A Focus on Coworking and Productivity: Studio’s Corporate Retreat to New York

When Studio, a creative education platform, was looking to expand and create its corporate retreat, it decided to turn to Retreat for help. Studio focuses on helping people live their creative lives, no matter where they are in their journeys. With top talents from around the world like Charlie Puth and H.E.R., people can learn at their convenience on their educational platform.

One of our team members, Shun Yamada, recently sat down with Kim Minnick, the Head of People, who shared with us firsthand about their experiences in New York City from July 17-20th when they conducted their company retreat. With Retreat, they brought their team together and helped them progress towards their goals as a company for coworking and discussion.

Shun: What was the most challenging part about planning this retreat for your company?

Minnick: The most challenging part of the planning was the hotel and the office space. In a smaller city like New York, booking hotels was overwhelming. So, for me to say to you that we need a hotel at this price point, and this location, was awesome to allow you guys to handle it for us. Then in New York, finding office space was also extremely easy. So to say that these are my two most significant needs, everything else we can figure out, like if it's ordering pizza, it's okay, was excellent for us as a company.

Shun: What do you do within the organization?

Kim: I do all of our benefits administration payrolls. I am currently going through the pay equity and pay data right now. After that, it focuses on employee engagement, manager development, and coaching. Recently, I've been talking about getting us all registered in various states. Then I'll probably start working with the platform team to help put in trust, safety policies, and guidelines.

Shun: What do you think is the primary goal of this corporate event since it is off-site? Was it to discuss and work together, and if you had anything to discuss, what did you guys need to discuss?

Kim: I think it's harder to communicate just being fully remote and not getting to be together. As much as you want to write things down in documents, sometimes we should come together to brainstorm as we're launching our product. We're having a lot of these critical conversations. So our main goal right now is to come together for productivity, mind sharing, brainstorming, and pressure testing. Whereas in the past, we would come together for bonding and connection, now it's like focus.

Shun: How many people are joining your retreats?

Kim: Our total company size is 44 people now. We had about 80% to 90% attendance, so we had around 30 people involved.

Shun: Would you guys want to stay in New York or try another location?

Kim: I think I would love to stay in New York. One of the things that were overwhelming was picking a location because we wanted to pick something cheaper. We were deciding between New York, San Francisco, and Denver, but the flight and hotel costs helped us decide on New York.

Shun: What do you think about the next retreat? Did you enjoy the organization of this event, or should we assist with changing it up for next time?

Kim: I think one thing about this was that the schedule was loosely organized, so people felt there was so much flexibility. It was really great. If we had more planning time, I would love to have airport transportation for next time. The picnic was great, and we also had one of our team members doing a drag show competition, which was awesome! We would probably want to have one-afternoon reception where we can be together.