Émilie Wake said Braincamp‘s two upcoming tech and entrepreneurship retreats to the woods of Val-Morin will be a wonder for folks who spend their entire week staring at a computer screen. Or, more precisely, those entrepreneurs who need to get out of their own bubble.

Braincamps are 48-hour creative conferences meant to “regenerate the creative cells.” About 40 people who are ambitious, curious and eager to learn travel to a rural setting for a weekend to join five proven entrepreneurs. This Fall, braincamps will be held on both the October 21-23 and November 11-13 weekends.

The weekend include campfires, hikes through the forest, collective brainstorms and talks by inspirational speakers and experts from creative fields. It’s the “perfect backdrop to push the limits of your creativity, develop the tools to be more creative, be more efficient in daily life and create strong connections.”

“We get people outside of their daily life,” Wake told MTLinTECH. “When you start a business you’re always in front of a computer and it’s really hard to find a clear vision. Especially in the tech world, we get so focused on what we’re doing that its very important to take a step back.”

But this step back isn’t cheap. Far from it: tickets range from $575 for October’s entrepreneurship-focused event and $575 to $750 for November’s tech-focused event. Braincamp’s roster of partners include f.&co., Massivart, Les Inspirés, Matière Brute, Le Couvent, Alex Cuisine, Essentrics, Share the bus and Coach d’Exception.

The roughly 40 guests in October will get to mingle and spend time with entrepreneurs like Smarthalo cofounder Xavier Peich, Distillerie St. Laurent founder Joel Pelletier, Stories for Humanity‘s Carine Valleau, Dentelle Fleurs founder Gabrielle Lacasse and business coach Olivia Commune.

We always get speakers from a variety of entrepreneurial backgrounds. A lot of workshops are just about tech entrepreneurs and I like that we have Xavier Peich, who’s in the tech world, and Joel Pelletier, who started a distillery. He’s one of the biggest gin producers in the province and it’s a completely different skill set. Still, whether you launch a grocery store or an app, you’re still an entrepreneur and I think we need to get all these people together and not divide them into categories.

- Émilie Wake

And those guests who get to learn from the entrepreneurs are in for something special, said Wake. It’s a big boost of energy for people, who get to talk about their business ideas and gain fresh perspective from dozens of other people. And its far from the typical conference where hundreds of silent observers watch as a tech CEO delivers a largely one-sided talk.\

“You don’t get to really talk or go into deeper discussion and really learn because you’re just sitting and listening to a speaker,” said Wake. “We always had that in mind.”

October’s event will be the fifth Braincamp. The actual idea for it all came to both Wake and business partner Marie-France Côté Nolet when they heard that a friend’s friend was renovating a rural home called “au Couvent” in Val-Morin.

“When we saw the place my partner decided to book it for a weekend and afterwards she said we just had to bring people here,” Wake told MTLinTECH. “We brainstormed and quickly made the website, calling it Braincamp. It was really inspired by au Couvent.”

For those interested in participating in either of Braincamp’s two upcoming retreats, they can check out the site here.