Where exactly a conference ends and a retreat begins is hard to say.
But they are different creatures and not the same.
It is even questionable whether they are the same species.
A conference must aim for the head, and inhabit the world of ideas, stimulating the grey matter.
While a retreat will aim for the heart, for the tectonic plates, the hidden-away psychic structures beneath the busy mind.
The conference will enable heated and hearty debate in the bar. The retreat will create space for shifting and dismantled awareness in solitude.
The conference is about heady stimulation…the retreat is about joy.
There is a place for both, a time for both and where exactly a conference ends and a retreat begins is hard to say.
But we’ll not imagine them the same.
