Out of the office: ideas for your next executive retreat.

• Author: Skertic, Mark
• Position: Meetings & Conventions

Every two years Jerry Kucharski brings a team from Hartford Insurance in Grown Point together. They fly in from all over and gather at a quiet place in the country, then settle in for three clays of training, listening to speakers and workshops.

Plenty of hard word work is accomplished, but they also save time for golf, a barbecue and the chance to trade fish stories with coworkers. There are no fax machines rumbling, no one needs to check e-mail eight times a day.

"The term 'team building' is corny and overused in management, but this gives us a chance to really get something done," says Kucharski, an industry manager for Hartford Insurance. "Just talking about fishing and golf gives them a chance to get together on a personal level."

Since 1998 he has been scheduling executive retreats at The Inn at Aberdeen, a century-old farmhouse near Valparaiso that has been refurbished as a bed and breakfast and an executive retreat center. The inn is among several places in Indiana that have carved out a spot as a good place for business people to relax, kick back and still manage to tackle some projects while avoiding the distractions of the everyday workplace.

"We get people in here from the Chicago area, northwest Indiana, South Bend, Lafayette and southwest Michigan," says John Johnson, co-owner of the Inn at Aberdeen along with his wife, Linda. "They want to get away from it all and get some work done."

Hosting executive retreats is a growing trend, with resorts and conference centers working hard to make sure they offer the correct balance of relaxation and recreation along with meeting rooms and computerized presentation equipment. Business leaders need a place that's accessible, but is still far enough away from everyone's office that they can forget about daily deadline pressures. Outside the office, employees have a chance to challenge conventional assumptions.

For many companies, these meetings are crucial to both long- and short-term success. They use retreats for team-building, to review new products or initiatives and set goals for the year.

Inn managers say most groups come in with packed, aggressive agendas. Hosting a successful executive retreat means ensuring that needs--including unanticipated ones-are met. That means meeting rooms must be ready and equipped with computers or other items groups will need. The days are busy, and good meals are one of the things visitors look forward to. Many of the inns have their own chefs to help...