Your newest corporate nightmare: ‘Bleisure’

Ever found yourself thinking, “I wish I could leave the comfort of my home to stand in a wine cave with my co-workers?”

Neither have we! But too bad — companies are pouring cash previously allotted for office rent into destination corporate conferences that offer remote employees a bevy of in-person social and experiential programming, per Vox.

Instead of yawning in an audience while onstage speakers click through slide decks, today’s conferences take you:

• Fishing microplastics out of a river in Aspen
• Paddleboarding in San Diego
• Barhopping around Lisbon

Wait, but WTF is bleisure?

Bleisure — a portmanteau of “business” and “leisure” — is the corporate world’s newest, gross-sounding buzzword.

The common practice of tacking vacation time onto business trips is catching the attention of conference organizers.

The warmer (and more fun) the destination, the more likely attendees will make a trip out of it, ultimately drawing larger crowds.

And big numbers matter…

… since the trillion-dollar business events industry took a huge hit during the pandemic. With global conference attendance at half of what it was in 2019, alluring events could be just what the industry needs.

Conferences aren’t the only corporate staple making a comeback: retreats are being resurrected, too.

Enjoy trust falls with your boss in Maui!