Annual off-sites are overrated and can be a waste of company money. As Envision
By Laura Meyer · February 17, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
Annual off-sites are overrated and can be a waste of company money.
As Envision Horizons has grown, the traditional full-company offsite has become less practical.
The size and cost of flying everyone in for a few days, the amount of programming required, and the reality of running a client-service business makes it hard for the entire company to go offline for several days.
But the bigger issue?
A single annual gathering isn’t enough to build real trust and meaningful relationships across our distributed team.
At best, it creates a short morale boost for a few weeks… and then routine sets back in for the other 11 months.
So last year, I had a new idea.
Instead of spending the same budget on one big “moment,” we could create multiple smaller in-person touchpoints throughout the year.
More consistency.
More real connection.
Less forced, rushed, cheesy, culty offsite energy.
This year, we piloted a new approach for our remote workforce that I’ve coined: Hub Cities.
We have team members across 17 different states, so we organized into four regional hubs.
Rather than bringing everyone together all at once, team members in each hub city meet in person to co-work, share meals, and actually build relationships over time.
Here’s the initial blueprint:
-Team members within an hour of a hub city are encouraged to join monthly co-working days + sponsored meals
-Team members who require travel visit a hub city quarterly, with the option to rotate between hubs
-Leadership regularly visits each hub to increase visibility, access, and connection across the company
It’s still early, and we’ll absolutely refine it. But the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.
The best part has been seeing the ripple effects show up in our virtual town halls and all-hands meetings, more energy, more context, and more genuine connection because people have actually spent time together in real life.
Staying a remote company doesn’t mean giving up on in-person time together.
It just means being more intentional about it.
And yes… if you look closely at one of the photos, that’s our VP of Client Services, Reid Greenberg, juggling fire at a pizza night he hosted for the Salt Lake hub.
Culture isn’t built in conference rooms.
Sometimes it’s built in someone’s backyard.