Action-oriented facilitation to meet a team’s goals.

COOLER is redefining outcome-driven retreat and event approaches designed for this moment.

We regularly see two things:
1) It takes getting outside of the regular workday to connect and make strategic change and
2) A facilitator from outside of your team can create an open, positive environment for new ideas, discussion, engagement, and buy-in

What are the central goals to gather the team around? How are we nurturing the connections between our leaders, colleagues, and teams? How are we making space to learn from each other and experts? How can we co-work strategic priorities and address them with follow-through? These questions are why we created COOLER.

What does working with us look like? What does preparing a retreat, event, or training look like?

COOLER acts as a partner in the planning of your event.

• We start in conversation to establish your goals for the event and what success looks like for you and your participants. This then becomes the foundation for possible approaches to the day(s) together and we have an additional conversation to validate or nuance the goals.

• Once we have a framework, COOLER develops a detailed series of segments that best support your goals. This is where we are often complimented in differentiating ourselves: the event is designed as a well-planned journey that accounts for time to connect (and have fun), builds mechanisms for trust to enable open sharing and idea exchange, focuses on workshopping in ways that build buy-in and momentum for strategic priorities.

• We proactively project manage what needs to be done to create a successful event and clearly communicate steps and timelines and we partner with your organizing committee to ensure that all of the “off-stage” elements are clear and support a great event.

• Because an event is all about its outcomes, we provide you a follow-up debrief report that captures key take-aways related to the event goals and what direct next steps can support the momentum.

About Our Founder

June Blanks is the Founder of COOLER and an ATD Master Facilitator and Trainer. Blanks ethos for COOLER is that successful events mean excellence in 3 areas: strong planning so that an event reflects the goals of the client; meaningful and engaging sessions that lead the audience in to the goal(s); and an eye on the outcomes desired after an event (what can carry forward momentum and action?). Blanks is a long-time business owner who has built strategies, coalitions, and events across industries, including the government and private sectors.

COOLER is known for our outcome driven approach that starts with clear goals and themes, our thorough planning, and our highly interactive retreats and events.

COOLER delivers single or mutli-facilitator events, tapping into our trusted team of facilitation partners to deliver complex or large events.

COOLER’s current clients include the World Bank, International Finance Corporation, International Monetary Fund, and the Smithsonian Institution, among others.