When OpenTable's product team needed somewhere in Toronto to bring 60 people together for a full-day offsite, their own office wasn't an option. They booked StartWell on King West instead — and their group product manager, Bristol Lewis, sat down with us afterwards to talk about how the day went.
Below is the story of the day: why they went offsite, how the space was set up for a mixed agenda of presentations and breakouts, and what Bristol would tell any team planning a corporate offsite in Toronto.
Why OpenTable needed an offsite venue in Toronto
OpenTable has an office that could technically hold the group, but it's a working office — people are at their desks every day. Hosting 60 people for a full-day session on a regular workday simply wasn't possible there.
"We're not able to hold an event with 60 people during regular working days. So we needed to find an offsite venue that could accommodate us." — Bristol Lewis, Group Product Manager, OpenTable
It's a common problem for distributed teams. Bristol is based in Washington, DC, and like many group leads she was planning the day from out of town. The brief was simple: a venue big enough for 60, flexible enough for a mixed agenda, and easy to book without weeks of email.
What she didn't expect was how much the change of scenery itself would matter. Long offsites drain energy, and simply walking into a different environment gave the team a lift from the first minute.
One venue, two zones: presentations and a casual dining area
OpenTable's agenda wasn't a straight run of slides. It mixed full-group presentations with team breakouts, meals and share-outs — so the space had to shift with it.
StartWell set the day up in two connected zones:
- A presentation space with theatre-style audience seating, a stage and full AV, for the sessions where the whole group sat together.
- A separate, more casual space for food and meals, where people could grab a coffee, reset and talk between sessions.
"It was really nice to be able to pop over to the presentation space and get the full plug-and-play experience with AV."
That split is what makes a single-day offsite work for a group of 60. People aren't eating lunch in the same chairs they've sat in all morning, and the room never has to be torn down and rebuilt mid-agenda.
A meeting space that doesn't feel corporate
Bristol describes her team as close — relaxed enough to joke with each other, ambitious enough to keep pushing what OpenTable can do for restaurants. The day's focus was future ideas and innovation, so the room needed to encourage that.
"There's plenty of corporate spaces that feel a little bit sterile and scary. So it's really great when we have a space like this where people can feel really comfortable, grab a coffee, chat, and then probably bring better ideas forward."
Her conclusion was simple: the space matched OpenTable's culture. For teams choosing between a hotel ballroom and something with more character, that's the trade-off worth weighing — comfort and creative energy, without giving up professional AV.
Instant booking, real people, and your choice of catering
For Bristol, the experience started well before the day itself. The StartWell website made the offering clear, and instant booking showed availability and pricing upfront — no quote requests, no waiting.
"When you're choosing an event space, there could be lots of back and forth and email. We just really appreciated being able to hop on a call and get your honest opinions on what would work best for us."
A few things stood out:
- Transparent pricing and availability online, before any conversation.
- Bring your own catering. OpenTable chose their own food, with honest advice from StartWell on what bringing food in would look like.
- Local recommendations, including StartWell's video guides to places nearby on King West.
- A real human on the phone. Bristol drew the parallel to OpenTable's own model: in a tech-forward world, genuine human support is hard to find, and it's what they pride themselves on for restaurants.
Planning a team offsite in Toronto? What OpenTable's day teaches
- Get out of the office, even if you have one. A working office rarely fits 60 people on a weekday, and a new environment resets energy on long days.
- Match the room to the agenda. If you're mixing presentations, breakouts and meals, look for separate zones rather than one room that has to do everything.
- Ask for an AV walkthrough before you start. A short session with the tech team that morning means the first presenter isn't fighting the projector.
- Put people on a stage. Breakout share-outs land differently under lights — and give you content to use afterwards.
- Pick a venue that fits your culture. Comfortable, creative spaces tend to produce better ideas than sterile conference rooms.
- Favour venues with upfront pricing and a human to call. It cuts the email back-and-forth that slows most venue searches.
