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This playbook is a resource shared via Buffer’s How We Plan Retreats blog post.

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Playbook Purpose

This is a step-by-step guide for planning a Buffer Retreat! It should help you plan and coordinate easy travel and thoughtful Swag to prepare for a productive and fun week of building alignment and bonds while brainstorming and working in person together.

This resource should provide a helpful guide and lots of insights, but it’s not a “perfect” list, so you’ll want to make it your own!

“If plan A doesn’t work, the alphabet has 25 more letters – 204 if you’re in Japan.” – Claire Cook

Plan for the unexpected. Even with the perfect plan, you will hit roadblocks and need to adjust and pivot. Preparing for this in advance will keep you one step ahead. Happy Retreat Planning, ya’ll! ❤️

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Buffer’s Retreat Vision

Buffer Retreats are high-intensity working weeks that happen once a year. During Retreat, we focus on aligning, learning, brainstorming, and problem-solving, all while deepening bonds and having fun! We strive to “move the needle” by productively making progress on actual work, but we also know it’s easier to work well remotely when we are deeply connected as a team, so we aim to strike a balance of work and fun.

Buffer is proudly non-cliquey, and we want each teammate who attends to feel a deep sense of belonging, connection, and inclusivity, whether it’s their twelfth retreat or their first. ❤️

Buffer Retreat Non-Negotiables

1. Visa-Friendly Destination: While we’re open to traveling to many great destinations (and have teammates all over the world!), one of our highest priorities is finding a country for which most of our teammates can obtain visas for travel. Generally, this rules out the US and Canada for us.
2. Weather: While we don’t need a tropical location, we’d love the option to host events outside so we aren’t inside all week (and it's helpful for illness/sickness), so a destination that allows for this is ideal.
3. Close proximity to a major airport. This helps minimize layovers and travel time, which reduces jetlag, and ultimately makes for a more productive week.
4. Proper work and/or meeting space. We’re onsite working together for the week, so we need adequate space for our full team to work together collectively, and multiple breakout rooms for smaller team or department sessions. All spaces need outlets for charging, projectors, and screens.
5. Every teammate has their own bedroom and bathroom. Everyone needs space for downtime, especially those of us battling jetlag, so we’ll rule out properties early on — if they can’t accommodate our full team size.

Buffer Retreat Ideals (but negotiable pending the property)

1. We really love the All-Inclusive concept as it allows a lot of flexibility for teammates (lots of great food and drink options), spontaneous “meet-ups” (running into other Bufferoos at the breakfast restaurant or grabbing a coffee with someone during a meeting), helps us estimate budget better ahead of time, and is less work for teammates and our finance team regarding purchases and expenses.
   1. We do allow nursing parents to bring children of any age and a caretaker, so it’s likely “adult only” properties won’t work for us.