This summer a few of my biz besties and I got together for a little business retreat weekend in Oregon! We hosted an event the first night for female business owners, had a day of play, and a day of business brainstorming.
Since Ellen is based in Salem, Oregon, she suggested hosting our event and retreat weekend at The Independence Hotel. It was the perfect spot and we had such a great weekend at this beautiful boutique hotel in Independence!
I wanted to share a bit more about our event, Independence Hotel, and what we got into over the weekend…
And be sure to check out these talented, amazing ladies that make up the Traveling Blazers and who I’m lucky to call friends!
Dana Snyder teaches nonprofits how to grow their visibility and impact with social media ads.
Renee Bowen is an incredible senior photographer and mindset coach.
Tiffany Napper is a fabulous business coach for creative entrepreneurs.
Ellen Yin is the founder and podcaster of Cubicle to CEO, where she shares resources that help business owners get to their first $10k months.
Let’s Get Visible Event at Territory
First up, the Traveling Blazers + Cubicle to CEO hosted our Let’s Get Visible Event and panel at the hotel’s restaurant, Territory. The covered outdoor space was perfect for mixing/mingling and then our panel discussion.
Territory also catered the food and drinks for the event and they did a fantastic job. Ever since doing events when I used to work at Google, I’m pretty adamant that if you’re hosting an evening event, you need to be serving enough food to keep everybody happy—going home hungry is not a good look!
Territory delivered and their food for the event was delish. Everyone kept commenting on how great the space and the food were.
The panel was a success and it was awesome to see the audience so engaged—we could have gone on with Q&A for a lot longer but had to eventually cut things off lol.
Had to share a few more pics from the event because it was just too much fun…
Squad Suite at Independence Hotel
We stayed in Independence Hotel’s Squad Suite and this was legit one of the funnest hotel rooms I’ve ever head the pleasure of staying in! There are six beds in a luxe bunk bed style, and you know I had to call top bunk.
With two bathrooms, a living and dining room, and kitchenette, we were set for the weekend. There’s also a vanity station with lights and mirrors, making it perfect for a bridal suite or just a bunch of gals getting ready (like us!).
We spent Sunday doing biz brainstorming hot seat style and the living room of the Squad Suite was the perfect set up for us!
Activities
Independence Hotel set up a couple fun activities for us for our day of play, including kayaking down the river and wine tasting at Van Duzer.
The hotel also has a hot tub which you can reserve to have your own little private party, which is honestly ideal—it’s always so awkward sharing a hot tub with another group lol.
If you’re in Oregon looking for a fun spot for a girl’s weekend or to host an event, I can’t recommend Independence Hotel enough! Their staff was wonderful and we had such a great weekend here for our biz retreat!
Huge thank you to Independence Hotel for hosting us for our biz retreat weekend!
Elise Armitage is an entrepreneur and founder of What The Fab, a travel + lifestyle blog based in California. At the beginning of 2019, Elise left her corporate job at Google to chase her dreams: being an entrepreneur and helping women find fabulous in the everyday. Since then, she’s launched her SEO course Six-Figure SEO, where she teaches bloggers how to create a passive revenue stream from their website using SEO. Featured in publications like Forbes, Elle, HerMoney, and Real Simple, Elise is a firm believer that you can be of both substance and style.
