Retreat Schedule Builder

What belongs in a run of show

A run of show is not the schedule your guests see. It is the operational version, with a named person against each transition and the parts nobody notices until they fail.

The guest schedule says 08:00 morning practice. The run of show says who unlocks the practice space at 07:40, who is awake if someone knocks at 03:00, and what happens if the session overruns and the caterer is waiting. That is the "Who" column, and leaving it blank is how a retreat ends up with everything depending on you personally.

The blocks people leave out

• Who lets the caterer in, and when they arrive
• Who counts guests back onto the minibus after the excursion
• Who is reachable overnight, and how
• Setup and reset either side of each session, not just the session
• Your own breaks — a run of show with no gap for the organizer is a plan to be exhausted by day three

Arrival day is the one to over-resource

Arrival sets the tone for the week and is the moment most likely to go wrong: guests landing at different times, one flight delayed, someone who needs a room change immediately. Put your spare capacity in the first two hours rather than the middle of the week, where the retreat largely runs itself.

The rest of the operational picture — vendors, intake data and what to reconcile afterwards — is in the planning guide.