Skybox Retreat 2018 — Skybox Event Productions

Jul 18

Jul 18 Skybox Retreat 2018

On a beautiful Friday morning in Newport Beach, CA our Skybox team embraced each other excitedly with open arms down at the Lido Marina Village. Sun hats, white pants, blue stripes, and red accents; we were ready for our nautical themed retreat on our hot pink boat. Popping a bottle of champagne while sailing through the calm waters listening to Etta James, we toasted to happiness and success as strong accomplished women. Wind in our hair and sun in our faces, there was no better way to do a retreat than to embrace our theme: celebration. Let’s take a little journey, shall we?

We got out of the office to open our minds and connect with each other. There is so much going on in the world around us that being limited to the confined space of an office does not always allow us to feel and experience what we need in order to create. Our mission for the retreat was to “Explore, in order to Create.” This retreat was a perfect way to get out of our office and learn together. As we stepped off our hot pink boat, we headed to the deck to Lido Bottle Works for a fun a colorful spread. Lo and behold a meal fit for queens: chili pop rocks in the tuna tartare, orange beet puree in the burrata, and a cheese and charcuterie board. Nothing gets us more in the planning mood than a mouth-watering display and color popping palette for our eyes to soak in.

But having fun is not the only item on our agenda for the day, Skybox team does not go out without a little work. As women entrepreneurs, we wanted to share our ability to create the perfect event with our team to build a strong long-lasting foundation throughout the company. What are the most important areas we need to remember as event planners to ensure our customer’s satisfaction with our work? Designing, setting the right mood, knowing the Do’s and Don’ts, paying attention to the details of decor and finally, establishing a good client relationship.

As we entered the final hours of our retreat, our #girlboss tasked us with one final challenge: a budget friendly gift exchange. If there’s one thing we’ve learned about gifting, is that it’s not always what’s inside the gift but the way you present it and thought behind it that counts. You don’t always need to put a dent in your wallet to show someone that they’re important to you. Our task was simple, we all received an envelope with a staff member name inside and our job was to find a $10 gift for that person. But how we presented it was the real challenge. We all needed to write a little note to them; maybe something we love and admire about them or simply expressing your appreciation for them being in our life. Lastly, we needed to make our gift bags presentable; with a little bow or little message on the front of the bag. The ending of our retreat soon came before us and the gift exchange commenced. Smiles and hugs enveloped the street as we said our goodbyes and we ended our retreat knowing we accomplished our goal: We found each other, our reason to celebrate!