I've been to many scrapbook retreats over the past decade - some I return to on an annual basis. I'm still looking for a quilt retreat to try (NC region). Unfortunately my son's hockey schedule interferes with one of the guild retreats that I'd like to attend.
The thing that makes me most uncomfortable is sitting in the middle of the room, I much prefer a wall at my back - mostly so that I don't feel like I'm missing anything. Varying amounts of work get done which depends on my motivation (lots at the retreat in May where I worked on Gus's Scout album) not so much in February when I got sidetracked by a crisis at work (I was the one leaving the room to take calls and finally took a walk on the beach to calm down).
I do prefer retreat rooms where the music is your own choice (via headphones) as I've been driven from a room by horrible music in the past (really nice people with a hideous taste in music...).
Funniest story a friend told me from a retreat that I missed attending. These were shared 8 foot tables. When C arrived, she put a piece of masking tape to divide the table in half and told her table mate (we'll call her A) to just let her know if she was intruding on A's space. C is a social being (as am I) and wanders around to chat with friends a lot. Each time she returned to the table, she noticed that she had managed to intrude on A's spot, and moved her stuff back. What she didn't realize was that every time she left, A moved the tape by about 3 inches (very patient practical joke played by an unsuspected character). By the end of the weekend, C was down to 2 feet of space and completely oblivious to the smaller real estate on the table until her friends pointed it out to her. Much hilarity ensued.
Cheers, K