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Silicon Valley offers a collection of few of the greatest spaces that can inspire and intrigue young tech minds. It does not matter if it is a corporate retreat for a group of your colleagues from office or a purely educational trip for the students in your class, a trip to the home of the greatest giants in the tech world, many of which began and grew from their humble startup roots, has much to offer.
When you are planning a tech retreat to the Silicon Valley of all places, you need to know that traffic is going to be a problem and so are the sheer number of formalities you might need to go through before you can visit the campus of your favorite tech giants. So, just in case the planning of the trip is starting to seem too much to handle, here is a list of helpful advice that will make the planning seem as easy as cakewalk:
Planning the journey
Once you know how many people are definitely going to be joining you on the trip, your job is at least half done. Depending on the number of people going, you can go for a san francisco minibus or coach bus rental. Not only will this take most of the stress off you, but the journey will also be a lot more comfortable for the guests since everyone will have ample space to lie back and stretch their legs when they feel tired. And since the buses come with professional drivers who know the routes better than you do and are armed with GPS devices, you don’t have to go through the trouble of taking out maps and having to chart out the best routes. All you need to do is decide on which pit stops you would like to make so everyone can freshen up and restock on snacks and there’s always ample supply of water and caffeine.
Choosing the destination(s)
Another good thing that comes out of knowing exactly how many people will be joining you is getting to do the bookings early, and we don’t just mean the hotel bookings. A lot of tech campuses offer guided tour of the entire area. But these spots sell fast so you need to know exactly which campuses the group wants to visit so the bookings can be done early on. Some of the best tech spaces that you might not want to miss out on are:
Alphabet
This campus is pretty much a treat to behold, the entire space designed to inspire creativity and keep the greatest tech minds in the world entertained.
Apple
Perhaps getting to buy a lot of its merch is a good enough reason to go to the Apple campus, but the sheer access they provide you with so you can watch how the gears turn from up close pretty much takes the cake for us.
The Facebook campus is harder to visit than most other campuses. So, if you plan on going here, you need to stock of your contacts. If one of your colleague’s friends of a friend knows someone from this campus, chances are that they might be your only way in so you should get in touch with them early.
Plan the networking time
It doesn’t matter how well you get with your work colleagues, long hours being stuck with each other in one vehicle can tend to get on anyone’s nerves. So, plan for the long hours full of just travel with games that help build the collaborative spirit of the team. A simple game of charades or two truths and a lie can go a long way to cheer everyone up and get the team spirit going. A playlist full of good music will also help. And end the long day by heading to a mixer or a small luncheon with everyone. After all, nothing says team spirit more than sharing good food, some alcohol and swaying to some good tunes.
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