning for market, customer or performance updates, then run workshops around priorities. The afternoon should focus on decisions and ownership, with a lighter activity to keep energy up.
Team building away day
Reduce formal presentation time and increase participation. Aim for a 20-minute business update, one practical discussion and a longer team activity. Close by linking the activity back to everyday behaviours, not by asking people whether they “had fun”.
Culture or values away day
Use real workplace scenarios. Ask teams to define what the values look like in meetings, feedback, customer work or leadership decisions. Avoid abstract wordsmithing unless the purpose is specifically to rewrite values.
Leadership away day
Keep the group smaller and allow more discussion time. A leadership agenda may need fewer activities and more decision-making space. Build in private working time if sensitive topics are likely to come up.
Half-day away day
If you only have three to four hours, remove rather than compress. Choose one objective, one discussion and one short activity. For more detail on choosing the right length, see Half-Day vs Full-Day Away Days.
How do you keep the agenda on track?
A good agenda still needs active management on the day. Before the event, appoint one person to own timings and one person to capture actions. They should not be the same person if the agenda is busy.
Use these practical controls:
- Put timings on the facilitator copy, not necessarily every delegate handout.
- Brief speakers to finish two minutes early, not exactly on time.
- Use visible countdowns for table discussions.
- Capture actions in a simple format: action, owner, deadline, dependency.
- Keep a “parking list” for important topics that cannot be solved on the day.
- Confirm what will happen within 48 hours after the away day.
The close is particularly important. Do not end with vague thanks and a promise to “send notes round”. Use the final 15 minutes to restate the top decisions, name owners and explain when the wider team will hear the outcome.
Within two working days, send a short follow-up with:
- The purpose of the away day
- The main themes or decisions
- Confirmed actions and owners
- Photos or outputs where appropriate
- Dates for the next check-in
If you need help matching the agenda to the right format, activity or venue, you can browse corporate events, compare venues or contact Rocket Fuel for practical options.
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