Working retreat or celebration
Decide which this is. A working retreat has a problem to solve, long mornings, and one afternoon that clears the head. A celebration marks a year or a result and is mostly dinners and the day out. The venues overlap; the agendas do not, and a retreat that pretends to be both does neither. Most leadership retreats we see are the first kind with one evening of the second.
Where leadership teams stay and think
Lake Austin · Thirty minutes · 6 to 15
Lake Austin Spa Resort
Small, adults-only, on the water, with meeting space and a spa that leadership teams use as the afternoon reset. The right place for a team that needs to think and would rather not be seen doing it.
Dripping Springs to Fredericksburg · 45 to 90 minutes · 6 to 14
A Hill Country ranch rental
A private ranch house with a long table, a porch, a kitchen for a chef, and nothing within a mile. The most private option there is, and the most flexible: the agenda runs on the team's clock. Hire the chef; do not let the CFO cook.
Lake Travis · Forty minutes · 6 to 12
Miraval Austin
A wellness resort with meeting rooms and programmed activities, for a retreat whose theme is a reset rather than a result. Intimate; confirm group size early.
Fredericksburg · Ninety minutes · 6 to 16
A Fredericksburg inn, taken over
Fredericksburg's boutique inns and guesthouses can be reserved whole by a small group: a courtyard, a breakfast room for the morning session, Main Street for the evening, and the 290 estates twenty minutes away for the afternoon out.
Highland Lakes or West Austin · 20 to 60 minutes · 8 to 15
Horseshoe Bay Resort or Omni Barton Creek
For a leadership team that wants a full-service resort, golf and a boardroom with proper AV, the two Austin standards. Less private than a ranch, more practical for people flying in.
Johnson City · An hour · 8 to 16
Carter Creek Winery Resort
Rooms, a spa and meeting space on a working winery along 290. For a leadership retreat that wants to be in wine country without moving, and a short drive from the best small tasting rooms in Texas.
The afternoon out
This is the half of the retreat that earns the other half. For a leadership team it should be private, unhurried, and genuinely interesting to adults who have seen a lot: not a tour, but an afternoon. In the Hill Country that is a private wine day for the group alone: one Sprinter from the retreat's door, three wineries with seated tastings led by the people who made the wine, a long lunch, and a terrace at golden hour where the conversation finishes whatever the morning started.
- One vehicle, one driver, one host. The group never splits and never waits.
- Seated tastings led by winemakers or owners: William Chris in Hye, Kuhlman in Stonewall, Fall Creek at Driftwood, Solaro in Dripping Springs.
- A long lunch, ordered for the table, somewhere with a view.
- No agenda after two. The best decisions of the retreat get made on the last patio.
- A case of the wine they liked in the van, and a bottle for each of them at the end.
A two-day template
| Day one | Day two | |
|---|---|---|
| Morning | Arrive by ten. Session one, the problem framed. Lunch in. | Session three, decisions. The best one of the retreat. |
| Afternoon | Session two, the hard part. Break at four. | Sprinter at the door at one. Three wineries, seated tastings, a terrace at golden hour. |
| Evening | A long dinner on the property, no agenda, a good list. | Dinner in town or at the last winery. Home the next morning, or that night. |
What to decide early
- The problem the retreat is for, in one sentence, agreed by the CEO before the venue is booked.
- Who is in the room, and who is not. Smaller is better; twelve is a lot.
- A facilitator or a chair who is not the CEO, so the CEO can participate.
- Phones. A rule, stated once, kept by the most senior person first.
- Dietary and travel needs for every attendee, gathered by an assistant, not a survey.
- The afternoon out, planned as carefully as the sessions and booked at the same time.
- Transportation for the whole retreat, so nobody in a leadership team is ever behind the wheel after a tasting.
Austin Wine Car
The second afternoon, handled
Tell us where the team is staying and how many are coming. We will build a private day around them and be at the door at one.