Planning, creating and running an event like a VIP day/ Workshop or Retreat takes a considerable amount of time and energy. If you’ve run an event like this before you’ll know that almost always, there is a rush in the final days leading up to the event.  Unfinished tasks often become urgent and that is also the time when issues inconveniently present themselves. In this article we share with you our tips for how to run a retreat or a VIP day/ Workshop with minimal stress.

Aside from the effects from the pandemic, there are some other issues that our Workshop or Retreat organiser clients face that have created issues for them for countless years. Organisers are often quite worn out after the big day or few days of an event, because it takes a whole lot of energy and the last thing they think to do is put in place some steps that will remove the issues for next time. 

We’re going to share with you our tips for how to run a retreat, VIP day or workshop without the stress of preventable last minute issues, or at the very least, make them far easier for you to manage.

VIP days and retreats

A VIP day is just that, a one day workshop or event for your most valued customers or clients to come together and meet in person. Your VIP day may be in-part a workshop, perhaps it includes in-person mentoring and often there are special guests or unique VIP experiences. Whereas a Retreat, while it may incorporate these things, often runs longer than just one day and there are often additional activities like a dinner, time to network and perhaps some wellness activities on offer too. 

Typically a retreat is in a setting that is different to other workshop or conference venues and creates an atmosphere for participants to “recharge their batteries”. This year we are seeing a lot of Retreats moving overseas and really, how great does relaxing by a pool in Bali sound?

But the fact remains, however extravagant your VIP day is or how unique the setting or how many parts to your Retreat you incorporate, you need to be aware of some of the more challenging issues that we’ve seen far too many retreat and VIP day organisers have to deal with the hard way.

Tip 1: Get the commitment

Picture this…

Your attendees are booked in, you have secured and paid for the perfect venue, locked in special guests, paid the caterer in advance and locked in your speakers - you’re feeling organised and dare we say it a little smug as a result!

Then, in the days leading up to the event you receive an email from an attendee saying they can no longer attend. Then another email later that day and so on until you are down 10 attendees, and they all want a refund. 

While one cancellation may not seem like a big deal, if you have a few people drop off for whatever reason, this can be disastrous if you have an intimate sized group of VIP attendees and you need that ticket income to cover all the expenses. 

Money and payment is central to getting events off the ground and setting them up for success. We know that many organisers focus on planning the event and making that part amazing but the protective measures to avoid issues like this are not considered or just overlooked (until it becomes an issue). When the proverbial hits the fan, that's typically when people call our team at Ready to Boss Legal asking: ’‘Do I have to give the money back?” 

If you have a strong set of T’s & C’s (terms and conditions) in place that were agreed to by your attendees upon registering, you don’t have to worry about requests for refunds creating havoc with the event viability,

and if the terms are bespoke to the unique needs of VIP days and retreats, they can truly prove to be a lifesaver in many ways.

Tip 2: Be clear about how you’ll manage changes

We’re all aware of the chaos the pandemic created for organisers of VIP days, retreats and other in-person events. But with that largely behind us (hopefully), there are other issues that arise that can lead to a need to postpone or cancel. 

Weather Events

If your Retreat is in an area that happens to end up under threat of fire or floods that prevent the event from going ahead, most event organisers would be best to have the ability to postpone the event without losing the commitment of those who had registered. Particularly if you consider the outlay of funds you will have spent to date.

Personal Events

If not weather events, sometimes even the best laid plans can go awry. Health or personal family issues can crop up for you, a key speaker or attendees. All these occurrences are outside of your control, but need to be considered in your terms and conditions. 

If these issues came up, would you refund, provide a credit or offer the ability to transfer their ticket? Faced with an attendee who has a terminal illness diagnosis, of course you might agree to give the money back. But then you have 3 more people drop out and want their money back. What do you do?

While you might initially think that’s the best or right thing to do, how might that affect your business? You don’t want to be out of pocket for the event and you are running a business not a charity.

It's important for you to be able to reschedule or postpone your VIP day or Retreat for any reason and have a policy that supports this. You also need to ensure that if there needs to be a shuffling of speakers, that you’re covered to do so without issue, as agreed to in the terms and conditions of their registration. 

Tip 3: Be clear when you’ll provide refunds, credits or transfers

An alternative to providing a refund is to offer registered attendees a credit to use for another event in the future. However if you need to cancel, we recommend tickets be automatically transferred to a new date, to be confirmed, with a 14 day window for attendees who have already paid to claim a refund, with no refunds available after this 14 day window. 

If your terms and conditions do not support this approach, then you will need to provide everyone a full refund. A very costly pill to swallow, particularly if you cannot get a refund on your event deposits and prepayments to fund those refunds. 

Tip 4: Secure social media consent 

Assuming all goes to plan and your event is off and running, most organisers have planned to capture the energy of the event and use it for promotional purposes. You may wish to have both a photographer and a videographer on hand. 

But what happens if:

• Guests don’t want to be photographed?

• Attendees object to their image appearing in your promotional material? 

• There is a sensitive topic being addressed and your attendees don’t want to be publicly connected to it? A divorce retreat is a good example of this, your attendees may not want their images plastered over social media for friends and family to see them at the most vulnerable at a retreat. 

While it’s always a good idea to inform attendees that you’ll have a roaming photographer and/or videographer at your event, you must ensure that any objections have been dealt with before the event commences. Then, if anyone does raise the issue later, you don’t have to remove the fantastic material you had intended to share broadly, or pay for it to be re-edited without them in it

To seek consent for photographs and or videography, including how you will use those resources, you will need to include a social media release for attendees to agree to, at the point of registration in your event terms and conditions. 

Related: When Business Owners Need A Social Media Release Form

Protecting your event to protect your business

Ensuring you have terms and conditions that speak to the nuances of events like the examples above can save you from having to fork out refunds and put your finances under stress.

While the planning of the experience is often the main focus of organisers, being knowledgeable about how to run a retreat or VIP day successfully, starts with making smart decisions like getting your terms and conditions sorted. In fact, this should be the very first thing you put in place, even before you engage an event planner and start paying deposits or planning your speakers.  

Due to the number of issues we’ve seen over the years that Workshop/ VIP day and Retreat organisers have come to us about, we’ve created a terms and conditions template for each of these types of events. Each template includes all of these protective measures explored above. Save yourself from having to manage the financial burden, worries and stress that not having these essential elements covered, exposes you to.

Related Articles: When Business Owners Need A Social Media Release Form

Event Waivers: Reducing liability for your retreat, workshop, experience or training event

Our VIP Day and Retreat Terms and Conditions templates are drafted for Australian law and available online. The Retreat Terms and Conditions template is for a multi day event, whereas the Workshop or VIP Day template is for a one day event. Both are suitable for free or paid events. Both templates contain crucial policy clauses around advice disclaimers, protection of intellectual property, privacy and credits clauses, as well inclusions relating to cancellations. It also contains terms that give the event organiser the authority to change a physical event into either a virtual or hybrid event. Take a look at our Retreat template here or our Workshop/ VIP Day Template here and if you have any questions about your specific event needs, you can contact us for more information here.