I’ve spent the last seven years putting people in the same room together. Golf outings, weddings, board retreats, client appreciation events, milestone celebrations. After watching thousands of them unfold, one thing has become obvious to me: the moment people connect rarely happens on the agenda. It happens before the meeting starts, over coffee. It happens on the ninth hole.

It happens twenty minutes after the event technically ended, when nobody has left because the conversation is still good.

We live in a world that lets us skip almost all of that. A text instead of a call. A screen instead of a room. I understand the appeal, and I use those tools daily myself. But I’ve never once watched a Zoom call build the kind of trust I’ve seen happen over a shared table.

That’s not sentiment. It’s something I’ve seen play out repeatedly among the companies and organizations that gather at our properties, and I think there’s a real lesson for anyone leading a team or building client relationships.

Time together is not a nice extra. It’s a strategy.

Business leaders constantly tell me they want stronger teams and deeper client relationships. What they don’t always say out loud is that those things take time, and time is the one resource everyone claims not to have. Calendars fill up. Inboxes are never empty. It’s easy to treat a gathering as one more obligation squeezed between meetings rather than the thing that moves the relationship forward.

But ask anyone about the best professional event they’ve ever attended, and they rarely start with the schedule. They tell you who they sat next to. What they talked about. How it felt to be there. If that’s what people remember, that’s what deserves intention.

 

A few things I’ve learned about making gatherings work:

Build in unstructured time. The best conversations I’ve watched happen were never on the printed agenda. A tightly packed schedule leaves no room for the moments that build relationships. Even fifteen unscheduled minutes between sessions can matter more than the session itself.

Choose a setting that invites people to relax. People open up differently outside the conference room. Whether it’s a golf course, a patio, or simply a change of scenery from the office, the environment changes how people show up and how honestly they talk to each other.

Mix your groups on purpose. Some of the strongest partnerships I’ve watched happened because two people who wouldn’t normally interact ended up at the same table or the same tee box. If you’re hosting a team or client event, think about seating and pairings as you would any other strategic decision.

Follow up while the moment is still warm. The relationship built at an event fades fast if nothing happens afterward. A short note, a shared photo, and a next step proposed within a few days keep the connection alive instead of letting it become a nice memory with no follow-through.

Don’t outsource the goal. A retreat or client event only works if everyone involved, from planning through execution, understands that connection is the actual objective. Logistics matter, but they’re in service to that goal, not the goal itself.

I think about the companies that’ve come to us for a “team retreat” and left with something closer to a reset. Not because we scheduled it that way on paper, but because stepping outside the office for a few hours gave people permission to talk to each other. I think about the clients who’ve told me their favorite part of an event wasn’t the program at all; it was twenty minutes spent talking to someone they’d never met before.

None of that happens by accident. It happens because someone made room for it.

Southwest Michigan is full of businesses that understand this instinctively. Our region has a strong culture of showing up for one another, whether that’s through Chamber events, community partnerships, or simply the way local companies choose to celebrate milestones together. That’s a real advantage, and it’s worth protecting as our calendars get busier and our habits get more digital.

People forget what was on the agenda. They remember who they were with and how it made them feel. If you’re planning your next team gathering or client event, that’s the question worth starting with, not what needs to get covered, but what you want people to walk away feeling. Build toward that, and the rest tends to follow.

 

About Gull Lake View Golf Resort & Conference Center

Gull Lake View Golf Club & Resort is Southwest Michigan’s premier golf destination, featuring six championship golf courses, on-site lodging, dining, and event venues. Family-owned and operated for more than 60 years, the resort is dedicated to providing exceptional golf experiences, outstanding hospitality, and memorable getaways for golfers, groups, and visitors throughout the Midwest.