Why summer is actually a good time to run a team event

Most companies treat summer as dead time for team events. The assumption is that half the team is on holiday, nobody has energy for workshops, and serious strategic work waits for September. That assumption is worth questioning.

The summer calendar advantage

Between mid-June and mid-August, the rhythms that make it hard to gather senior people break down. The quarterly reporting cycle quietens. Board meetings thin out. The instinct to protect diary time weakens. This creates a genuine window — often the only one all year — where a half-day or full-day session can be scheduled without competing with three other urgent priorities.

The energy challenge

Summer heat is real. A full-day innovation workshop in a poorly ventilated room in July is a bad idea. But that's a design problem, not a scheduling problem. Design for the conditions: shorter morning sessions, breaks outside, locations with shade or air conditioning, and a format that doesn't require six hours of concentrated sitting.

Formats that work in summer

• Half-day morning sprints followed by a lunch outside. High energy when you have it, relaxed when you need it.
• Two-hour focused problem sessions with a specific output — low overhead, high return.
• Outdoor off-sites in accessible locations: a vineyard in the Moselle, a garden venue in the Ardennes. The setting does work that a conference room can't.
• Leadership dinners with a structured conversation at the centre. Informal enough for summer, purposeful enough to produce decisions.

What summer events are best for

Summer events work particularly well for relationship-building, strategic reflection, and agenda-setting for Q3/Q4. They're less suited for the intensive multi-day formats that require full cognitive load across multiple days. Use the season — don't fight it.

“September will fill up before it arrives. The teams that plan their summer event in June are the ones who actually run it.”

How to get attendance right

Lock dates early — ideally in May — and communicate clearly that this isn't a nice-to-have. Summer scheduling is a first-mover game: the teams that book first get full attendance, the ones that wait until August compete with holidays. A firm date and a clear output expectation makes it easy for people to plan around it.