Escape the City: A PA & EA Guide to Better Team Away Days and Business Retreats

PAs, EAs and event planners are often handed a deceptively simple brief: “find somewhere for the team away day.” The difficult bit is that a good away day is rarely about finding a room. It is about understanding why the team is leaving the office in the first place.

Is the aim to make decisions? Reset a strategy? Help a new team connect? Reward people after a demanding period? Give senior leaders uninterrupted time together? Or combine all of those things without producing a timetable that feels like an ordinary working day transported to another postcode?

That is the idea behind PA Showcase: Escape the City, our free event for Personal Assistants, Executive Assistants and Event Planners at Tottington Manor on Tuesday 13 October 2026, from 4pm to 7pm. It is an opportunity to explore the venue, meet a handpicked selection of team-building and experience suppliers, and collect ideas for meetings, retreats and away days that feel genuinely different.

Start with the outcome, not the room layout

Room capacity matters, but it should come after the purpose of the event. A board meeting for ten people making a difficult decision needs something different from a 70-person company update, even if both technically fit into the same venue.

Before searching for a venue, ask what should be different when the team leaves. If the answer is clearer priorities, stronger relationships or a major decision, then the programme needs to support that result. This may mean less presentation time, more discussion, a change of setting, an activity that gives people a shared experience, or simply enough breathing room for the conversations that usually get squeezed out of a normal day.

There is value in genuinely getting away

Away days work partly because they create a break in routine. A countryside setting can make that separation more obvious than moving from one city meeting room to another. At Tottington Manor, the South Downs surroundings provide outdoor space and a different pace while remaining a practical business venue.

Our meetings and business retreats offer includes four meeting spaces for groups from 2 to 100 delegates, as well as restaurant dining, private dining, 12 onsite bedrooms and access to the countryside.

Decide whether you need a meeting, an away day or a retreat

These terms often get used interchangeably, but the format changes what you can achieve.

• A focused meeting may need only a few hours, strong AV, privacy and good food without unnecessary extras.
• A team away day often benefits from a mixture of working time and something shared—an activity, facilitated session, outdoor time or relaxed meal.
• A residential business retreat creates more space. An evening meal, overnight stay and second morning can give senior teams time to move beyond the first layer of discussion.
• A reward or celebration day may deliberately put the experience first, with the business element kept short.

Our guide to business retreats in the countryside looks at the residential format in more detail, while the team-building and corporate away days page explores activity-led options.

One venue can remove a surprising amount of organising

For the organiser, complexity is cumulative. A separate meeting venue, restaurant, activity supplier, hotel and evening venue might all be individually excellent, but somebody still has to coordinate arrival times, transport, dietary requirements, invoices, rooming lists and every handover between them.

Keeping more of the event in one place means the group can move from meeting to lunch, from an activity to drinks, or from dinner to bedrooms without turning the day into a logistics exercise. That matters to the guests, but it matters just as much to the PA or EA who would otherwise spend the event managing it.

Build the food into the programme

Food is one of the strongest opportunities to change the rhythm of a business event. A quick working lunch, a relaxed dinner and a private meal all do different jobs.

Tottington Manor can combine the business programme with TERRA Restaurant and private dining. For residential retreats, dinner can become part of the event rather than simply the point at which everybody leaves to find somewhere else to eat.

Activities should have a reason to be there

The best team activity is not necessarily the loudest, funniest or most elaborate. It is the one that suits the people and the purpose of the day. Some groups need energy; others need confidence, collaboration, creative thinking or simply a chance to talk to colleagues they do not normally spend time with.

That is why the PA Showcase includes a handpicked selection of team-building and experience suppliers. It gives organisers a chance to compare ideas in person rather than choosing an activity from a list and hoping it fits the group.

For teams looking for a more facilitated approach, our Possibility Thinking business retreat format is an example of building deeper thinking into the programme rather than treating the venue as a neutral room.

Do not overlook the evening and the morning after

For a leadership retreat or senior team, some of the most valuable conversation can happen after the formal agenda has finished. A private dinner gives people time together without another slide deck. Staying onsite removes the need for late-night travel, and breakfast the next morning can create a natural point to capture decisions before everyone disappears back into normal schedules.

Tottington Manor has 12 boutique bedrooms, making it particularly suited to smaller residential groups where the aim is to keep the team together rather than disperse them across a large hotel.

And sometimes the brief is business plus celebration

Not every corporate event sits neatly in a meetings category. An end-of-year session may need a board meeting in the afternoon, a team activity, dinner and a party. A client event might mix a presentation with private dining. A December away day might need to become the company Christmas celebration at 5pm.

Our business Christmas parties offer is built around that crossover, with options to combine meetings, festive dining, events and bedrooms on the same site.

A practical PA / EA checklist for choosing an away-day venue

• What does the team need to achieve? The purpose should shape everything else.
• How many people really need to attend? Bigger is not automatically better for strategy work.
• How much formal meeting time is useful? Avoid filling the day simply because you have booked it.
• Does the venue give people somewhere to talk informally? Breaks and meals often carry important conversations.
• Would an activity help the outcome? Choose it because it fits the team, not because an away day is “supposed” to have one.
• Can the event run in one place? Every additional venue or transfer adds another moving part.
• Is an overnight stay worth it? For leadership and strategy retreats, the extra evening and morning can change the quality of the event.
• Can food be part of the experience? Think beyond sandwiches between sessions.
• Who owns the logistics on the day? The organiser should be able to participate rather than spend the day firefighting.

More useful business planning pages

• Meetings & business retreats at Tottington Manor
• Team building & corporate away days
• Business retreats in the countryside
• Possibility Thinking business retreats
• Private dining & business dinners
• Hotel accommodation at Tottington Manor
• Business Christmas parties in Sussex

Team away day and business retreat FAQs

What should a PA or EA look for in a team away day venue?

Start with the result the team needs, then check that the venue has appropriate meeting space, food, useful breakout or informal areas, activity options, strong event support and accommodation if a residential format would add value.

What is the difference between an away day and a business retreat?

An away day is usually a single-day event. A retreat gives the team more time away from normal routines and often includes an overnight stay, dinner and a second day or morning for deeper work.

How many people can Tottington Manor accommodate for business meetings?

The four meeting spaces support groups from 2 to 100 delegates. The best room and layout depend on the style of meeting and programme.

Can we stay overnight?

Yes. Tottington Manor has 12 onsite boutique bedrooms, making residential retreats and smaller leadership offsites particularly practical.