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Key Takeaways
Transparent and Trustworthy Partnership: Wilder gained Clariti’s trust by addressing timeline and budget concerns upfront, offering realistic solutions and remaining highly communicative throughout the planning process.
Logistical Burdens Removed: Wilder handled all complex logistics, from budget management and hybrid event coordination to personalized travel arrangements and inclusive activities, allowing Clariti’s leadership to focus solely on strategic discussions.
Creative Problem-Solving and Strategic Thinking: Wilder designed a retreat that encouraged creative problem-solving and big-picture thinking, leading to fresh insights and actionable solutions for Clariti’s business challenges.
Flawless Execution on a Tight Timeline: Despite a condensed planning window, Wilder successfully delivered a seamless retreat by staying calm, responsive, and detail-oriented, even when managing last-minute changes.
Transformative Results: The retreat revitalized Clariti’s leadership, aligning them on key strategic goals and strengthening their connection as a team, ultimately leaving them with a clear, actionable growth plan.
Overview
Clariti, a fast-growing tech company, was in need of a corporate retreat to help their team disconnect from the daily demands of the business and focus on big-picture strategy for the next year and beyond. The company had recently made the transition to a fully remote workforce, with employees spread across Canada and the United States.
A well-executed retreat was essential to bring the entire team together for in-person collaboration, but previous experiences with other retreat planners left Clariti’s leadership team burdened with logistical complexities amidst a shrinking runway. More than ever, they needed a retreat planning partner who could manage the event from end to end and ensure everything ran smoothly while freeing up leadership to concentrate on strategic discussions.
Challenges
Before partnering with Wilder, Clariti faced significant challenges with two previous retreat planning agencies. The first agency struggled with budget management, quoting costs that were unrealistically low and leading to last-minute financial issues. The second agency failed to deliver the event within the agreed-upon timeline, eventually pulling out of the project entirely.
These missteps placed a heavy logistical burden on Clariti’s leadership, forcing them to take on tasks they didn’t have the time or bandwidth for. As a fully remote company, Clariti also faced the unique challenge of organizing a hybrid event, where they needed to accommodate both in-person and virtual participants.
Clariti needed a retreat that would foster creativity and strategic planning but also create organic opportunities for team bonding and personal connection. The team was feeling the pressure of rapid growth and knew they needed to develop clear, actionable plans to guide the company’s next steps. Finding a retreat planning partner capable of handling these logistical challenges — and doing so within a condensed planning window — was crucial.
Why Clariti Chose Wilder
After the disappointing experiences with previous planners, Clariti’s leadership approached Wilder with caution. The timeline for the retreat was already tight, and Clariti had little room for error. Wilder immediately set themselves apart by being transparent about the constraints.
Rather than over-promising or sugar-coating the situation, Wilder acknowledged the limitations and suggested a more realistic timeline, pushing the event from January to April. This upfront honesty reassured Clariti’s leadership that Wilder understood the complexities of the project and was prepared to handle them.
From the outset, Wilder’s team, led by Kirk and Kim, demonstrated their calm and methodical approach. They remained highly responsive to Clariti’s questions and concerns, especially given the tight deadlines and the complicated nature of the retreat. Their steady communication helped restore trust, which had been eroded by Clariti’s previous experiences. As Clariti’s leader, Megan MacQuarrie, noted, “Wilder’s team was calm, even in the face of significant logistical challenges. They took everything in stride, and their responsiveness made me feel confident that we were in good hands.”
Process & Highlights
One of the key reasons Clariti ultimately chose Wilder was their ability to take on the many logistical burdens that had overwhelmed the leadership team in the past. Wilder worked closely with Clariti to redefine the event’s budget, ensuring that the planning stayed within financial constraints. They provided detailed breakdowns of costs, which allowed Clariti’s team to advocate for budget increases internally with confidence, a refreshing change from previous planners who caused significant stress by mismanaging budget expectations.
Kirk and team also worked closely with Clariti to select a venue that struck the right balance between productivity and relaxation with formal meeting spaces for structured discussions and informal areas for casual, spontaneous conversations.
Clariti’s retreat included both in-person attendees and virtual participants, which added an extra layer of complexity to the planning process from an itinerary perspective and on an audio/visual level. Wilder successfully managed this challenge, designing an event that accommodated both groups while ensuring that virtual participants felt equally engaged and included.
Wilder then helped craft a detailed hour-to-hour, day-to-day itinerary that blended focused work sessions with opportunities for relaxation and relationship-building. The thoughtful flow of the agenda ensured that the team had time to engage in meaningful discussions without ever feeling overwhelmed, and included breaks that gave leadership time to recharge and connect on a personal level.
Wilder also coordinated travel arrangements for Clariti’s widely dispersed team, ensuring smooth transportation for attendees arriving at different times and those who chose to extend their stay. The team even managed unique logistical requests, such as organizing a mix of activities for attendees with varying physical abilities, ensuring that all team members felt included and catered to.
Results
Wilder’s ability to take ownership of the planning and logistics meant that Clariti’s leadership could focus on what mattered most: their business strategy and the well-being of their team. The team left the retreat feeling both motivated and reconnected to the company’s long-term objectives. As Megan MacQuarrie noted, “Wilder was instrumental in helping us plan and execute a retreat that gave our leadership team the mental space we needed to focus on big-picture thinking.”
Clariti’s entire team returned to the office with a renewed sense of purpose and a detailed action plan that they were ready to implement. The retreat proved to be a turning point for the company, providing much-needed clarity during a time of rapid expansion.
Looking ahead, Clariti is already planning future retreats with Wilder in 2025, confident that they have found a partner they can trust to handle the logistical complexities and deliver a meaningful, impactful experience every time.
“Wilder quickly earned our trust by being upfront about our timeline and budget, which was refreshing after our experiences with previous planners. From start to finish, their team was incredibly responsive, managing all the logistics and allowing us to focus on what mattered most—our strategy. Kirk and Kim’s calm, hands-on approach made the whole process feel seamless. Wilder truly went above and beyond to make sure the event was a success, and we left the retreat aligned, energized, and ready for the future.”
Megan MacQuarrie - Sr. Director, People & Talent Leader
Ready to plan the ultimate corporate retreat? Contact Wilder Retreats today to begin designing an experience that will inspire your team and bring everyone closer together.
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