Many of us are engaged in the pursuit of collective goals — creating, launching and operating companies, developing new products and services, creating innovative solutions to complex problems, etc. — but the ways in which we’re doing those things are radically different from the way our parents did them. 

WORK ISN'T WHAT IT USED TO BE.

Email, Slack, DropBox, Google Hangouts, Basecamp, and the myriad of digital tools and systems that enable us to work the way we work in 2017 have changed the game for businesses of all sizes and pursuits. Whether working in an office environment or remotely, most people use an array of digital means to ‘connect’ to each other any time they need to. But while the efficiency of those methods of communication is unquestioned and the productivity gains unmatched, what might we have lost in the process?

Whether your team members work hundreds or thousands of miles apart or on different floors of the same building, in effect they’re all working remotely. Digital communication tools have simultaneously connected us in ways unimaginable even a few years ago, and disconnected us in ways we might not have anticipated. 

LET'S GET IT TOGETHER.

Humans are communal animals. We’re social. We like to get together with other humans. So taking time to actually gather — to physically and emotionally connect to each other — is critical for any team that hopes to succeed. Add to that the psychological and emotional boost that comes with a change of scenery, and the case for meetings in refreshing locations has been made. 

As Raphael Gielgen, head of research at Vitra commented in a recent interview, “In the past few years, people have been born and have grown up as individuals, and they are looking for their communities. If you look at coworking spaces or if you look at how people organize freelance groups, they’re looking for community.” His research also points to the idea that in order to refresh and reenergize teams, every so often “we should disconnect people from their laptops, from Excel, and from PowerPoint, provide a space that is the opposite of the workspace they sit in most of the time.”

According to a Businessworld article, “Conducting team building activities such as off-site meetings aligns executives, stimulate performances, and strengthens the company’s position in the industry. Employees benefit from experiencing a sense of accomplishment by working as a group in a new, open stimulated environment.”

So if you’re looking for the perfect Chicago / West Loop location in which to connect, ideate, energize, strategize, or socialize with your team, give us a buzz. 

Venture forth.