#312: Everything We Learned From Our Second In-Person Event — The Good, The Bad, and The Full Economics

This week, my wife Mallory joins me for only her second podcast appearance ever to break down everything from The Lab Offline Powered by Circle — our second annual 2-day in-person retreat for Lab members, hosted June 8–9 at Hotel Renegade in Boise, Idaho. Mallory planned essentially everything: seating charts, venue contracts, menus, swag, run of show. She's been at it for roughly 6 months.

In this episode, we talk about:

The full economics of running a community retreat (we lost $8,300, which is actually an improvement)

How we took breakfast from a 4.8 to an 8.1 rating — and what we'd cut to reduce costs next year

What ranked #1 for attendees 2 years running, and why trivia (our favorite activity) came in 7th

Whether we'll keep doing this in Boise — and what Columbus, Toronto, and doing 2 events per year might look like

By the end of this episode, you will have a clear picture of what it actually costs to run a high-quality community event, what's worth paying for, and what we'd do differently.

Circle (event sponsor)

Hotel Renegade Boise

Craft and Commerce Conference

The Lab

Full transcript and show notes