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3. Taking Sometime Away: VSL’s Autumn Company Offsite

Friday 13 November 2026

Last week, the VSL team headed out of London for our annual autumn offsite at Horwood House. Just a short journey from Milton Keynes station, we swapped the hustle and bustle of the city for a countryside escape.

Horwood House offers a traditional country house setting combined with a contemporary hotel design. This Grade II listed Manor House features 159 bedrooms, alongside an impressive variety of event spaces, facilities and beautiful outdoor surroundings.

On arrival we were warmly welcomed by the team who had put together a lovely spread of bubbles and delicious charcuterie for us to enjoy. It was a great opportunity to catch up and hear more about the property, before heading off on a full site visit. 

The venue offers a great variety of flexible event spaces - from intimate boardrooms to a 270-delegate conference, alongside beautiful outdoor grounds. The hotel also boasts a fully equipped spa and gym, making it a solid option for those looking to combine business with a little downtime. You can find more details about the hotel here. 

Following our venue tour, we settled into our rooms and had some time to enjoy the hotel and its facilities before heading out for dinner with the rest of the VSL team. The opportunity to step away from the usual routine, catch up properly and enjoy a change of scenery was a real treat for the team, especially at this time of year before we head into “silly season”. We headed to a local Italian restaurant which is one of our owners, Sam and Dommie's favourites, for a lovely evening of good food and great company.

The following morning we were treated to a wonderful spread for breakfast, this time in the hotel's beautifully renovated Manor Library. Tucked away at the far end of the Manor House and with original windows, a striking stone fireplace and views stretching down the impressive driveway. Our breakfast certainly got the day off to a good start.

With breakfast finished it was time to pack up and head to our next destination. We piled into a taxi and made our way to a nearby village, arriving at the infamous Gill household - the family home of our owners. We were welcomed by a roaring log burner fire, three very friendly dogs and the horses grazing in the neighbouring field. Needless to say, it was quite the change of scenery from our usual London Bridge office!

After making ourselves a cup of tea and getting settled, we kicked off the morning session of our company offsite. The first session was dedicated to business updates, looking back at everything the team has achieved so far across sales and marketing, reviewing the latest figures, statistics and reports and discussing how the business is progressing against our goals. We also spent time looking ahead, sharing our ambitions for the future and where we hope to be if we continue on the positive trajectory we're currently on.

It's always valuable to bring everyone together in a different environment, creating the space for open conversations, feedback and fresh perspectives. Away from the usual day-to-day distractions, it's much easier to take a step back, reflect on what's working well and consider where there might be opportunities to do things differently.

When lunchtime rolled around, the team quite literally divided and conquered! A few stayed behind to get lunch organised, whilst the rest of the bunch took the dogs out for a lovely countryside walk. 

The afternoon session followed with updates on our chosen charity, Akwaaba Volunteers and a discussion around our fundraising plans on how we can continue to support the charity. We also opened the floor to new ideas and suggestions from the team, before looking at the rollout of our new AI proposal generator. 

With the final discussions wrapped up, it was time to say our goodbyes, head back to Milton Keynes and make the short train journey back to Euston.

All in all, our Horwood X Gill House offsite was a wonderful couple of days and a great reminder of just how valuable it is to take time out together. Whilst we're always busy sourcing venues for clients, it's equally important to pause, reflect and invest in the team behind it all.

We pride ourselves on our London venue knowledge and our understanding of our clients' needs and the relationships we build with venues along the way. Days like these give us the chance to reflect on what we've achieved and get excited about what's still to come!

A huge thank you to the team at Horwood House for such a lovely welcome and to Sam and Dommie for hosting “the gang”. A successful offsite, plenty of good food, some fresh country air and lots to take away; we couldn't have asked for much more!