How to Host a High-Impact Team Summit (from a Fully Remote Agency That Cracked the Code)

Every great team takes time to hang out together; take a break from deliverables, dashboards, and deadlines, and focus on the people behind the bottom line.

At From The Future (FTF), our Annual Summit isn’t a vacation. It’s a business growth tactic disguised as a retreat; two days where we step away from our screens, align on strategy, and reconnect as a team.

This fall, we took our twenty-person, fully remote crew to Skytop Lodge in the Pocono Mountains for 48 hours of collaboration, conversation, and connection. It wasn’t just a reset. It was a masterclass in how to build culture, strengthen strategy, and recharge a team that never stops going.

If you’re a remote or hybrid company looking to host your own offsite, here’s your playbook, straight from a team that’s done it right.

Choose a Destination That Matches Your Mission

You don’t need to fly across the world (or even the country) to inspire your team — but you do need an environment that feels different from their day-to-day. For many of our team members in the Philly area, the Poconos are a favorite weekend destination, while our California and the Midwest crew got to experience something totally new.

We picked this scenic mountain escape because it encouraged both collaboration and creativity (which are at the core of what we do). Without all the noise of Slack pings or email reminders, we actually got to enjoy each other’s company. And Skytop Lodge’s teambuilding activities encouraged us to work with people we don’t typically get to join forces with. That’s huge for cross-department growth.

“Many of us live in major cities and metropolitan areas like Philly, LA, Chicago, and Dallas. We wanted to choose a location that could help us unplug a bit and really foster that collaborative spirit. The nature-oriented location and simple things like being able to prop the door open for fresh air or waking up to birds chirping rather than construction noises all contributed to a serene getaway while removing distractions for more productive meetings.”

– Chloe Drake, Head of SEO, From The Future

Pro tip: Pick a location that offers teambuilding activities! Bonus points if it has good Wi-Fi, great coffee (emphasis on great coffee), and hiking trails.

Lead With “Fun,” Follow With Strategy

Your first session sets the tone for the entire event. Skip the generic icebreakers and start with something that matters: having FUN together. 

In true FTF fashion, we kicked off our summit with some friendly competition: a few rounds of Family Feud, which set the tone for a day built on collaboration and creativity.

Shout out to Brandon Hammon and Josh Silverbauer’s exceptional performances of Steve Harvey and the iconic Richard Dawson! 

We then followed the fun with an All Hands meeting — not a presentation, but a conversation. We reviewed agency performance, celebrated wins, and looked ahead to our 2026 goals. Every department had a voice.

The discussion went beyond metrics. We talked about what’s working, what’s not, and how we can engineer stronger outcomes across the board.

One of the most productive moments of the Summit? department meetings and client-focused strategy sessions. For a remote agency, getting an entire department or client team in the same physical space is rare. Teams whiteboarded ideas, discussed growth opportunities, solved process bottlenecks, and aligned on goals for the next year to deliver even bigger client wins.

No summit succeeds without balance. Your team needs time to breathe, bond, and build relationships outside of their roles. We ended Day One with dinner, table games, and late-night laughs. It wasn’t “mandatory fun” — it was the kind of hangout that turns coworkers into family.

The takeaway: Strategy sessions don’t have to be top-down. Give everyone a seat at the table, and you’ll walk away with alignment and buy-in that lasts all year.

Blend Business with Innovation

Don’t just talk strategy — activate it.

Midday, our team dove into an AI Workshop focused on how we can maximize these tools to make the day-to-day work stresses a little easier (psst…read our blog post to get these tips!). 

The goal isn’t to replace people with tech; it’s to amplify our strengths with smarter tools. From content generation to data visualization, teams experimented in real time, testing prompts, comparing results, and identifying where AI can accelerate our process.

“My goal with the workshop was to show that AI can handle the repetitive, time-consuming tasks, giving us more room to focus on strategy, creativity, and the kind of work only people can do.” 

– Jenna Hnilo, Senior Digital Marketing & Client Strategy Leader, From The Future

Teamwork Makes the Dreamwork: Collaboration and a Little Friendly Competition

The real test of teamwork came with our FTF Amazing Race. Inspired by the TV series, this competition had teams racing through a series of creative, collaborative, and strategic challenges like blindfolded mini golf, archery, brain teasers, and even crafting paper airplanes that could go the distance.

Every stop required collaboration, quick thinking, and a bit of chaos control. Though the competition was fierce (and a little sweaty), there were plenty of laughs, all culminating in a race to the finish that had everyone cheering (and then celebrating over a beer). 

The Amazing Race reinforced one of our biggest cultural truths: the best teams don’t just work well together — they problem-solve, adapt, and push each other forward.

The next morning, we started strong with a team hike to a nearby waterfall. The symbolism wasn’t lost on anyone — fresh air, fresh ideas. Sometimes the best breakthroughs happen when you step outside the conference room.

We closed the team building activities with a Build-a-Bike Challenge, a hands-on, puzzle-solving exercise that combined puzzle-solving brain power with community impact. Every bike we built was donated to local children, reminding us that teamwork has a real-world impact.

The best team-building moments are the ones with purpose. Combine play with meaning, and you’ll create memories, not just moments.

End with Alignment and Action

A great summit doesn’t end with a slideshow. It concludes with a plan.

Our final day at Skytop was all about reflection and forward momentum. Over dinner, we shared takeaways, identified next steps, and discussed how to carry the Summit’s energy back into client work.

By the time we packed up, one thing was clear: the Summit may have ended, but the impact was just beginning.

Everyone left sharper on goals, stronger as a team, and more aligned than ever on what makes FTF different:

• We move fast, but never without purpose.

• We lead with strategy, not ego.

• We treat culture as a performance lever, not a perk.

• We have really cool swag (hoodies, crews, and even koozies!)

Invest in Culture Like You Invest in Clients

For a remote agency, connection doesn’t happen by accident; it’s engineered. It takes the same care, intention, and iteration we bring to our client work.

That’s why our Summit exists: to keep our people aligned, inspired, and connected, because when our team is thriving, our clients feel it, too.

“The Summit reminds us all how important real connection is. You can’t build culture over Zoom — it happens when people share space, ideas, and laughs. Those few days together create the kind of energy and trust that fuel everything we do once we’re back online.”

– Lance Hollander, CEO, From The Future

A special thanks to our Culture Committee, led by Chloe Drake, for turning an itinerary into an experience and a team into a tighter community.

The FTF Framework for a Winning Summit

Element	What We Did	Why It Worked
Location	Skytop Lodge, Poconos	Balanced fun with teambuilding
Structure	2 days of strategy sessions and team bonding	Kept morale and energy high, and focus sharp
Core Focus	Alignment, collaboration, connection	Reinforced both culture and business goals
Key Takeaway	Strategy + culture = performance	Every activity is linked back to impact
Lasting Impact	Renewed focus and momentum	Post-summit productivity spike

Connection Is a Growth Strategy

FTF’s Summit wasn’t a vacation from our typical 9-5. It was proof that when you invest in your people, you invest in your performance.

If you’re a remote team, don’t underestimate the ROI of in-person connection. When your culture and strategy align, growth isn’t a goal; it’s inevitable.

Because at From The Future, we don’t just predict what’s next. We build it, together.