Retreats and summits

Last updated: 4th October, 2023

1. What are retreats?

Retreats involve community members gathering for two or more days, usually out of the city, and usually have group bonding as one of the key goals. Retreats are run by a variety of groups, including university groups, city groups, and national groups.

Retreats fall into a continuum from:

• Unconferences
• These are more intense trips where participants learn or work on projects together. Activities are planned and usually scheduled in advance by participants and organisers.
• Casual retreats
• The goal is to have fun and bond with others.

Activities can include social activities, talks, career planning, intensive workshops, and working on projects. Group retreats have ranged in size from less than 10 people (core members of a group only) to over 50 people.

EA groups can apply for funding to organize a retreat via CEA's group support funding, or via the options for group expenses listed here.

You can view our common group expenses guidelines to see a guideline on how much we can potentially fund your group to spend on per person for a retreat, which you can adjust downwards if your group is not in a high-income / high cost-of-living country.

2. Step-by-step guide to running a retreat

The following videos and steps were created by the Global Challenges Library. You can make a copy of their checklist here.

3. Further resources folder

This Google Drive Folder has templates and useful resources. Feel free to make copies for your own use! This document written by the community health team may be useful too.

4. Other helpful guides

You might also find these resources useful:

• Advice about Community Health at Retreats by CEA's Community Health team
• We Ran a "Next Steps" Retreat for Intro Fellows by Akash Wasil
• Tips + Resources for Getting Long-Term Value from Retreats/Conferences (and in general) by Kuhan Jeyapragrasan
• Yale EA's Retreat Handover document
• CZEA’s 2018 retreat review
• London’s 2018 retreat review