How do I find consecutive dates that work for everyone?

Poll every candidate day across the window and read the results grid horizontally. Because each day is shown side by side, a block of two or three days with the same people available is easy to spot — you are looking for a run, not a single winner.

How far ahead should I poll for a retreat?

About six months for a leadership group. Calendars are still open enough for honest answers, and it leaves time to hold a venue once the block is decided.

Can I limit the poll to weekends?

Yes. When creating the poll you can exclude weekends, or exclude weekdays, and tap individual dates to remove them from the list participants see.

Should the retreat be polled together with our regular meeting dates?

No, keep them separate. A retreat needs a much longer lead time and a different attendance bar than a routine monthly or quarterly meeting, and combining the two polls tends to slow down decisions on the near-term calendar.

Do participants need an account?

No. Participants can open the shared link and mark their availability without creating an account. They enter a name, tap the days that work, and submit.

How many people can participate?

There is no participant limit on a poll. A poll can cover a date range of up to 120 days, and each day can have up to 8 time slots.

Executive retreats

Find retreat dates the whole group can protect

A retreat is not one date, it is a block — and it has to be booked far enough out that travel, boards and family calendars have not filled in yet. Getting the block right on the first try is the difference between full attendance and a room missing its two most important people.

Find a Date See how it works

Create a free availability poll and share it with your group.

Poll the block, not the day

Set the range across the months you are considering and let people mark every candidate day. The results grid shows all the dates side by side, so a run of two or three days where the same people are free stands out immediately.

Where a venue has already offered specific windows, poll only those days — the answer then comes back in a form you can act on the same week.

Exclude weekends, or keep only weekends, with one tap when you create the poll.
Maybe answers show which people a one-day shift would recover.
Time slots handle arrival and departure preferences on the edge days.

Booking far enough ahead

Six months out is the sweet spot for a leadership retreat: far enough that calendars are open, close enough that people can answer honestly. Polls covering up to 120 days let you run that window in a single link.

Send it with a hard response deadline. Venue holds expire, and a poll without an end date drifts.

Partners, spouses and second groups

When a retreat includes partners, run one poll for the core group and a second for the extended list. Comparing the two grids tells you whether the partner programme constrains the date or follows it.

Retreat versus the regular meeting rhythm

Do not fold the retreat into the same poll as your regular monthly or quarterly meeting dates — the two have very different lead times and different attendance expectations. Poll the retreat separately, and much earlier, so a slow response on the retreat does not hold up settling the near-term calendar.

Assistants, confidentiality and the non-responder problem

Retreats involve the most travel-sensitive members of a group, which usually means the most assistant involvement. Send the poll link to assistants directly and let them answer on the executive's behalf; they typically have the clearest view of what is actually blocked six months out.

A retreat's dates and attendee list are often more sensitive than a routine meeting — send the link only to those invited, and note that poll pages are not indexed by search engines and require the link to open. As replies come in, the organizer view shows exactly who is missing, so reminders can go to specific people rather than the whole list, which matters more as a deadline for a venue deposit approaches.

Locking the block and pushing it to calendars

Once a clean run of consecutive days appears with acceptable attendance, close the poll, confirm the venue against that block, and export the CSV for planning records. Send the confirmed dates out as calendar invites immediately — a retreat date that sits unconfirmed on people's calendars for months is far more likely to be double-booked than one that is locked as a formal invite the same week it is decided.

Worked example

Example: booking a leadership retreat six months out

A ten-person leadership team needs a two-day offsite in the autumn, and the venue needs a deposit decision within three weeks.

1The organizer creates a poll across every weekday in September and October, since weekends are ruled out for this group.
2The link is sent to all ten leaders and to the three executive assistants who typically manage their calendars.
3Eight responses arrive within five days; the organizer follows up directly with the two remaining leaders.
4The grid shows 14–15 October as the only pair of consecutive days with nine of ten leaders available; one person is a maybe on the 15th.
5The organizer contacts that person directly, who confirms availability once told the rest of the team is set.
6The poll is closed, the venue is booked against 14–15 October, and calendar invites go out the same day.

All ten leaders are confirmed for the retreat block, locked five months ahead of the event and before the venue deposit deadline.

Frequently asked questions

How do I find consecutive dates that work for everyone?: Poll every candidate day across the window and read the results grid horizontally. Because each day is shown side by side, a block of two or three days with the same people available is easy to spot — you are looking for a run, not a single winner.
How far ahead should I poll for a retreat?: About six months for a leadership group. Calendars are still open enough for honest answers, and it leaves time to hold a venue once the block is decided.
Can I limit the poll to weekends?: Yes. When creating the poll you can exclude weekends, or exclude weekdays, and tap individual dates to remove them from the list participants see.
Should the retreat be polled together with our regular meeting dates?: No, keep them separate. A retreat needs a much longer lead time and a different attendance bar than a routine monthly or quarterly meeting, and combining the two polls tends to slow down decisions on the near-term calendar.
Do participants need an account?: No. Participants can open the shared link and mark their availability without creating an account. They enter a name, tap the days that work, and submit.
How many people can participate?: There is no participant limit on a poll. A poll can cover a date range of up to 120 days, and each day can have up to 8 time slots.

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Find the day everyone can make it