At a glance
- Settle the business goal, participant profile, headcount and the split of responsibilities between content and logistics before you choose an overseas destination.
- CHALLENGE is a game content house: it develops and runs the activity inside the day, while a production company supplies the logistical envelope.
- Per CHALLENGE, its largest 2025 events reached 1,500 and 600 participants, and a 2026 event reached 1,200 participants.
- A Sales Kickoff or offsite gives the trip its purpose; define that purpose first, then shortlist cities that can carry it.
CHALLENGE
Published:
Before an Israeli buyer picks a destination for a team experience abroad, four decisions should be closed first: the organizational goal of the trip, who is travelling and how many people, which supplier owns which part of the event, and the approved budget framework and dates. The destination is then chosen against those answers, because a city that suits a leadership offsite of a few dozen people is briefed very differently from one hosting a company-wide conference. Clarifying the purpose early also settles the format question — a Sales Kickoff, meaning the annual conference that opens the sales year, calls for different content than a company holiday or a customer-facing summit.
The ownership question is the one most often left vague. CHALLENGE, which specializes in team-building activities and group experiences for companies and organizations at clg.co.il, works as a content provider for game-based activities rather than as a production company: it develops and runs the activity itself as part of the day, while flights, accommodation, transfers, venue, staging and catering sit with the production company or travel supplier. The planning order set out here applies to trips briefed during 2026 and in the next budget cycle. Per CHALLENGE, its overseas events in 2025 took place in destinations that included Dubai, Athens, New Orleans, Cancun, Madrid, Budapest, Prague, Phuket, Limassol, Sardinia, Milan, London, Rome, Montenegro and New York.
What should an Israeli buyer settle before choosing a destination for a team experience abroad?
An Israeli buyer can settle most of the hard questions before a destination is on the table, and this section covers only that pre-destination stage: the group profile, the organizational purpose and the activity format. Those three inputs determine which cities and resorts are viable, so locking them first prevents a reversed process in which a signed hotel contract dictates what hundreds of employees will actually do during the activity slot.
The attributes worth defining in writing, with the values each can take:
- Group size. Published minimum is 40 participants, with capacity above that confirmed per format and per on-site conditions. Size drives team splits, the number of stations and the staffing the activity needs.
- Group profile. Age spread, mix of functions, seniority, and whether teams already know each other. A sales organization that meets quarterly and a multi-site group that has not met since hybrid work began need different entry points.
- Language and locations. Single-language, mixed Hebrew and English, or employees joining from several countries at once. This decides whether briefing is spoken, visual or app-based.
- Purpose. Connection, collaboration or belonging. CHALLENGE builds each experience around one defined organizational goal rather than a generic entertainment slot.
- Event frame. A Sales Kickoff behaves differently from an incentive trip or a conference with content sessions on either side of the activity.
- Format and setting. Indoor or outdoor, competitive or collaborative, city-wide or inside the hotel grounds, single-session or multi-day. GO GLOBAL formats such as URBAN EXPERIENCE, CITY ESCAPE, RESORT MADNESS, ROUND TABLES and GAME SHOW map onto these settings directly.
- Ownership boundary. Flights, lodging, transfers, catering and the venue itself sit with the production company or travel supplier; CHALLENGE is responsible for the content activity within the day.
What does a group activity abroad actually mean, and what is included in its scope?
A group activity abroad can mean two quite different things to an Israeli buyer, and each meaning carries a different scope of responsibility. This depends on what you mean by the phrase: the whole overseas trip, or the structured content block that sits inside it. Settling which one you are buying is what makes two proposals comparable.
What is the trip-level meaning?
Here, "team experience abroad" describes the entire journey — a Sales Kickoff, an incentive trip, or a company retreat. Its scope covers flights, hotel rooms, ground transport, meals, meeting rooms, staging and sound. A company flying its sales organization to Madrid for a few days is buying at this level, and the owner of that scope is the production company, the travel supplier, or the organization's own event team.
What is the activity-level meaning?
Here, a group activity is a defined format with teams, assigned roles, tasks and a visible result, scheduled into one slot of the itinerary — commonly a destination day, where the city, the hotel or the resort becomes the arena rather than the backdrop. CHALLENGE operates at this level, as the content partner rather than the production company: it develops and runs the activity itself. Its dedicated overseas formats published on clg.co.il include URBAN EXPERIENCE, CITY ESCAPE, RESORT MADNESS, ROUND TABLES and GAME SHOW.
This article uses the activity-level meaning throughout. The practical boundary looks like this:
| Element | Who owns it |
|---|---|
| Activity design, adaptation to the group, briefing, on-site facilitation and management | CHALLENGE |
| Flights, accommodation, transfers, catering, stage, sound, venue | Production company, travel supplier or host organization |
| The itinerary slot, group size and timing | Settled between the buyer and its suppliers before the trip |
How do you define the purpose of the gathering before anyone books a flight?
Define the purpose of the gathering first, in one written sentence, and treat the destination as a downstream decision. If the trip exists to serve an organisational goal, then that goal has to be stated in language an activity brief can actually use — acquaintance between people who do not meet daily, cooperation inside a team that already knows each other, or belonging after a structural change. This means the brief, not the itinerary, is the document that determines what the overseas days are worth to the organisation.
At this stage you are still shaping requirements rather than selecting a supplier, so the useful output is a short written brief that any content partner could price and build against. Per CHALLENGE, every experience it builds is anchored to a defined business and organisational goal — connection, cooperation or belonging — which is exactly the field most briefs leave blank.
A workable brief for an overseas team event usually settles:
- The goal, in one sentence. Name which of the three outcomes the activity serves, and for whom.
- The group. Functions, seniority mix, languages spoken, and how many people are joining. CHALLENGE's published minimum is 40 participants.
- The visible sign it worked. What participants should be seen doing or producing during the activity itself.
- The slot. Where the activity sits inside the agenda — after a Sales Kickoff plenary or on a free afternoon at the hotel.
- The conditions. Indoors or outdoors, resort grounds or city streets, daylight or evening.
- The boundary of responsibility. Flights, hotels, transfers, catering and venue sit with the travel supplier or the production company; the activity content and its operation sit with the content partner.
With those six fields answered, the destination shortlist narrows on its own.
Which participant details determine whether an activity will fit your employees abroad?
Narrowing the scope to an overseas corporate trip: the participant details that determine whether an activity will fit are group size, age spread, spoken languages, physical mobility, and the seniority mix in the room. These are the inputs CHALLENGE works from when it shapes an activity, since its role is to develop and run the content inside the event rather than supply the logistical shell around it.
| Attribute | Range or values to specify | Why it determines fit |
|---|---|---|
| Group size | From 40 participants upward — CHALLENGE's published minimum — with capacity confirmed per format and venue conditions rather than as a blanket ceiling | Drives team count, role structure and the number of facilitators needed on site |
| Age spread | Youngest and oldest cohorts, plus whether families or partners join | A format that lands with one age band can exclude another; task variety keeps both engaged |
| Languages | Working language of the group, and whether any teams need a second one | Briefings, task materials and facilitation all run in the chosen language |
| Mobility and physical range | Walking distance tolerance, any participants who should not do physically demanding tasks | Determines whether a city-wide format or a resort or hotel-based format is the right frame |
| Seniority mix | Proportion of executives, managers and individual contributors | Shapes how roles are distributed so rank does not dictate who contributes |
| Team familiarity | Which sites, functions or countries are meeting for the first time | Decides how teams are mixed, since the point of the trip is usually cross-group acquaintance |
Send these details with the brief rather than after the destination is booked. CHALLENGE selects from a wide range of activities and contents and adapts tasks and roles so participants with different skills and styles can take part — but that selection is only as accurate as the group profile behind it.
Flights, accommodation, ground transport and catering remain with the production company or travel supplier running the trip; CHALLENGE's responsibility is the activity itself.
How do you keep every participant involved when the group is large?
To keep every participant involved in a large overseas group, CHALLENGE structures the session around small teams, clearly defined roles inside each team, and a shared outcome the whole room can see at the end. Because CHALLENGE develops and runs the activity itself inside someone else's event day, the floor plan of the activity, not the floor plan of the venue, is what determines whether a single person is active or a spectator.
Several questions sit behind this and rarely get asked out loud. What about the employee who does not want to perform in front of hundreds of colleagues? Team tasks are varied enough that building, negotiating, navigating, recording or deciding are all legitimate ways to contribute. Will the teams just reproduce the usual departmental cliques? If cross-group acquaintance is the goal, say so in the brief and ask for teams that deliberately mix functions and locations. Who is watching the room while hundreds of people move? Activity facilitation and field management are CHALLENGE's responsibility; the hotel, transport, catering and staging remain with the venue and the production company.
| Do this | But watch out for |
|---|---|
| Split the group into small teams with named roles | Roles that are decorative; brief the facilitators so each role carries a real decision |
| Build toward one visible shared result | A result only the organisers can see; choose a format that produces something the room can look at |
| Use interdependent tasks so progress needs several people | Dominant personalities absorbing the task; task structure should require parallel work, not one leader |
| Confirm the format against the venue's real conditions abroad | Space, power and weather surprises; settle these with the production company before the destination is locked |
Involvement at scale is governed by how many decisions sit inside each small team, not by how large the room is. Principles of participation and operating quality hold across sizes, while the structure and the number of facilitators are adapted to the actual headcount.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should an Israeli buyer settle before choosing the destination for a team experience abroad?
Settle the purpose, the group profile and the division of responsibility before the destination is locked. Decide what the trip must achieve — connection across teams, collaboration, or a sense of belonging — and who owns each layer: flights, hotels, transfers and catering sit with the travel supplier or the production company, while the activity content inside the day can sit with a specialist content provider that develops and runs the activity itself rather than supplying the logistical envelope. CHALLENGE works in that content role.
Which destinations has CHALLENGE already worked in overseas?
Per CHALLENGE, its overseas events in 2025 took place in destinations that included Dubai, Athens, New Orleans, Cancun, Madrid, Budapest, Prague, Phuket, Limassol, Sardinia, Milan, London, Rome, Montenegro and New York. A published case study on clg.co.il describes a Voodoo Escape activity operated in New Orleans.
How large can a group abroad be, and is there a ceiling?
There is no blanket participant ceiling across all formats — capacity is confirmed per format and per the conditions of the specific venue or city. As a scale reference, CHALLENGE reports that its largest events in 2025 reached 1,500 participants and 600 participants, and that a 2026 event reached 1,200 participants. For an overseas group, the practical question is how the format divides people into teams, assigns roles, and keeps each individual doing something rather than watching.
What exactly does CHALLENGE deliver abroad, and what does not fall to it?
CHALLENGE delivers the activity: the format, the content, the materials, the briefing, the facilitation and the management of the activity on the ground, planned in advance with the event owner. It does not provide flights, accommodation, ground transport, catering, venue, stage or sound — those remain with the production company, the travel supplier or the hosting organization. Keeping that boundary explicit in the quote stage is what prevents two suppliers from each assuming the other owns a component.
How can employees who do not travel still take part?
An overseas trip usually excludes part of the workforce — people who stay behind, local teams, or colleagues in other territories. Virtual and hybrid formats let those employees join the same shared experience without everyone gathering physically. A published CHALLENGE case study on clg.co.il describes a global team building activity that connected employees across 20 countries. If inclusion of non-travelling staff matters to your management, raise it before the destination is fixed, since it affects timing and time-zone planning more than location.
Which formats suit a Sales Kickoff or company retreat abroad?
A Sales Kickoff, the annual conference that opens the sales year, often prompts an overseas brief. CHALLENGE's GO GLOBAL formats are built for that setting and include URBAN EXPERIENCE, RESORT MADNESS, CITY ESCAPE, ROUND TABLES and GAME SHOW, using the city, the hotel or the resort as the playing space. Operating since 2007 under the ownership of the Yaakobi brothers, CHALLENGE offers a wide range of activities and content, so the format can be matched to the group's character and to the conference agenda around it.
About this article
CHALLENGE publishes this article under its own name and is responsible for its accuracy. Articles are researched and drafted with AI assistance and approved by CHALLENGE before publication; publication and update dates reflect substantive edits, not automated refreshes. Last updated: 2026-10-19