7 Ways to Design a Modern Engaging Retreat
What do you think of when you hear “corporate retreat?” Here are a few elements that immediately come to my mind:
Hotel conference rooms with ugly carpet
Small group trust circles
Days upon days of boring speakers
Gross boxed lunch or buffet food
Too many drinks and late nights
Going home feeling depleted
While this may not be the case for all corporate retreats, we have a long way to go to improve the retreat space. There seems to be a gap between the camp retreat, the church retreat, and the hotel conference room corporate retreat. What about the luxury, half work-half play good food & chill retreat experience? (Hint: That’s where we come into play!)
When most people contact me in hopes of planning their next retreat, the first question I ask is, “how do you want your guests to feel when they leave this retreat?” Usually, the answers are along the lines of, “rejuvenated, inspired, reignited, connected, at peace, rested.”
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could reimagine the retreat experience so people could truly feel these results at the end of their retreat time?
The good news is, that we CAN reimagine the retreat experience. It’s our goal to make sure you and your team aren’t retreating to a dingy hotel conference room. Here are 7 ideas for designing a modern, engaging retreat experience.
DETERMINE YOUR END RESULt
Before you begin planning any other aspect, ask yourself HOW you want your guests to feel when they leave your retreat experience. Then, use that as a filter for all of your planning decisions. If one of the results you want your guests to feel is re-energized you need to provide a space, activities, and enough downtime for them to obtain this result. If you’re planning dinners with drinks and dancing every night after a full day of speakers, your guests are likely going to go home feeling very depleted.
SELECT A UNIQUE VENUE
When it comes to planning your retreat, selecting the venue can be one of the most, if not the most important component. Think about some of your past retreat or travel experiences - which bring back the best memories? Likely it’s the unique Airbnb you stayed in during your girls’ trip to Oregon with the river running through the back, or the boutique hotel you stayed at in Stillwater for your last team planning session.
SKIP THE BUFFET FOOD
One of the ways we can nourish and fuel our bodies is by filling them with good, healthy food. When planning your food experience, consider a farm-to-table approach. Depending on the size of the group, you could bring in a personal chef or caterer who specializes in using farm-to-table food and creating fresh recipes to nourish guests. This doesn’t mean your food needs to be fancy with unknown hard-to-pronounce ingredients. However, you can help serve your guests by providing them with food to nourish their bodies.
GET OUTSIDE
Spending time in nature is healing. Breathing the fresh air, feeling the sun on your face, experiencing all of your senses - it is good for the soul. When I’m planning a retreat, I always aim to incorporate at least one element that takes place outdoors. Whether it is a group hike, yoga on the lawn, snow-shoeing, canoeing, or a simple walk around the property, your team will have different conversations, connections, and mindset shifts when they’re experiencing the outdoors.
SWITCH UP YOUR SPACES
Nobody wants to sit in one, stationary place all day. It’s important when you’re planning the flow of your retreat to vary the spaces where each event takes place. For instance, consider doing yoga outdoors on the lawn, find a place in the venue where you can host a large tablescape dinner, have your presentations in a large more classroom-style space, and your breakout groups varied throughout the property.
MOVE YOUR BODy
Repeating what I said above, nobody wants to sit in one, stationary place all day. Moving your body is so important when it comes to nourishing your body, mind, and soul. Whether it is simple yoga, a hike, a group run, or a HIIT class (or potentially a variety of options).
CREATE A BALANCE OF WORK AND PLAY
One of the main reasons to host a work retreat is to get your team out of the office to connect with each other. This means you will need to talk about other things besides work. You will want to be sure to incorporate time in your itinerary for work, and other times for play (e.g. movement, fun meals, creative workshops, etc.). When structuring your work time, be sure it is pointed, inspiring, interactive, and visionary. If you are bringing in speakers, make sure their topics are relevant and their session is timed. Consider bringing in a life or business coach to guide an interactive session with your team. This is almost always the most effective way to see bigger results in your team. Coaches are willing to work with you on your retreat and business goals, to create interactive sessions resulting in change.
BONUS: BE MINDFUL OF THE FLOW
When you’re planning the itinerary, be mindful of the flow of energy throughout the day(s). I like to be sure there is room for movement and quiet, introspection, creativity, energizing, digging deep, connecting with each other, learning, and light-hearted fun. It’s important to be mindful of how you structure the itinerary to avoid boredom or burnout.
There are so many ways you can modernize your business retreat to make it inspiring and engaging for your team, and these are just a few ways you can do that.
If you think you’d like help planning your next team retreat or goal-planning session, I’d love to help you! You can schedule a free, 30-minute consultation where we will discuss your retreat vision and goals & then the fun part - start the planning!