How Offsite Helped Guild Turn a Sales Kickoff into a Culture-Driving Event

Our Client

Guild is a career opportunity platform that enables forward-thinking employers to invest in the education and economic mobility of their workforce. Through partnerships with Fortune 1000 companies and a network of academic institutions, Guild provides access to tuition-free learning programs, coaching, and career advancement pathways designed to align employee growth with business outcomes. The company is a certified B-Corp and public benefit corporation, valued at approximately $4.4 billion.

Guild is one of Built In’s 100 Best Places to Work in 2025 and is recognized in Forbes’ 2024 Cloud 100 list. The company employs approximately 900 Guilders across the United States, with hiring capabilities in 32 states including Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, and Washington. While Guild operates with a flexible, distributed model, its core office in the Denver Metropolitan area offers a central hub for in-person connection throughout the year.

A Local Approach to Scaled Events

Though based in Denver, Guild’s team spans the country, making this sales kickoff both a logistical endeavor and an opportunity to re-ground the company in its home city. Planning for 160 attendees across multiple sites required careful orchestration—particularly in booking accommodations, managing off-site transitions, and creating shared spaces that fostered organic interaction. Guild worked closely with Offsite to develop a coherent event structure that was logistically sound without sacrificing personality.

By using Offsite’s planning platform, Guild was able to identify venues that matched their needs and values, including a hotel just two blocks from their headquarters that offered comfort, accessibility, and a touch of local flair. Offsite’s familiarity with event logistics—such as coordinating multiple vendors, navigating venue policies, and preparing day-of timelines—allowed Guild’s internal team to stay focused on content and team outcomes. The result was an event that felt both large in scope and personal in tone, rooted in Guild’s own geography but executed with the polish of a national-scale gathering.

Elevating Connection Through Design

While most corporate offsites aim to inform and align, Guild’s sales kickoff placed equal value on elements that spark connection. From the timing of informal moments to the inclusion of trusted local vendors, each component was developed to encourage conversation, visibility, and cohesion. The choice to include a variety of local vendors—such as Catering By Design, Olive and Finch, and Colorado Party Rentals—helped reinforce the character of the city while also creating moments of surprise and delight for attendees.

These thoughtful details gave participants a sense of place and purpose. Whether gathering for a shared meal, exploring the city in small groups, or attending an evening event with live music, attendees experienced thoughtful touches that reflected care and intention. These elements, though modest individually, compounded into a cohesive experience that underscored Guild’s values and amplified the impact of its messages. With Offsite managing the behind-the-scenes logistics, Guild was free to focus on what mattered most—connection, celebration, and forward momentum.

Creating Space for Belonging and Shared Identity

More than just a strategic reset, Guild’s sales kickoff provided space for employees to reconnect with the company’s purpose—and with one another. For a team spread across over 30 states, opportunities to engage in person are rare and meaningful. This gathering was structured to invite openness, celebrate contributions, and reinforce shared values in a tangible, grounded way. From casual side conversations to moments of recognition during main sessions, the event was designed not only to communicate priorities but to cultivate belonging.

In this context, the Denver setting played a vital role. By anchoring the experience in their home city, Guild allowed its team to engage with the organization's roots while also building new layers of identity and cohesion. With Offsite supporting the logistical complexity, the team could focus on what mattered most—deepening trust, reinforcing culture, and ensuring every participant felt seen and valued.

Setting a Standard for Future Events

Guild’s 2024 sales kickoff successfully brought together people, ideas, and place in a way that was both meaningful and efficient. The ability to execute an event of this scale in their home city—with coordination support that respected both vision and detail—provided a framework Guild can build on moving forward. The blend of on-site programming and off-site cultural moments created an experience that resonated across roles and regions, affirming the value of in-person connection in a hybrid and geographically distributed organization.

The lessons and successes of this offsite event will inform how Guild continues to bring teams together across its growing footprint. As Guild continues to grow and evolve, its approach to bringing teams together—with purposeful, locally grounded events supported by partners like Offsite—sets a strong example for how internal gatherings can create lasting impact beyond just smooth execution.