Never Book Boring Again: Meet Something Different

Another team away day? Another escape room? Another afternoon in a hotel conference room with a flipchart and a plate of biscuits?

There’s nothing wrong with the classics. But when you’re trying to bring people together, spark new ideas or give a team something to remember, sometimes you need to look beyond the usual suspects.

That’s why we’ve created Something Different, a new curated directory from Employee Experience Magazine, packed with team experiences you probably wouldn’t think to Google.

Think leadership development with horses, corporate beekeeping, employee choirs, drumming workshops and clowning for better communication.

Yes, clowning. And there’s plenty more where that came from.

These aren’t simply activities to fill an afternoon. They’re opportunities for teams to connect, learn, create, challenge themselves and occasionally discover talents they never knew they had.

A different kind of team experience

What happens when you take a leadership team out of the boardroom and put them in a field with a herd of horses?

Or swap the usual away day activities for a morning tending beehives, making beeswax candles and learning about the natural world?

Perhaps your team would benefit from a workshop where clowning techniques help people explore communication, confidence and collaboration. Or an afternoon where colleagues who insist they can’t sing end up making music together.

The experiences in Something Different range from playful and creative to thoughtful, challenging and strategic. Some are designed to energise a team, others to encourage reflection or build stronger working relationships.

And while many take place in person, you’ll also find virtual experiences and suppliers operating across multiple locations.

Each listing explains what the experience involves, who it’s suited to and how to book directly with the provider.

For the next time someone says, “We should do something with the team”

You know the conversation.

Someone suggests a team day. Everyone agrees it’s a good idea. Then comes the harder question: what should we actually do?

Something Different is designed to make that bit easier.

Whether you’re bringing a new leadership team together, reconnecting hybrid colleagues, planning a wellbeing initiative or celebrating the end of a challenging year, the directory helps you discover ideas you might never have considered.

You can explore experiences by category, location and whether they’re available in person or virtually.

From Animals and Arts & Making to Food & Drink, Leadership Retreats and Outdoors & Nature, there’s plenty to explore. We’re also building dedicated city collections, including London, Manchester and New York, to help you find experiences closer to home.

The idea is simple: you shouldn’t need to know what you’re looking for to find something brilliant.

Small beginnings. Big ambitions.

Something Different launches in beta on 13 October 2026, and we’ll be building it throughout October and November.

We’re starting with a hand-picked collection of independent experience providers across the UK, the US and virtual, with new suppliers and location pages being added regularly.

We’re deliberately taking a curated approach. The aim isn’t to build the biggest directory on the internet. It’s to create a place where people professionals can discover genuinely interesting experiences without wading through hundreds of near-identical listings.

And because we’re launching in beta, we want to hear from the people using it. What experiences would you like to see? Which locations should we cover next? Have you discovered something your team absolutely loved?

Your ideas will help shape what comes next.

Know something we should know about?

We’re looking for the sort of experiences that make people stop scrolling and say, “Hang on, you can do THAT with a team?”

They might be creative, adventurous, restorative, challenging, strategic or completely unexpected. What matters is that they offer something worthwhile and a little out of the ordinary.

If you run an unusual experience, or you’ve booked something brilliant that deserves a wider audience, we’d love to hear about it.

Your next team day starts here

Something Different is for anyone who’s ever been handed the task of organising an away day,