When Scandagra's leadership approached us, the challenge was clear: coordinate a 3-day retreat for 116 colleagues across two continents, multiple languages, diverse dietary needs, and varying mobility requirements. Most retreat planners would call this 'logistically complex.' We call it a design problem—and an opportunity to prove that scaling doesn't mean sacrificing intimacy or transformation.
The Brief: 116 People, One Shared Purpose
Scandagra is a Scandinavian agribusiness leader with offices in Copenhagen, Oslo, and Stockholm. Their goal was clear: unite their organization after a period of rapid growth, reconnect leadership with frontline teams, and celebrate their first major acquisition milestone. The challenge: 116 colleagues, 8 different business units, languages from Norwegian to English to Swedish, and a budget that needed careful orchestration.
We recommended a split-location approach: 3 days across Copenhagen and Malmö (connected by bridge, making logistics elegant), with a shared opening session and closing celebration, but business-unit-specific deep-work blocks in between. This gave scale, efficiency, and intimacy.
The Logistics: Orchestrating 116 Moving Pieces
- Flight coordination: arranging group bookings from 4 Nordic airports, managing seat preferences for accessibility and team clustering
- Ground transfers: 3 charter buses, real-time GPS tracking, backup transportation
- Accommodation: 2 hotels (57 rooms), ensuring room configurations matched team groupings for informal bonding
- Dietary needs: 23 different dietary requirements captured and communicated to all food vendors
- Accessibility: mobility requirements for 7 participants across 4 mobility types, venue pre-scoping for elevator access, accessible transportation
- Language support: simultaneous translation for 3 languages during large group sessions
- Emergency protocols: dedicated medical staff on-site, emergency contact protocols in 3 languages
The real complexity: synchronizing 116 independent schedules. We created a master timeline that accounted for arrivals staggered across 2 days, individual travel patterns, business-unit breakouts, and a shared closing celebration. Every transition was rehearsed. Every hand-off documented.
The Design: Structure That Enables, Not Constrains
Day 1 (Copenhagen): Arrival and opening ceremony. All 116 colleagues gathered in a historic venue on Copenhagen's waterfront. CEO keynote, but more importantly—a facilitated conversation between frontline teams and leadership about 'what made us proud this year.' Unscripted, vulnerable, real. Evening in small groups for dinner scattered across Copenhagen neighborhoods.
Day 2 (Copenhagen & Malmö): Split track. Business units in focused working sessions—Sales aligned on Q3–Q4 targets, Operations optimized regional logistics, Product launched new feature roadmap, HR designed new onboarding. Meanwhile, a 'free exploration' track: colleagues who wanted to join co-led tours of cultural sites, food experiences, or waterfront walks. No mandatory programming. Collective dinner at a historic Malmö venue that night—shared across both cities via live video.
Day 3 (Malmö): Celebration and commitment. Morning: peer-led sessions where each business unit shared wins from the day before. Midday: a 2-hour unexpected experience (a Michelin-star cooking demonstration, followed by collaborative meal prep—high-energy, slightly chaotic, genuinely bonding). Afternoon: closing circle, CEO reflection, individual 'commitments to the team' written privately, packed lunch, departures.
Scandagra
116 dalībnieki · Copenhagen & Malmö“What struck me was how you made 116 people feel seen. It was the opposite of a massive corporate event. It felt intimate and intentional.”
The Metrics: What Actually Mattered
Post-retreat, Scandagra tracked engagement metrics. Team cohesion scores increased 19 points (on their 100-point engagement survey). Cross-unit collaboration initiatives launched by 7 new cross-team project pairs that formed during the retreat. Voluntary turnover in the 12 months post-retreat decreased to 8.2% from their historical 12%—a direct savings of €320,000+ (4 prevented departures at ~€80K each). Engagement scores on 'I feel valued' increased from 71 to 84, with particularly strong gains among frontline teams.
What We Learned at Scale
Scaling a retreat from 30 to 116 people doesn't mean losing intimacy. It means orchestrating intentional moments: small-group breakfasts, peer-led sessions, individual reflection opportunities. The real challenge isn't logistics—most of that is solvable with checklists and coordination. The challenge is creating 116 distinct experiences of feeling seen, valued, and connected—simultaneously.
Scandagra's retreat proved something fundamental: even at scale, carefully designed experiences move the needle on what matters most—psychological safety, cross-unit collaboration, and the felt sense that the company invests in its people.
Looking to coordinate a large-scale retreat? Let's design something that scales without losing its soul.
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