17 Ideas for Your Next Training Camp

Just like high school assemblies and classes, corporate training workshops are necessary, but can be boring for attendees.

Finding the balance between turning your event audience into active event participants  and ensuring attendees are still receiving proper training is difficult. That’s why we have researched and curated this guide to the top 17 ideas for your next training camp. Check it out.

What is a Corporate Training Camp?

A corporate training camp is an event that focuses on training your employees or your customers on how to use your company’s products. These training camps are also commonly referred to as bootcamps, training workshops, and training seminars.

Why are Training Camps Valuable?

Training camps are valuable not only to the attendees, but also for the company for many reasons. For instance, training camps provide companies with the opportunity to teach attendees how to best use their products and address employees’ and customers’ questions or concerns.

Top 17 Ideas for Your Next Training Camp

1. Create a Theme

Use an event theme to set the tone for your training camp. Event themes are an easy way to create consistency for and engage attendees. Make sure your theme is relevant and fits with your company’s vision.

2. Pick an Engaging Venue

All planners know how important choosing a venue is to an event, and training camps are no different. To promote engagement and education, choose a venue that is spacey, bright, and offers the latest technology elements.

3. Provide Networking opportunities

Allow attendees to network with each other, speakers, industry leaders, and event sponsors at your next training camp by hosting networking events. You can host networking lunches, cocktails hours, or breakout sessions.

4. Offer Certifications

Whether you’re hosting a training camp for your employees or your customers, certifications are an effective way to motivate and educate attendees. Certifications give attendees proof that they have gained a certain level of product familiarly. After certain sessions, simply encourage attendees to take your online certification exam and share their results on social media.

5. Breaks

Breaks are important for any event. They also provide an opportunity for you to engage your attendees. Whether you choose to host sponsored-snack breaks, incorporate interactive food and drink stations, like customizable coffee stations, or offer unique food choices like donut walls, integrating breaks into your training camp is a must.

6. Breakout Groups

Give attendees more of a personalized, one-on-one experience by hosting breakout group sessions. These sessions can focus on different topics and be hosted by different company leaders or industry experts. Breakout sessions give attendees the opportunity to learn more one-on-one and network with other attendees and professionals.

7. Live Demos

Since your event is a training camp, you should consider integrating live product demos into your lineup. Product demos are a great way to engage attendees and give them hands-on experience with your product where all their questions can be answered by on-site experts.

8. Host “How to Get the Most out of X Product” Workshop

Although hosting a workshop on “How to Get the Most out of X Product” sounds simple, it is an effective way to draw attendees in, while highlighting your product’s best features. This workshop is a great opportunity to specifically highlight the creative way to use your product.

9. Mobile Event App

Integrating a mobile event app into your training camp is a must. Mobile event apps can send personalized communications, like event instructions, before, during, and after your training camp directly to attendees’ phones. In addition, mobile event apps can be used for gamification purposes, generate event excitement, and so much more.

10. Give Attendees Exclusive Resources

One-of-a-kind resources, like data, case studies, and other product resources, are important to share with attendees at your next training camp event. Attendees will appreciate these resources not only because they are interesting, but also because they are difficult for attendees to obtain on their own.

11. Showcase Past Success with Case Studies

Highlight past client success stories during your training camp to demonstrate the different ways your product can be used. Real-live examples are an effective way to inspire attendees to use your products.

12. Answer FAQ’s

Before your training camp, poll attendees, via your mobile event app or registration site. Ask attendees what their most common or most burning questions are related to your product. Based on the results, you can answer the most popular questions at your event to ensure attendees get their questions answered.

13. Change Up the Training Locations

Throughout your training camp, change up the locations of sessions throughout the day. This will keep your attendees moving, awake, and engaged.

14. Record Training

To extend your event’s reach record your training camp, upload it to your website, and promote the recordings as a virtual training event. In addition, you can give attendees who attended your live training camp access to these recordings so they can go back and review sessions to further help solidify their learning.

15. Make it Hands-On

Research has shown time and time again that training events are the most successful when there is a hands-on element. To help promote attendees’ learning, incorporate some type of hands-on experience with one of your company’s products. Not only will this promote attendee education, but it also will help engage attendees.

16. Announce Something Big

At your next training camp, announce something big, like a new product, a product update, the company’s new vision, etc. Doing this will not only excite and engage attendees, but it will also create chatter around your event.

17. Offer Follow-Up Training Events

To solidify attendee’s learning and maintain the relationship you established with them, host follow-up training events, either digitally or in-person, a few months after the original event. This also allows people who were unable to attend your first event to come to this training camp.

What do you think of these 17 training camp event ideas? Which one is your favorite? Have you used any of these ideas before?