RETREAT vs. Conference

#Ep 38 - Retreat Vs. Conference (EDITED)

Tue, Feb 13, 2024 7: 23AM • 17:22

Tue, Feb 13, 2024 7: SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Tue, Feb 13, 2024 7: retreat, people, space, conference, day, running, beautiful, gold coast, venue, emma, host, program, hold, group, dream, connection, lovely, experience, event, life

00: 01

00: Do you want to live a life of freedom and adventure? Are you wanting more than the daily grind? Me too. Welcome to the Emma Lovell show, a place where we talk about living a life you love. Now, I'm your host, Emma Lovell, and my number one value is freedom. I've spent the last 14 years running a business and traveling the world. And now I take my husband and toddler along for the adventure to it's possible and I know you can create a life doing what you truly love as well. This podcast will inspire, motivate and encourage you to go after your dreams to create a life you love until you get now don't wait for a time and or someday in the future. I'll be sharing episodes weekly about how I harmonize business travel and self care. I'll also bring on incredible guests to share their journeys, the wins the challenges, and how they're creating a life they love. Let's jump in and get dreaming. This is a space for you to manifest a life you love.

01: 03

01: I would like to acknowledge and recognize Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first peoples of this place now known as Australia. I am grateful for the continuing care of the land waterways and skies where I work live, listen, learn and play. From here on you can bear country and from wherever you are listening, I pay my respects to the elders past and present.

01: 25

01: Hello, and welcome to the podcast. Today I am getting back to super short, quick ones. And this topic has been coming up for a little while. So I wanted to make sure I covered it. And that is retreat vers conference. So the word retreat is getting bandied about a lot. And people are talking about retreats a lot, let alone me. It's definitely a theme for 2024. And something that people are trying to include more. However, I think there needs to be a some clarification on what a retreat is, and a definition of a retreat. Because it can mean many things it can be can be two very different types. But a retreat is not a conference. And a conference is not a retreat. And I might ruffle some feathers with this. But I that's what I feel very strongly about. I'm also just going to disclaimer that I'm actually in India right now on a retreat. So I'm recording this in my hotel room, and there is quite a lot of noise even early in the morning.

02: 34

02: Just marble floors, the noise carries. So if you hear things, it could well be that. That's why I will also make it a short one. So to me, a retreat is about having an intimate group experience where you allow your clients to go away from the day to day to

02: 57

02: retreat to escape the day to day, in a wonderful location, like minded people, and have a transformative experience. It's very much about the vibe that you're setting the intention that you're setting. And the space that you're holding retreats are ultimately a space you hold. Sometimes these retreats you don't have to go very far, I've been to retreats that have been just 30 minutes away or an hour away. But I felt miles away. I've been to retreats that have been half a day, one day, three days, five days, 10 days, I did a silent meditation, which is kind of like the ultimate retreat.

03: 41

03: But you know, but not the luxurious retreats and sort of glam style that I tend to, I tend to run now very basic, but very, very powerful and transformative. So I'll do totally do another episode all about Vipassana, which is the 10 day silent meditation and, and a retreat, you know, in itself. But

04: 03

04: what then is a conference, a conference is a gathering of people with a program, again tends to be in a lovely location tends to be bringing people together for like minded thing, but also tends to be a biggest size. And I think the real difference is in the programming, and the way that you run the days and the time that you spend with people.

04: 29

04: And when you have 50 to 100 people and you have a program and you have speakers and you have multiple things going on, like don't think that you can have that intimacy and connection that's required for a retreat.

04: 45

04: And now I had a very clear case study, this colleague came to me and was telling me about the retreat that she was running. She was telling me about all the work that was involved. It's in a beautiful location take like minded people there for a reason.

05: 00

05: and take, they got 50 people.

05: 04

05: And then they had their few day program and the agenda. And she was telling me sort of about the involvement, the costs, the dealing with the hotels, the dealing with the guests. And they hadn't had it yet. But, you know, just in terms of the way they were going to run it, and I just looked at her, I said, that's a conference, this is not a retreat.

05: 30

05: And, you know, without being, um, it wasn't trying to be critical or rude, but I just said, no wonder it's been such a big job for you, it's a conference,

05: 39

05: I don't think the retreats that I run have not been that volume of organization or coordination, they take some but not that much.

05: 49

05: I don't think the holding of space is going to be challenging in that sort of environment. And, you know, it's, it's really hard to then gauge the transformation that each person's going to have. It's just a different experience, generally, conferences, you're going to learn, I feel like retreats, you're going to experience and you're going to feel. And so I did have someone else come to me and say, I'll funnily enough, the same colleague is running the same event this year. And I sort of said, straightaway, she said, we're running the retreat again. And then she looked at me said, it's a conference. I said, Okay. But they're still calling it a retreat, because retreat word is sexy retreat, word is attractive retreat word is engaging. And, you know, I went on another, I supported at an event last year.

06: 39

06: And it was held on the Gold Coast at the fabulous cutie, great venue, tick. It had at two nights, so people come and stay, it was bringing together a group of women from one industrial group of people that would, you know, both sexes, from one industry. And it was marketed as a retreat. However, again, it was 50 to 60 people, it was two full days, in a, in a room, in a big meeting room with an agenda from nine to five. And now there would have been connections amongst the people. But the hosts, the hosts are running the program, they're running the comp, they're running the conference, I'll call it a conference. It was a conference, but it was marketed as a retreat. It's just such a different experience.

07: 29

07: The design of it, you know, I could see people were tired, and they're trying to learn everything, they try to take everything in, who's so much content, the agenda of the program was very full, and then you had to nighttime events. But just because you put an event on in the Gold Coast, or in a beautiful location, does not there in make it a retreat. And I think you have to be really clear about your intention and what you're trying to run here.

07: 57

07: You know, I've shared a podcast called The five mistakes that retreat retreat hosts make. And I think one of the biggest ones is overloading the program, running a program, like it's a conference, running a program, like it's a workshop, where the best things and the most beautiful things on retreat is the is the space. And even here in India, where we are, you know, we did leave some space. And thank goodness, because one of the days we got caught in traffic before was we really connected in the car that day. But

08: 27

08: you know, we left space and one of the days, we only had one small thing in the morning. It allowed us then to have this day where we went with the flow. And we went and we were able to have all these experiences and all this beautiful connection with local people, with the culture with each other, have deep conversations whilst we were out there experiencing so it doesn't mean you have to retreat doesn't mean you have to be fixed in the one spot. You can do activities together. But it has to be something that gets you in flow, it gets you connecting to yourself, it gets you to switch off from the day to day. And when you're having this program where it's all learning and education and teaching and lecturing.

09: 08

09: You can't

09: 11

09: interact, you can't. You can't have that time to have your own transformation really, and your own. Sometimes it's in the space. It's in those spaces in between where the magic happens.

09: 24

09: Hello, my name is Kay toon, and I'm the founder of stay tuned a collection of digital education companies. I've had the pleasure of working with Emma Lovell on a number of different occasions. Not only will she emcee at my imperson book launch event, she also helped me out on the virtual launch too. I've enjoyed photoshoots with her and Jade and she's an excellent speaker and presenter. I chose Emma because she is just so full of beans. She brings life energy and enjoyment to wherever and whatever she does, so yep, she's highly recommended.

09: 59

09: So I do

10: 00

10: Have someone and for me Look, I think a retreat is I don't want to run a retreat over 20 people, I have had many experiences of being a tour manager. It's a different type of thing where I take people to places like Nepal to trek to Everest base camp, cycling through Cambodia, trekking in Vietnam, trekking to Machu Picchu, trekking in Bhutan, cycling through Cambodia and Vietnam on the one trip, I've had groups of anywhere from eight to 32. And I can tell you that at the upper limits getting towards 20, that's a good size 18 is kind of good. But the magic, the magic number I've found is 1212 is a lovely group size. That's for me, I did have a group of 32, I cycled through Vietnam with a group of women, a Dutch women, 32 women, I had an assistant, we had charity reps, we had team trying to coordinate all of that. And obviously, we were doing something more intensive cycling, but trying to make that connection, and bring the group together and have that cohesiveness, it was a lot harder over 20, which is why the company generally kept it at 20.

11: 13

11: And I follow that on especially if you're going to take people outside of Australia, I think that's really kind of your limit of space holding, you can bring in an assistant, but as the retreat hosted is your role to keep everyone together. And to keep that space.

11: 31

11: I did have someone who I know who runs retreats three or four a year, who challenged me on that she said she's had retreats for 32 people. And she was able to the way that she did the program, she was able to hold the space and and it was very much in a retreat, in terms of its vibe.

11: 50

11: And I think that's great. And if you really feel that you can hold the space, if you've got a program that works. If you can give people that, that time and that

12: 01

12: intimacy,

12: 03

12: that connection together and time with you.

12: 08

12: You know timing your space, then go for it. But generally what I've seen is that it's not the same delivery, it's not the same experience. And the venue has a lot to do with that too. I hosted a retreat at the Sheraton. On the Gold Coast, the Sheraton Mirage is lovely, beautiful, tropical sort of vibes fabulous. But it's a conference venue. It was huge. And when we were trying to meet up, you know, just for a session, someone would forget, forget something. And they'd be 15 minutes going back to their room, trying to find a lunch venue trying to find the space. Whereas my next retreat was held a beautiful property in kangaroo Valley, we had two living spaces, we had a big communal kitchen, and a dining room, we had multiple outdoor connection spaces. So people would naturally come together. They also had their own space in their rooms in there was enough space that they could go away and have privacy. But it was much nicer being in a more intimate space and a space that was just for us. We were in quite a remote area. And we were just at that venue. So that was something that I learned, you can have that being in a hotel. But maybe it's more of a boutique hotel. And it's a space where when I'm looking at retreats, I'm looking at communal spaces, where can we come together? Is it you know, even on the recently I had my retreat day on the Gold Coast, we hosted the sessions in my room, because

13: 36

13: that was where we could be, we could come together and it was a big room, we had space, and I pick rooms based on that. But we also had beautiful tea room downstairs, we had beautiful lounge areas by the pool, the cafe we went to was small enough that we were all still together.

13: 52

13: It wasn't, it didn't feel like we were disconnected or disjointed. So the main difference with retreat and conference is the program. And it is the intention. And for me also it's the size of the group. It's the capacity. And just because you're going to hold something in a beautiful location.

14: 12

14: You can't simply call it a retreat. So be really clear when you are going to set out and you're going to invite people to a retreat because if I went to something that was called a retreat, and I turned up and it was more like a conference or a workshop, I'd be pretty annoyed

14: 27

14: when I'm promoting my retreat days, I'm giving a retreat experience. You feel like you've been there for multiple days, when you might only be there for one day, one night or two nights and one day. It's about the way that you bring the people together and hold space for them. And so you don't have to do multiple days. You can have half day, one day, four days, five days, whatever you decide, but really think about what is your intention for the retreat? What is the program going to look like? What is the venue where you're going to invite them and hold

15: 00

15: them together. That's all really important.

15: 04

15: And I just don't want to keep seeing conferences and workshops, marketed as retreats.

15: 10

15: That's my closing statement. So if this is something that you want to do, and you're not sure, and you're interested in learning, or you would like to just have some help, I offer one to one, one off strategy sessions with my hour of power, you can come along to one of my retreat days and experience what the way that I host a retreat, and dream and plan your own. Or I can absolutely work with you privately and coach you to hosting your dream retreat, which is exactly what I'm doing here. Don't mind my voice just disappearing. It's exactly what I'm doing here in India with my gorgeous client, Christine Kankkunen, who is running the chef rights retreat. And it's just incredible to see this vision come to life. So, you know, it doesn't matter on the industry, it doesn't matter your background, if you are called to run retreats, and you think that you can create this beautiful space for transformative experience for your clients. For the women who are going to attend for the people who are going to attend it can be anyone, then then you can be a retreat host to I would love to work with you, I'd love to support you to make that dream come true. And then if you need more information, head to my website, Emma lovell.au. And for my upcoming events, Emma lovell.au forward slash events. Thank you for listening. And I'd love to hear what you think on my retreat those conference controversy. And I'll see you next time.

16: 38

16: Thank you for listening. Lovely one. I hope this has inspired you to dream big and start creating a life you love today. If you love what you're hearing, don't forget to follow and write on Spotify and rate review and subscribe on iTunes. It helps other awesome people to find this podcast and get motivated and inspired as well. Want to stay connected. Come and join the live a life you love group on Facebook or connect with me on Instagram. Emma lovell.au, the same as my website. But all the details are in the show notes lovely. I'll see you next episode for more inspiration, motivation and freedom seeking. Go out there and live a life you love