About

Our team has been creating and curating experiences for companies, organizations, trade associations and busy executives for over 20 years. Global Events and Retreats is a division of Creative Strategic Solutions founded by Caryn Saitz.

Our experience managers are creative, detail oriented, skilled in customer service, logistics, and are all well traveled. We have worked with Companies, trade associations and and with global leaders from Entrepreneurs Organization (EO) and Young Presidents Organization (YPO) for more than 15 years. We understand the busy lifestyle and needs of entrepreneurs and corporate executives and the desire for unique, once in a lifetime experiences  – both in-person and virtually.

Meet our team

Caryn Saitz
Founder and President
Caryn Saitz has been an entrepreneur for over 25 years and has created and sold several companies over that time frame including Barrels of Fun, Masters of the Web, and The Volunteerist. She started her career with Liz Claiborne Accessories and built a sales organization that took sales from $0-7.5M in just a few years.

Caryn’s experience spans many industries with significant experience and contacts in life sciences, technology financial services, retail, education and government. Caryn has an MBA from Northeastern University and a BA from Brandeis University with a concentration in Politics and Urban Studies.

As an entrepreneur, Caryn has gravitated to working with entrepreneurs as she has a keen understanding of their needs, challenges and pace. She has worked with EO (Entrepreneurs Organization) and YPO (Young Presidents Organization) for over 9 years helping these member led organizations create and execute retreats, events, sponsorship, and recruit and retain new members. Her love of travel and creating experiences has been honed with these organizations and her corporate clients.

Caryn recently authored two papers on economic and workforce development: Revisiting Employment Trends in the New Economy: Education and Training in the City of Cambridge; and Policies that Affect Business Creation at the Municipal Level” for a private think tank in Boston.

Caryn sits on the board of directors of Cambridge School Volunteers, Entrepreneurs’ Organization Boston, and the Advisory Board of East End House, as well as on their Cooking for a Cause Committee.

Caryn has mentored FIRST robotics teams for the past 4 years from Newton Massachusetts. The teams have made it to the State Championships as well to the World Championship in the Georgia Dome. The teams have won awards for Gracious Professionalism, Teamwork and Innovative Solutions.

In her free time, Caryn loves to travel and explore, cook, hang with her nephews, make jewelry and pursue her love of photography.

Dianne Brennick
Experience Manager
Dianne Brennick has worked as an Administrative and Operations professional for over 20 years and has worked with start-up’s, small companies and associations during most of that time including Mimio, SmarterTravel Media, Rive Technology, Entrepreneurs Organization, FBI Citizens Academy Alumni Association and Institute of Coaching Professional Association. Dianne specializes in event planning and management, project & program management, association management and social media.

In her spare time, Dianne loves to travel, cook, read and loves going to the dog park with her Shih Tzu’s. She also enjoys photography and keeping up with the latest in social media and high tech.

Michaela Tally
Experience Manager
Michaela Tally is an event coordinator,professional organizer and entrepreneur. With over 5 years experience managing events as part of the CSS team andfor Harvard University, Michaela has been privileged to work on projects as diverse as the GET/Personal Genome Project conference with CSS, to the Black in Latin America Conference at Harvard. In addition, Michaela founded her own professional organizing company Organizatrix in 2004. Organizatrix specializes in project management and creating organizational systems for small and home-based businesses. Michaela is a proud graduate of the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Sumner Saitz
Experience Manager
Sumner Saitz is an entrepreneur and marketer of businesses, products and services. He founded a turnkey medical practice management software company and grew the company over a 10 year period with clients across the country. Sumner also has a great deal of experience working in product management positions bringing new products to market and growing market shares of more mature products. He has a lot of experience marketing and selling products online. and has worked with companies to optimize their Website designs to maximize sales.

Sumner brings his experience as a business owner to his work with clients. He understands how important all details are to customer satisfaction and long term success. Sumner has been part of the CSS team for over 5 years and works on marketing, business development and event programs.

In his “spare” time, Sumner has coached his son’s hockey teams and FIRST robotics teams. He also is a dedicated fundraiser for the Dana Farber Cancer Institutes Jimmy Fund through his 20 years of riding his bike in the Pan Mass Challenge. Sumner is an alum of Boston University’s School of Management.