How much does hosting an influencer retreat cost?

We’ve covered the why, we’ve covered the how - but there’s still a lot of unanswered questions about our annual FARQ Retreat.

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So let’s get into it…

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How much does it cost? And who is paying?

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When I took to Instagram to gather questions for this post, this was by far the most popular one. And the answer is simple… we do!

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One of our creators last week told me she thought we made money from our retreats. I laughed a little, because I can confirm we absolutely do not.

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Because of our agency growth, the cost of each retreat has naturally increased year-on-year. The first probably set us back about £5,000, last year was £12,000 for both and this year’s event is on track to cost approximately £20,000.

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Like I said, it's full on wedding vibes.

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We ask our creators to cover the cost of their own travel, but everything else once on-site is covered by us.

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We like to go all-out when hosting, and I think you can tell from the attention to detail.

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This cost is made up of a multitude of things: from accommodation, activities, guests, speakers, their travel expenses, team costs, food, drink, social coverage, merchandise and more.

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As a small business, putting on an event of this scale is obviously a HUGE investment.

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But it’s one we deem super important.

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Not only has it become a staple in the calendar for our creators - giving them an annual re-set and re-energise for the year ahead, it’s also our biggest marketing push.

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Our entire roster has a reach of over 20 million people. And once a year, all of those people post about FARQ solidly for one weekend.

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As you can imagine, this puts an intense spotlight on FARQ and typically 1. our social media following grows and 2. we get an increased number of talent wanting to discuss representation.

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Of course, we can’t take on all of those people and the return on investment could sometimes be months or even years down the line. But it’s a no-brainer.

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Its worth the hours it spends running around 25+ hotel rooms one-by-one decorating each mirror with decals and the hours it takes to take them off too…

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It puts FARQ on the map.

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Do you have sponsors involved?

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Last year was the first year we brought sponsors in and it worked really well. The first year, we were able to leverage a few bits gifted and the second year we managed to get the accommodation gifted (which saved us a lot of money), but naturally as we grow it’s a huge ask to gift accommodation for 40+ people.

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So we started to think about how we could partner with our favourite brands for the event. Last year, the UK retreat was sponsored by our friends at Big Potato Games.

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The accommodation for our Dallas retreat was very kindly gifted to us by the Graduate Hotels by Hilton too.

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Big Potato Games hosted a FARQ games-night, which was both HILARIOUS and the perfect ice-breaker. If you haven’t tried their games, you must.

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Special shout-out to team-member Lottie who was in charge of a prize for the games night and ended up accidentally painting an actual potato in 24-carat gold paint from her dad’s shed. A tale that will go down in history.

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How do you pitch to the venues/ brands?

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Firstly, we utilise our network.

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All of our partners are well-aware that we host the retreat once a year, so it’s never totally random for them to receive an email.

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We’ve seen the proof in the pudding of just how many eye-balls the event gets, so if I were a brand it would be a real no-brainer for me to want to be involved in some capacity. It’s not a hard sell, it’s more about timing (budget) and exactly what that could look like for the brand and how it ties in organically.

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If we pull off our main sponsor this year, it will be a really creative integration. Fingers crossed!

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When it comes to venues, again - it’s all about our network.

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As a team, we all meet 1-2 brands/ agencies a month and like I said, we’re always talking about FARQ Retreat.

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The venue we’re hosting at this year we found due to one of those lunch meetings. The PR agency representative was talking about the accounts she manages, and one of them was this luxury hotel and the rest was history.

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They haven’t gifted us the venue, but they have very kindly given us a discount and been THE most incredible partners in helping bring our vision to life.

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Never under-estimate the power of good old-fashioned networking!

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What do the creators most value at the retreat?

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I honestly think our creators value all of it. But some of the biggest bits of feedback we heard last year, is they just LOVED spending quality time together. So we’ve really leaned into that this year.

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We have extended the retreat to ensure there’s more down-time and not filled every hour with activities or guest-led sessions. We’re relying on them to embrace being with each other a lot more and the organic conversations that will come from that.

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Aside from that, our talent really value the community it forges (and the friendships), the lessons they take away and generally just how inspired and energised they all feel by the end of it.

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I can only really liken the feeling everyone leaves with as the 'fire in your belly' kind of thing.

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Which has been your favourite retreat so far?

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Oooh this is tricky! I’ve loved each of them, because they’ve all marked a chapter in both FARQ and my personal growth. But I have to say last year takes the top spot for me.

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Successfully putting on not one, but TWO retreats in the UK and the US within literally 3 weeks of each other was an achievement in itself. But truly, the people on our roster right now are THE best. And that’s what made both of them so special.

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