Community for Retreat or Event Hosting

Retreat or Event Hosting

When recreation businesses are remote, they are run largely by resident staff. These often function as an intentional community, with the business offering housing for retreat or event hosting staff.

7

Steps to build your own retreat and event center

  1. Learn the business. You might gain related work experience and attend many events at a variety of retreat and event centers. Try to focus on one type of event so that you and the rest of the staff can get familiar and proficient in the work more quickly.
  2. Make a team. Add to your leadership team or advisory board others who have familiarity with the hospitality industry and living in intentional community. Use ICmatch.org to build up your core leadership team and other values-aligned volunteers who might start by working in exchange for room and board plus training, as your group levels up. Make sure you have plenty of extroverts on staff who will welcome the constant inflow of new guests.
  3. Plan it. Create your business plan. You’ll need this for loans, and it will help your team coordinate.
  4. Fund it. To be eligible for grants, you might team up with non-profits who need fundraising event hosting or their own team-building retreats. You host also free or discounted retreats for grant-supported projects or populations. Identify disadvantaged groups you care about and could include in the client base and on your staff as part of your residential community. One of your team members joining the board of a local nonprofit with a joint goal could help coordinate your efforts; just be upfront about the intention.
  5. Make it legit. Obtain the professional certifications, permits, licenses, and insurance you need for the hospitality industry.
  6. Iterate. Don’t wear out your group by taking on too large of events too soon, unless you pair your group members with professional catering staff and event management staff who they can work alongside and learn from.
  7. Market it. Online marketing includes creating an informative website, social media accounts, and postings on related forums. Local community involvement is sometimes overlooked as an important way to spread the word. You want locals to know you are contributing to your area. Especially in rural areas, you can gain support and help the local economy by hiring locals as extra help for large events. Promote your business with brochures in related businesses and ads in related publications.

Examples

Sahale Retreat Center: run by the Goodenough Community in Washington State, their large rural grounds are ideal for weddings, though they also host and develop educational events

Pumpkin Hollow Retreat Center: run by a theosophical community in New York state, they host workshops and retreats

Zegg Center for Experimental Cultural Design: a seminar centre that has developed and implemented practical models for a socially and ecologically sustainable way of living, integrating personal growth work

Many top retreat centers are run largely by resident staff that functions as an intentional community, even if the organization is more of a business with standard top-down governance; still there’s a lot to learn from centers that have a teaching or social change mission

Consultants for Retreat or Event Hosting

No consultant found

Members Interested in Retreat or Event Hosting

Resources

If you are looking for intentional communities that offer residents work, the page for Recreation Venture Teams & Housing also has a vocation focus.