Join an immersive visual storytelling lab in Florence for consultants, marketers, change leaders and business illustrators.
17th - 19th April 2026 • All-inclusive • €1450
Join us
5 places remaining. Register by 1 March, get 2 nights’ accommodation FREE
This is for you if...
The success of Michelangelo — and Florence itself — was built on mastery, craft, and artistic courage. At Inking Abroad, we help you harness more of your own craft, to help upgrade how you think, communicate and lead creatively in business.
For 3 days, the city becomes your studio. The next retreat is on 17, 18 and 19 April 2026.
Break through creative blocks and self-doubt to show up with more confidence in your work.
Fill your creative tanks with a mix of sketching, museums, dining and street art, to fuel your work long after you return home.
Structure business narratives visually, and get renewed creative energy and fresh approaches to your visual communication.
Find a supportive community of like-minded professionals who’ll inspire and encourage your creative growth.
Register
Register by 1 March, get 2 nights’ accommodation FREE!
Axelle is a highly-renowned graphic recorder at Visual Harvesting, who has transformed hundreds of speakers’ words into attractive thoughtful visual summaries at conferences and gatherings all over the world, for over 10 years. She is also an in-demand trainer, leadership coach and speaker.
Her mission is to enable anyone in the world to convey a message with a drawing, and to help those drawings gain power in every organization, to do business and innovate more successfully. This passion fuels incredible amounts of creativity. Axelle is the author of Start to Draw.
Ben is well-known for his strategic facilitation, business illustration, training, and graphic recording. As a designer for over 25 years, he learned the importance of always sketching his ideas, as well as helping others to bring their ideas to life visually, to create products and services that are more usable, useful and enjoyable.
As an independent consultant at Bright Pilots, he enjoys helping teams of all kinds find and solve problems better, think and communicate together better, and ship faster. He is also the author of Presto Sketching, as well as Draw in 4 and 50 Remote-Friendly Icebreakers.
“What made this retreat truly unforgettable was not only the city and its art, but the international group of facilitators we were part of, coming together from Denmark, Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands and Australia. We left Florence with fresh perspectives, new friendships, and a deepened passion for our craft as graphic facilitators and visual note-takers.”
Robert De Groot, Visual Strategist
“Since I came home I can't stop raving about the experience. The art (both street art and classical art) worked wonders. Big kudos to the organisers for a great location, a great venue, excellent organisation (skipping the line to get into the Galleria), selection of restaurants, etc. But also the group of participants was very supportive of each other, no matter the level of experience of the other participants. I will not quickly forget this retreat!”
Gert Van den Bergh, Consultant
“This retreat is one of the best investments I have made into my creative career! The way Ben and Axelle guided us through an inspirational learning journey was admirable. And meeting other creative people from all around the world who not depending on experience level all struggle with the same things was no less than AMAZING! I developed a whole new character style in just 3 days! Just WOW. I am ready for the next retreat, wherever it might be.”
Susanne Krogh-Hansen, Lead Digital Designer
“For me, this was a safe learning environment where I was challenged to push beyond my comfort zone for growth. All of this against a mesmerizing backdrop with superb food in a magical setting.”
Rudy Begas, Communication Trainer
Here’s what’s included in the price of the retreat:
Standard price: €1,450
This intimate retreat is designed for a small group to ensure personalised guidance and deep creative growth, so we cap the number of people to 15.
Register now, or sign up to our newsletter to get updates and find out when to register for the next scheduled retreat.
We also offer you a discount on accommodation at The Social Hub, Lavigini Firenze.
Still not sure? Our FAQs might help.
Our home base for the retreat is The Social Hub, Lavagnini, an absolutely amazing hotel and co-working venue. It’s an easy stroll from the Firenze Santa Maria Novella (SMN) train station (the major rail hub station for Florence), and to the main sites in the city.
We want our accommodation and workshop venue to be just as inspiring as the rest of our retreat, and The Social Hub fits the brief perfectly. Set in a 19th century palazzo, it’s the perfect mix of hip style, outdoor areas, cool rooms, and super friendly staff. And wait 'til you see the epic view from the rooftop bar (where we kick off our retreat btw!).
Of course you can stay anywhere you like, but we recommend booking your accommodation at The Social Hub, so that you’re at the same place as our workshop room, where we start and end on Days 2 and 3 of the retreat. Plus, you get a 15% discount!
Next retreat: Friday 17th April - Sunday 19th April 2026
€1,450
+VAT - Convert to your currency
🎁 Limited-time offer
Register by 1 March, and get
2 nights’ accommodation for FREE!
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Think of this as a 3-day creative leadership lab for business storytellers. It’s not a holiday (although Florence is fun and beautiful), and it’s definitely not typical training. It’s an immersive experience designed to help you boost your creative confidence, and then use that in your communications at work (e.g. meetings, flipcharts, presentations, whiteboards) for greater impact and greater competitive edge.
Yes it is, since this qualifies as professional development.
No, you don’t need to be able to draw. You just need to be curious and open to trying. Our participants have been anywhere from complete beginners (e.g. a business manager who wanted to use whiteboards better in her meetings), to seasoned veterans (e.g. a long-time graphic recorder), and without doubt all have been equally satisfied. We’ve even had complete beginners develop new visual styles in 3 days. It’s about developing confidence, not attaining perfection.
Absolutely. Even experienced illustrators and visual practitioners told us that this retreat transformed their approach to visual storytelling, and renewed their passion for the craft.
Our interactive workshop-style training uses a structure of visual storytelling — transforming complex and vague information into compelling and memorable visual narratives — to help you strengthen your own purpose and story, so that you’re more creatively confident to communicate other information. We cover the following themes:
We also tailor this to the city we’re in. It’s important to us that we let the city tell us its own story — through its history, museums, street art and local knowledge — and learn from that
We stick to English. Our participants typically come from a wide range of countries, so we find it best to keep everything ‘official’ in English, and then you can feel free to have any informal conversations with others in your own language. Axelle speaks Flemish, English, French, Italian and Spanish. Ben... let’s just say that he’ll stick to English!
The best thing to do is sign up to our newsletter (above). That way, you’ll be the first to know when we announce new dates for our retreats.
We do creative retreats in Florence, Berlin, and we’re putting one together for the Catalonia region, taking in Barcelona, Figueres and Cataques. We also have some other locations in mind... If you’d like to be the first to know, sign up to our newsletter.
