One month on: What Horizonte left behind

A month ago, more than 120 Magnolians landed in Paguera for Horizonte - our annual gathering that has become part ritual, part reset, part highlight of the year. What people brought back with them was harder to quantify, yet more durable than any slide deck.

Monday, 28th of April. Most of us made it - and only two missed flights is, by any reasonable measure, a win. By the time the last transfers rolled into Paguera, the beach was already doing its work: ball games, sunglasses, salt air, and the kind of first night that loosens shoulders and opens conversations.

"There's something special about that first moment - arriving, seeing everyone together, feeling the energy, and knowing the event is beginning," wrote one Magnolian.

The upcoming two days of Horizonte were dense. The mornings began, for those who chose it, with coastal runs and yoga sessions organized by colleagues who'd volunteered to lead them. Then the rooms filled.

Tuesday began with the question every company needs to ask out loud: where are we, and where are we going? Dave, Magnolia DXP’s CEO, presentation became one of those stories that travels. Not because it went smoothly, but because it didn't. A number of power cuts, dark screens, but despite all the technical challenges, he kept going without missing a beat. What came through, undimmed, were numbers and honesty: a clear-eyed account of what Magnolia DXP is working toward, and a reminder that getting there is a shared effort.

The gala dinner at Mhares Sea Club is the image that has settled deepest into collective memory, and it's easy to understand why.

The venue sits on the cliffs above the western coast, its terrace open to the sea. As the sun dropped toward the horizon, the evening added one more layer: A saxophonist whose notes drifted out over the water, turning a beautiful dinner into something closer to a memory in real time.

On Thursday, the meeting rooms stayed empty. Buses set off in multiple directions. And Magnolians dispersed across the island in ways that, by the end of the day, had produced some of the week's most vivid stories.

The canyoning group descended through the Serra de Tramuntana, navigating through the kind of problem-solving that has nothing to do with roadmaps and everything to do with trust.

"Canyoning was a totally new experience for me. And thrilling," wrote one participant, which covers it fairly well.

The cultural discovery group headed to Alcudia, where master glassblowers worked in the kind of focused, wordless choreography.

Just two of the options Magnolians had that day - but both captured something the whole Thursday was about: trading the conference room for the island, doing something physical and shared and a little outside of your comfort zone. The picnic lunch in the mountains didn't hurt either.

We tested our musical knowledge in the quiz first, then karaoke started, and any remaining professional composure was cheerfully abandoned.

The heart-shaped sunglasses came out- indoors, unironically. The mic passed between people who, forty-eight hours earlier, had been debating quarterly targets in a conference room. Most performances were genuinely good. I mean, they were all surely entertaining -every single one of them.

There are many KPIs to measure an event like this, but the one that matters most is the words people reached for when asked to sum up the week: connecting, unity, enriching, kinship, foundational, epic, and wonderful. And yes – exhausting too, which at this point feels entirely like a compliment.

"High-performing teams aren't built on Google Meet. They're built in moments like this," wrote one Magnolian.

That's the thing Horizonte does, if it's done right. Not the slides, not the agenda, not even the cliffside sunset — though that helps. It's the accumulation of small moments across five days that slowly shifts how people see each other. The CEO is talking through a power cut. The glassblower's choreography. The karaoke courage. The first drink at the beach on a Monday evening, when the whole week was still ahead.