If your team is based in or around Napa Valley, you won’t have to search high and low to find a location to host your event.
All of Napa is an event space and your team members are merely players. If you’re still stumped, read on for our favorite team-building ideas in Napa Valley — and the events that work best in this scenic area of California.
What makes a great team-building event in Napa Valley?
While every team-building event is different, there are a few common threads that make an event truly special.
A great team-building event in Napa addresses each team’s unique needs, showcases Napa Valley (including its five towns), and is well organized and safe.
Address Each Team’s Unique Needs
Before booking your team-building event in Napa Valley, ask yourself, What are my goals for this event?
Each industry, company, and team has its own unique needs and challenges. We work with teams that need to break out of their creative ruts, want to bond with their coworkers, or simply just need a day out of the office.
Your team-building event will depend on your team’s needs. Are you focusing on specific challenges? Are your team members working as a single unit? Do you need a little creativity in your office? Or do you simply want to encourage some friendly competition?
Showcases Napa Valley
If your team is located near or in Napa Valley (or if you’re simply drawn to the area), you should take advantage of this area!
There are so many reasons to book a team-building event in Napa Valley. For one, you’ll have much more space to spread out than if you were in San Francisco, Oakland, or another Bay Area metropolitan area.
Team building events can be organized in one of Napa Valley’s five towns — and incorporate some of the most iconic sites in the area.
Napa Valley Towns
When we think of Napa Valley, we often just think of the town of Napa and often forget the rest. But Napa Valley is actually made up of five distinct towns, including Calistoga, St. Helena, Yountville, Napa proper, and American Canyon.
Napa Valley Iconic Sites
– Oxbow Public Market
– Uptown Theatre Napa
– Downtown Napa
– Napa Valley wineries
– And much more!
Well-Organized and Safe Events
The hardest part about organizing any event (in Napa Valley or elsewhere) is actually doing the work of organizing the event. Most companies fail to recognize the amount of administrative work required to host a team-building event — especially if the event is going to be held off-campus.
Permits
One of the stickiest aspects of organizing a team-building event is coordinating permits.
Do you need a permit to organize an event in a public space? Is the space where you want to host the event even available on your event day? Do you need to make a reservation or can you just show up?
Event Coordination
Coordinating the actual event is another aspect of organizing a team-building event that many teams forget about altogether.
Creating a memorable event that is fun and addresses each team’s needs isn’t as easy as it may sound (does it sound easy?). Make sure you plan time to coordinate your event, create scavenger hunt clues that are crafty, and communicate clearly with your team.
Don’t want to do all that? We recommend hiring someone to do that for you! We’ve organized thousands of corporate events in California and can take planning a memorable day off your plate.
Our Top 5 Team Building Ideas in Napa Valley
Our most popular team-building activities in Napa Valley include food or wine tours, cooking challenges, Amazing Race-style challenges, Mission Impossible-style challenges, and escape rooms.
Or, we can create a challenge that fits your team’s individual needs.
Food or Wine Tour
If you really want to embrace the heart and soul of Napa Valley, you may simply want to stick to its food or wine history.
Nothing connects a team like a food tour (especially one that incorporates a wine tasting!). Food is a great connector, and teammates can learn about the history of the local towns — and learn about each other’s backgrounds in the process.
Cooking Challenge
Want to kick up a food team-building activity a notch? Some of our most popular events are food-related challenges.
We can create a Chopped-style or Iron Chef-style cooking challenge that will push your team to think outside of the mystery box and work together to create a unique (and hopefully tasty!) dish.
Amazing Race Napa Valley
If you really want to show your team around the valley, book an Amazing Race-style challenge.
Similar to the TV show of the same name, your team will get clues to each Napa Valley iconic site, where they’ll need to perform challenges before getting the next clue.
Mission Possible
If you want to focus on team-building more than competition, our Mission Possible challenges are similar to Amazing Race ones, in that they will take your team members to different Napa Valley locations.
The only difference is that they’ll work together to solve their mission. Of course, this event is in the theme of the Mission Impossible movie franchise, so there may be a high-octane soundtrack playing at each stop, too.
Escape Rooms
Escape rooms don’t need to be “rooms” at all! You can escape from Oxbow Public Market, Downtown Napa, or other iconic Napa Valley sites.
Similar to indoor escape rooms, your team members will all need to work together (or work in smaller groups if your group is very large) to escape your office or a Napa Valley site.
