Team and Leadership Retreats
A special Sunnymead Hotel x Leaders in the Wild collaboration.
Escape the ordinary, unleash the extraordinary within
Adventure in sunny style: premium leadership forged in the wild.
A special collaboration with Sunnymead Hotel
Find the courage to lead differently on Victoria’s stunning Surf Coast, where adventure meets insight and game-changing leaders are forged.
Everyone just feels better after immersing in nature, with incredible benefits such as stress reduction and increasing our creative problem-solving. This innovative retreat experience combines expert facilitation in the great outdoors with colourful boutique accommodation to inspire creativity.
In 2025 we launched a special collaboration with Sunnymead Hotel to curate the best offsite experience for organisations who want to take their people away from it all. Join Leaders in the Wild and Sunnymead Hotel for a transformative retreat that unleashes your full potential.
Immersive team workshops in the great outdoors
You can expect…
Bespoke immersive workshops, in the greatest venue of all, Nature
Facilitated by accredited professional executive and team coaches, your team or group will spend the day on foot along one of our local world-class trails, starting the day with sunrise on the beach, and finishing with star-gazing. We might fold in some surfing, mountain-biking or kayaking to add to the conversation, fun and outcomes.
To create game-changing leaders
- Out-of-the-box thinking and insight generation
- Something uniquely different
- Immersive workshops
- Half, 1, 2 or 3-day programs
- To feel reinvigorated, restored and energised
- Connections, culture and authenticity
- To lead with energy, confidence and direction
Choose your workshop focus
- Collaboration to solve your team’s most complex problem
- Team performance: dynamics, culture
- Strategic planning, problem-solving and decision-making
- Self leadership and personal growth
“The Leaders in the Wild retreat allowed the Deakin University Faculty Services leadership team to take time out of their usual environment to work on a wicked problem we were experiencing. The experience bought us together as a team and will make us stronger as a result of the retreat. The constant link with nature throughout the day delivered benefits that I didn’t expect. Thank you to Janet, John and Tom!”
Alice Faulkner, Executive Director, Deakin University
Why are we collaborating with Sunnymead Hotel
We have a crush on Nature, and we also love modern comforts
For those who want the wild experience without roughing it, this collaboration offers a unique retreat format that trades our usual swags and glamping for boutique accommodation and optional day spa indulgences, all while retaining the premium outdoor workshop facilitation that ignites game-changing leaders and teams who are savvy, insight-led, adventurous, and dynamic. Harness all that nature has to offer leaders and teams with immersive outdoor workshops, knowing you have a private, toasty room to return to at night.
About Sunnymead Hotel
Designed for fun, with a little bit of nostalgia
Sunnymead Hotel brings you all the warm sunny vibes no matter what time of year it is!
Located in Aireys Inlet, Sunnymead is a boutique property that has undergone a retro-inspired revival. Accommodation suites have been playfully styled and contain all of the modern essentials you need, including a Smart TV, curated local mini bar and local bathroom products from The Herbalist Bells Beach.
Inspired by the coastal surrounds, you’ll find peaceful ponds and native landscaped gardens around the property that provide an instant setting of calm. Then by the pool, retro-inspired breeze blocks and plenty of colourful spots to chill out will inspire your creativity!
Sunnymead’s onsite restaurant, Santara, switches out the corporate white tablecloths for a colourful bar and interiors that are sure to delight the senses, much like their delicious fusion cuisine!
Did someone say Day Spa and Bathhouse?
It’s true that Janet, one of our co-founding Directors swoons at the thought! Imagine a full day on foot with your team, exploring the elements, deep in dialogue and arriving at fresh insights by day, then returning to your hotel room to then quietly slip into the beautiful onsite steam room or bathhouse, followed by a relaxation massage or facial, and all before dinner!
All designed for your enjoyment, wellbeing and making the most of your retreat, check in and chill out with optional spa indulgences at Indie Spa.
Your hosts
Janet Walter
Facilitator and Coach
With a passion for living a life balancing peak performance and wellbeing, Janet brings a human-centric and outcome-focused approach to developing people to fulfil their potential in their lives and their work.
Janet’s helps grow inspired, capable and well-connected visionaries who are prepared for 21st century leadership challenges and opportunities. For more than a decade she has helped clients achieve strategic aims working on needs such as: leadership capability; talent engagement; organisational, leadership development, team performance; and strategic transformation. She develops emerging, middle and executive leaders in a range of industries and sectors, with clients including ANZ, Telstra and NAB. Agilent Technologies, CSIRO, Austrade, Department of Defence and Engineers Australia.
She has represented firms such as Ernst and Young, RogenSi, Institute of Executive Coaching and Leadership, Lighthouse and Blackdot.
She is currently studying Masters in Organisational Change, Innovation and Leadership.
Tom Walter
Adventure and Wilderness Guide
Tom brings more than 20 years of experience as an educator and adventure guide working with adults and children in a wide variety of wilderness environments. With a Bachelor of Science, Grad Dip Outdoor Education and Grad Dip Teaching and Learning, he has years of adventure travel all over the world climbing, ski-touring, cycling, paddling and hiking.
Tom designs and delivers programs with the principles and practices of flow research, neuro science, slow travel and adventure movement, and Attention Restoration Theory. Tom plays a key role curating experiential programs with an outdoor theme where leaders get to experience putting leadership theories into practice in environments alien to most of them, having an immediate impact as participants understand how easily transferable these new leadership skills are back into the workplace.
Tom believes wholeheartedly in the wellbeing effects of humans dropping into the natural rhythms of Nature. Taking the time to slow down in Nature is the remedy for those seeking refuge from the challenge of a constantly high-paced and often stressful professional life.
Make an enquiry for your next team and leadership retreat
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