Plan in Advance
Planning a retreat requires a substantial amount of planning and coordination, and you may find it prudent to begin planning several months in advance. Some of the best locations book up early, and you may need to secure your location as much as one year in advance. Plus, the sooner you set your dates, the sooner you can encourage your community members to save the date.
Choose a Theme
This is the part that can boggle the mind. Choosing a theme is the foundation for planning your entire event, yet there are almost unlimited choices. Consider your community, and what would be the most beneficial and timely topic. Then build your activities around this central theme.
Create a Logo
One way to unify the participants is to have t-shirts or some other item custom-made, which includes the name, logo and date of your event. This makes a wonderful (and relatively inexpensive) keepsake for attendees, and immediately helps to garner interest from future participants in next year's event.
Diversify Activities
A spiritual retreat will inherently possess high points and low points - this is simply part of the experience of deep introspection. One way you can help to facilitate the flow and keep a good balance throughout the retreat is with careful planning of activities. Certainly, you will need some fun icebreaker activities to help participants loosen up and get to know each other. But it's also wise to include activities that deepen the experience. You may consider independent journaling inspired by thought-provoking topics, or one-on-one work between partner participants. Small group or team activities are also a must, and many of these specific ideas and suggestions can be found online.
Include Down Time
In order to truly create a cathartic group experience, participants need "down time" for rest and unstructured recreation. Allow breaks to facilitate the development of social bonds, during which time participants can break off into impromptu small groups, participate in ad hoc sports, or simply spend time alone to reflect and sit with their thoughts.
Make Meals Fun
If possible, take measures to ensure that participants get the opportunity to enjoy meals with different people, as opposed to staying in their usual cliques at mealtime. Additionally, it helps to involve participants in meals whenever possible. For example, you might take turns or give assignments to cook, serve food, refill beverages, or clean up after a meal. Play music during meals and allow your participants to discuss what they are getting out of the weekend. You may even consider
Rent a Projector
For a truly memorable experience, rent a projector to help display inspirational images, to assist the speakers with visual aids, or to recap photo memories captured throughout the weekend.
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