When Vanja Witwicky organized Visionect’s first company retreat in 2022, she did not have a detailed playbook. What she had was a team that had been apart for two years, a week to decide, and a destination: Spain. What happened next changed how Visionect thinks about bringing people together entirely.
Starting from scratch after COVID
Visionect is a Slovenia-based tech company building smart workplace solutions, including their flagship product Joan, a workplace booking platform used by teams around the world. Like most companies, the pandemic forced the team into a fully remote model. When lockdowns lifted, Vanja, who was serving as a combined office manager and HR at the time, knew something needed to happen.
“We said to ourselves that we need to see each other again. We need to hang out again.”
Vanja Witwicky | HR Manager
The team was given one week to decide if they were in. Most of them were. Flight tickets were booked, a venue was found, and they were off to Spain.
The theme of that first retreat was intentional: create our future together. Teams were mixed across departments and challenged to take existing Visionect products and imagine something new. What came out of those sessions was not just ideas, it was the foundation of what the company builds today.
“When you see different mindsets, different skill sets come together and come up with something amazing — that was the first moment I said wow.”
The second moment was simpler: watching the team become a tribe again. That retreat set a rule Vanja has kept ever since. The team gets together at least once a year, no exceptions.
The retreat that changed everything: Croatia, 64 people and an AI challenge
Teams working on their AI tools poolside during the Croatia offsite.
Fast forward to Visionect’s most recent offsite and the scale has grown considerably. Sixty four people, three villas on the Croatian coast, and a theme that felt right for the moment: artificial intelligence.
The goal was not to mandate AI adoption from the top down. It was to share knowledge across the company and let teams discover what was possible together. In the weeks before the retreat Vanja and her team organized internal AI workshops, built and delivered by Visionect employees themselves, covering everything from basic usage to practical applications across departments.
“Some departments were using it a lot, some were not. We said let’s just get together, share the knowledge, and create something together.”
The retreat itself was three days, two nights. Teams were divided and each group was tasked with building an internal AI tool that could make their specific department’s work easier, with support from the team members who knew the technology best.
When the plan meets the weather
Making it work inside when the weather had other plans.
Anyone who has organized a company retreat knows the feeling when the weather does not cooperate. Vanja had planned a scavenger hunt through the old town and a hike up to an organic farm with panoramic views of the islands. Rain had other ideas. Twice.
“That’s the only thing I can not control. Obviously each year.”
Rather than scrambling, the team adapted. They used the pools in the rain. They played table tennis. They leaned into the unplanned moments that end up being the ones people remember.
“Others don’t know what you have planned. So you can always adapt and that’s the beauty.”
The program still ran. Workshops in the morning, team work sessions in the afternoon, presentations at the end. And those presentations were, by Vanja’s telling, the highlight of the whole offsite.
“You actually don’t have an idea what the teams are working on. And then you see the presentations and they’re never boring. They need to be fun because that’s one of our values.”
The winning team? Marketing. Their AI tool was not just a retreat project. It is being built into a real product feature, expected to go live for clients within a few months.
Downtime is where the connection happens
Visionect team finding focus and connection in equal measure at the villa.
Beyond the structured sessions, some of the best moments came from the unplanned ones. Cooking together in the villa kitchens, late nights that stretched well past midnight, morning jogs along the coast before the day’s program began. The retreat gave people space to just be around each other in a way that a Zoom call never can.
Villa kitchen becomes a team-building moment of its own.
“They’re not just somebody on the screen. Everything clicks in another way.”
What actually changed after the retreat
The immediate impact was the one Vanja always sees: people come back happier and more connected. But the lasting impact of the Croatia retreat was something more specific.
“We literally use those AI tools we developed in every department. Not the same tools. HR developed their own, sales their own, and they’re really helpful. And it just made the wish to learn more.”
The retreat did not just teach people about AI. It gave them the confidence to keep going, to improve, to experiment. That momentum did not stop when the bus pulled back into the office car park.
What Vanja has learned about planning retreats
After several years of organizing Visionect’s gatherings, Vanja’s philosophy has not changed much. The core of it has stayed the same from the very beginning. Every retreat is also a chance to live the company values out loud, not just talk about them. That is as important to Vanja as the agenda itself
“Keep it simple. Think of the people first, think of what you want to achieve, but keep it simple and trust people.”
The biggest decision she made for the Croatia retreat was not the venue or the activities. It was running the AI workshops beforehand. Giving people the knowledge and confidence before they arrived meant they walked in curious and ready to build rather than overwhelmed and unsure.
“If something doesn’t go your way, go with the flow. You can always improvise.”
For anyone planning their first retreat, her advice is to resist the urge to over-programme. Build in space. Trust that people will fill it with something good. And accept that the weather, the schedule, and the best-laid plans will all bend a little — and that is usually where the best moments happen.
What is next for Visionect
Beyond the annual company-wide retreat, Visionect keeps the connection going throughout the year with department level team buildings, regular picnics, and gatherings whenever team members visiting from abroad are in town. New Year’s parties, sporting activities, creative outings — all of it adds up to a culture where in-person time is a regular part of how the company operates, not a once-a-year event.
“We always expect the unexpected. Really, nothing has changed. Just the number of people.”
And for Vanja, that is exactly the point. The retreat that started as a post-COVID attempt to bring a team back together has grown into something that defines how Visionect operates. The venues change, the themes change, the headcount grows. But the reason behind it stays the same: people first, culture always.
About Vanja Witwicky
Vanja Witwicky is HR Manager at Visionect, a Slovenia-based company building smart workplace solutions including Joan, a workplace booking platform for modern offices.
Want to share your retreat story? Apply to be featured on Pioneers in Culture at RetreatsAndVenues.com