Balancing Act. How To Make Sure Your Company Retreat Is A Success: Fyre Festival Learnings

Netflix and Hulu recently dropped documentaries on the infamous disaster of an event, Fyre Festival.

For those of you who have been living underneath a rock and don’t know what Fyre Festival is, it was intended to be a three-day launch event/music festival to promote an artist booking platform called Fyre.

The music festival was meant to take place on a private island in the Bahamas and was scheduled to feature “top” artists for nearly 3,000 “influencer” attendees with the goal to create a buzz for Fyre.

The idea? Amazing. The execution? A total cluster fuck.

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Without going into too much detail about the festival itself, the CEO ended up committing fraud and the event was a complete failure. As an event and trip organizer, I had anxiety the entire documentary because the festival was basically every planner’s worst nightmare. Not only were they not set up for success, but everything that could have possibly went wrong, did.

So, why am I reliving my anxiety by writing a blog post about it? Because at its core, there are lessons to be learned (outside of the obvious one: don’t follow orders from a total con artist).

I realize Fyre Festival was an extreme situation and the CEO is now a convicted felon. However, there are some correlations worth noting between Fyre Festival and what often happens in the workplace.

Let me explain.

More often than not, there is an executive or team that are visionaries behind a project. They create this pie in the sky idea with the expectation that it can and will become a reality. Especially with events, many times the idea and concept are created first and the execution is thought about afterwards.

I, myself, have been in many situations where logistical elements have only been thought of after the fact. Scheduling a company trip on Labor Day weekend when hotel and house rental inventory is low and prices are high. Selling sponsorships and inviting a guest list before there is even a space for the event. And the list goes on.

So, it’s not uncommon (or always a bad thing) for the sales and marketing wheels to be moving while the operational side of things are being figured out simultaneously. But, the question is, how do you ensure the end result is exactly what your company wants?

Understand the goal

Prior to jumping into logistics, ask questions. What is the goal or goals we are trying to achieve? What are we trying to solve for?

Most ideas are simply solutions to a specific challenge. So, once you fully grasp the why behind the what, it will be easier to execute.   

When curating an experience for your team, always have the end goal top of mind. This will help you make decisions along the way.

Do the research (and a lot of it)

Research is key to understanding the scope of a specific event or trip. It will give you insight into ideal timing, costs, flexibility, etc. Reach out to as many vendors as possible and get quotes so you have factual costs and availability.

The research will not only arm you with tangible data you can share with your team when you are setting expectations (we’ll get to that in a second), but it will also provide you with alternative solutions when facing a challenge (we’ll get to that in two seconds).

Set expectations early and often

Though oftentimes projects like company events or trips may be handed to you to execute, try to get a seat at the table when the brainstorming is happening. This way, you can begin to seed your input around what is feasible and not feasible, especially if you’re working under a specific time or budget constraints.

If an idea is already in motion, make sure you are involved in every strategic discussion moving forward. Set expectations from the get-go then reset them on a regular basis.

Back-up your points with research that you’ve done so you can clearly flag any potential roadblocks.

Come up with alternative solutions

Pushback when needed, but don’t be a total dream crusher. To do this, be open, listen to ideas and keep the end goal in mind. Ask yourself, “how can we achieve what we want with a more realistic solution?”

For example, if your CEO is pushing a 100-person company-wide three-day trek in the wilderness, it’s easy to think about 1,000 reasons why that would be difficult (unless you are a company that has insane fire-building and hunting/gathering skills).

Support the idea without being overly challenging by applying the “understanding the goal” tactic mentioned above.

For example, if your CEO explains that he/she wants employees to bond through experiencing something new and difficult without the disturbance of the digital world, help come up with creative solutions to meet the intended goal. Perhaps you look into rustic “glamping” venues, like Collective Retreats, where you can hike and incorporate team-building activities like fire building during the day.

Hire experts

Never underestimate the power of outsourcing. Researching, planning and organizing trips and events is hard work, especially if is not your sole responsibility at your company. Consider hiring an agency or service, like Whisck, that will take all the nitty gritty logistics off your plate. This will not only free up your time, but also alleviate a lot of the stress leading up to and during the trip or event, and provide your team with a one-of-a-kind experience.

I am the co-founder of @Whisck, a service that curates memorable out-of-office experience for and with companies. Get in touch! kelley@whisck.com