Chair Retreat at M|E|A Rising Circle Ranch
Join a select group of fellow Chairs for a private, high-impact experience at the M|E|A Rising Circle Ranch in Santa Fe.
Chip Conley
M|E|A Founder & Executive Chairman
This is not a typical program—Chip has thoughtfully designed a custom experience specifically for Vistage, offering a curated preview of what M|E|A can deliver for your members and retreats.
Through this exclusive immersion, you’ll engage with the setting, programming, and facilitation that define the M|E|A experience—equipping you with a clear understanding of its potential and the ability to confidently advocate for it within the Vistage community.
Hosted by Chip Conley, this immersive retreat offers the opportunity to step out of your day-to-day role and engage with peers on the leadership challenges and opportunities that come with this stage of life.
Together, you’ll explore how to stay relevant, lead with greater clarity, and navigate transitions—both your own and those of the members you serve—with more confidence and effectiveness.
Set on 2,500+ acres in northern New Mexico, Rising Circle Ranch provides an environment intentionally designed for focused conversation, reflection, and peer-to-peer learning.
The Experience
Dates
Friday, August 28 to Monday, August 31, 2026
Check-In Time 3:00 PM, Check-Out Time 10:00 AM
Location
M|E|A Rising Circle Ranch at 77 Saddleback Ranch Road, Lamy, NM 87504
Format
3-night, 4-day immersive retreat
Investment
This retreat is offered as a complimentary, invitation-level experience for select Vistage Chairs only.
Includes
Luxury accommodations of single guest rooms, curated meals, and full program access
Travel
Participants are responsible for airfare to either Santa Fe Regional Airport or Albuquerque International Sunport.
Airport Transportation can be coordinated through MEA and will be an additional cost of $75 per way per person from Santa Fe Regional Airport or $125 per way per person from Albuquerque International Sunport.
What to Pack
Our dress code is comfortable & casual. Pack layers, comfortable shoes, activewear, swimsuit, hat and sunglasses.
Questions for MEA?
Who This Is For
This experience is designed for Vistage Chairs who are:
Why This Matters
The most effective Chairs continue to evolve. This experience is designed to help you:
A premium retreat experience—offered at no cost to select participants.
Key Focus Areas
Transitional Intelligence (TQ) for Chairs and Members
Strengthen your ability to guide leaders through critical transitions—navigating endings, the “messy middle,” and new beginnings with greater structure and impact.
Reframing Aging & Leadership Longevity
Examine the data and mindset shifts that influence long-term leadership effectiveness, resilience, and fulfillment.
Evolving Purpose in the Chair Role
Clarify how your sense of purpose is changing—and how to align your next chapter with the value you bring to your members and your own life.
Operationalizing Wisdom in Leadership
Translate experience into actionable insight—improving decision-making, deepening group conversations, and elevating your impact as a Chair.
Daily Agenda
DAY ONE
Friday, August 28, 2026
3:00 pm
Arrivals to M|E|A Rising Circle Ranch
5:30 pm
Welcome Reception
6:15 pm
Gourmet Dinner
7:00 pm
Orientation, MEA Content, “If you really knew me exercise….”
8:30 pm
Fireside Chat & S’Mores
DAY TWO
Saturday, August 29, 2026
6:30 am
Light Breakfast
7:30 am
Mindful Movement Session
8:30 am
Full Breakfast
10:00 am
Logistics and Wisdom Circle
11:00 am
Session 1: Building TQ (Transitional Intelligence) for Leaders & Companies
While IQ and EQ are essential for leadership and life, TQ - being able to navigate personal and company transitions adeptly - is a modern skill that deserves more attention. MEA has created an effective methodology to help people and organizations build their TQ based upon the anatomy of a typical transition that includes the ending, the messy middle, and the beginning - with successful coping mechanisms for each phase.
1:15 pm
Lunch
Activity Options: Massage $150, Horseback Riding $125, Spacruzzi, and Gym
3:00 pm
Session 2: Reframing Aging & Embracing Longevity
Do you have a growth or a fixed mindset when it comes to approaching midlife and growing older? Based upon Chip Conley’s bestselling book “Learning to Love Midlife: 12 Reasons Why Life Gets Better With Age,” this session will focus on the social science of longevity: the #1 variable for living a longer, happier life is social relationships; shifting one’s mindset about aging from a negative to a positive adds 7.5 years; and learning to let go of identities and limiting beliefs that no longer serve is a core part of successful growth in midlife and beyond.
5:00 pm
Great Midlife Edit Ritual
This crescendos into a collective ritual - that offers a deep sense of cohort bonding - in which each person throws into the fire a mindset that they’re letting go of while welcoming a new mindset that will serve them better.
5:30 pm
Restorative Sound Bath
6:30 pm
Gourmet Dinner
7:30 pm
Campfire Songs & Guitar
DAY THREE
Sunday, August 30, 2026
6:30 am
Light Breakfast
7:00 am
Ridgetop Rally & Milagro Hike
8:30 am
Full Breakfast
10:00 am
Logistics and Wisdom Circle
11:00 am
Session 3: Cultivating Purpose
How we define purpose evolves in midlife and beyond. Often, we move from a couple of big P purposes to a portfolio of small P purposes, but most of us don’t have a process for making this shift. MEA has developed its own approach to helping mid-lifers (defined as anyone from 35-75) to make sense of their evolving purpose and how to either double-down in purpose for what you’re currently doing or how you use TQ skills to explore a new purpose path.
1:15 pm
Lunch
Activity Options: Massage $150, Horseback Riding $125, Spacruzzi, and Gym
3:00 pm
Session 4: Awakening Wisdom for Leaders & Companies
Human wisdom is meant to be the balance to the growing dominance of AI in our lives, but few of us have been taught wisdom management practices to make sense of what we’ve learned. MEA defines wisdom as “metabolized experience mindfully shared for the common good” and has taught leaders and leadership teams practices that have helped them build their effective decision-making. As the world’s first midlife wisdom school, MEA has built a global reputation for demystifying, elevating and operationalizing the value of wisdom at work and in life, based upon Chip Conley’s bestselling book “Wisdom@Work” that chronicles how he used wisdom practices to help turn Airbnb into the world’s most valuable hospitality company.
5:00 pm
Commitments, Re-entry, MEA Alumni Programs
5:30 pm
Poolside Happy Hour at Chip’s Home, Wisdom Well
6:30 pm
Gourmet Dinner
7:30 pm
Graduation and Appreciation
DAY FOUR
Monday, August 31, 2026
6:30 am - 10:00 am
Breakfast and Departures
Reserve Your Place
This is a limited-capacity experience exclusively for select Vistage Chairs—and space is expected to fill quickly.
If you’re ready to invest in your own development so you can better serve the leaders who rely on you, take the next step.
