On Friday, November 5, we took our annual editorial planning retreat back to Midway, Kentucky, a delightful little town that sits between Frankfort and Lexington in horse country. Our retreats are always in late fall and have been held in places like Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill and the Beaumont Inn in Harrodsburg, Labrot and Graham distillery near Versailles in Woodford County, and Holly Hill Inn near Midway.
We work two years ahead, so this year’s retreat involved planning for the 2012 editorial calendars for four publications and four websites. The biggest single item on the table this year was our upcoming re-design of Going On Faith, our bi-monthly publication for the faith-based travel market. We’re taking it from a small tabloid size to a standard magazine size and our re-design team introduced some exciting graphic ideas to the rest of us at this retreat. Last year, we did essentially the same thing for our re-design of The Group Travel Leader, and we agreed to some major innovations to our website that became reality this year.
Our meeting was held at Bistro La Belle, marking the third time we’ve done it at this distinctive restaurant on Railroad Street. Owner Laura Wolfrom gives us a room to meet in and has her chef prepare breakfast items like quiche and muffins and a plated lunch that this year included chicken breasts served over grits with tomatoes and parmesan cheese garnish. We had a bread pudding with bourbon sauce for dessert.
Wolfrom told me that her restaurant was packed each evening during the recent FEI World Equestrian Games that took place only a few miles away at the Kentucky Horse Park. Midway was perfectly positioned for this international event, its boutique shops, cafes and restaurants all serving to offer up an eclectic hangout for event-goers with time on their hands between sessions.
Standing at left, Laura Wolfrom, owner of Bistro La Belle, checked in on our group at lunch
Bistro La Belle is one of several distinctive restaurants on Midway’s Railroad Street
Next door, Wonderland Book Cafe awaited its lunch crowd
In addition to bread pudding with bourbon sauce, we had an option of vanilla ice cream with an almond wafer
