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ESSENTIALS AT A GLANCE
The Venue
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Character
Campfire Field Notes. Client Retreats
Faced with growing pains from a quickly expanding team, Digital Pills turned to a retreat with a facilitator chosen by Campfire Company.
"Growing pains that's what's happening," said Gabriele Bruno Franco, a data engineer with the company. "More people, more entropy, different views, different ideas."
CEO and co-founder Andrea Passadori put it more bluntly. Arriving at the retreat, the team was at "a pretty critical moment" the mood was low, communication had frayed, and the company that had once felt like a family of four now numbered enough people that not everyone spoke the same unspoken language anymore.
Shannon Mc Mahon, a data engineer who has been with Digital Pills four years, felt the shift directly.
"We've kind of transitioned from being a company that was very about its people... and now business has been going really well, so there's a lot of focus on working, and we've kind of lost a bit of that."
The mission for the retreat sat at the intersection of several themes: rapid growth, team adjustment, alignment, and what we at Campfire call "success design" setting up teams and providing them with strategic tools that go beyond the retreat.
Concretely, that meant: surfacing the specific communication breakdowns slowing teams down; realigning the company around its 2026 direction; and giving a fast-growing team, many of whom had joined in just the last year, a genuinely non-corporate space to actually meet each other.
The desired outcome touched several registers at once Identity & Trust, Alignment & Orientation, and Wellbeing & Health chief among them. Passadori wasn't looking for a vacation.
"It's not like a vacation for the people that work in the company," he said. "It's a moment in which you understand what has been missing and what do you want to do in the future."
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The Core Experience
The medieval village did a lot of that work on its own. Facilitator Michele Pierangeli, who designed the two days, sees the setting as inseparable from the outcome: cities and offices keep people's nervous systems faintly on alert, he argues, while a natural, unfamiliar environment lets people actually soften.
"When we reconnect with nature... it's easier to change," he said. "It's not like an emergency situation. We can relax, we can work deeper on ourselves.
"For a company used to retreats that were four to six hours away, in unfamiliar regions with unfamiliar accents, the proximity itself was disorienting in a good way. "It's much closer than it used to be," Gabriele said close enough to feel local, far enough to feel like an escape. Stefano Filipello, Digital Pills' other co-founder, was struck by the same thing: he hadn't realized a place like this existed so close to the city.
"It really felt like being far, far away."
Not just fun and games
Management, looking from the end destination, was able to direct the whole system of moving the customer across the room in this modified version of the floor is lava. As you can imagine, the exercise did not go exactly as each group visioned.
"It was very clear what didn't work," Gabriele said. "Either the objective wasn't clear, or the operational part wasn't clear."
But the value wasn't in successfully completing the exercise, it was in recognizing, in a fifteen-minute simulation, the same failure patterns the company lives with every day.
"It really showed who does what in the company, even though maybe they had different roles assigned for the exercise... who speaks first, who wants control," Shannon told Campfire Company.
The counterweight to the workshop's productive discomfort was, fittingly, a fire pit. One evening on the retreat, the team gathered to tell stories from their own lives — a failure, a hard chapter, but also a transformation. Campfire’s success designer Michele described it as the moment the retreat stopped being about the company and started being about the people in it.
"It really brought people together as a human, not only as a company."
The "why" behind it was simple: a team that has just spent a morning airing out what isn't working needs an equally honest space to reconnect as people, not job titles. At Campfire,we believe that any kind of retreat, offsite or workation needs at least one moment that isn't trying to solve anything.
— Stefano Filipello, Founder and partner, Digital Pills
The Recap
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Campfire organized an outstanding retreat for our company in Sicily, accommodating around 200 participants. Everything was top-notch, from the shuttles to and from the airports to the food, accommodation, workspaces, and even social areas. Letizia and her team were incredibly responsive and practical whenever we had new requests or needed changes throughout the week. This was our second experience working with Campfire, and we hope it won't be our last.
Just came back from a team retreat in Sicily and what can I say, Letizia and Francesca were amazing organisers! Wish it lasted longer and looking forward to many more!
We partnered with Campfire for our company's annual retreat. As a UK-based company, this was the first time the company went abroad for it and finding a partner that could help us sort out all of the details, spoke the local language and plan a truly memorable event was vital to its success. Over several months we worked closely with Letizia and the Campfire team to brainstorm and plan every last detail for the retreat in Italy. They were well organised, great at communication and always reachable when we had any questions. They ensured our team of over 30 were well taken care of at the venue and made sure that every request was handled in a timely manner. They helped us pull off the event beautifully and we definitely recommend them for corporate retreat planning!
Great working with these guys. Letizia and Flo have helped us plan two successful retreats now, always a pleasure. Great attention to detail, brilliant venues and locations. Love the outdoor/nature themed ethos of the company, these folks get it!
All activities during the week where very well planned, our guide was very nice and attentive. She took care of all the things that came along and made our company trip an excellent experience for all of us!
Francesca and Mariona made our company trip to Spain truly exceptional. From the beginning, they were always there to ensure everything ran smoothly and our needs were met – no matter how big or small. Their attention to detail, quick response and friendly approach made the planning process enjoyable. Thanks to their incredible support, the event was a huge success. We couldn’t have asked for better partners and would absolutely recommend them to anyone planning a team event!
We used Campfire for the first time this year, and our annual company offsite turned out to be the best one yet. I had the pleasure of working with Letizia and Francesca, who were both incredibly understanding and accommodating. They took the time to listen to our needs and offered thoughtful suggestions for activities, which ended up being the highlights of the trip. Thank you both again for making it such a great experience!
Leider gibt es nur 5 Sterne zu vergeben. Gern hätte ich mehr vergeben für die großartige Organisation, Flexibilität und hervorragende Zusammenarbeit mit Marica. Sie hat uns bereits zum 2. Mal betreut und unser Teamevent zu einem unvergesslichen Ereignis gemacht. Ich kann Campfire uneingeschränkt empfehlen, wenn es um die Organisation und Durchführung von Teamevents geht.
Great organized trip to Portugal. Every small issue was addressed as best as possible. Additionally, our local guide was just amazing, dealt with everything and was still able to find a few minutes for everyone to learn some more things about our location and Portugal in general.
Huge thanks to Campfire for organizing such a wonderful retreat! Everything was so well thought out, and we truly appreciated the experience. Looking forward to the next one!
