MANKATO — A planning retreat for more than 100 Mankato-area leaders nourished a spirit of optimism and cooperation among its attendees, organizers said.

The Greater Mankato Leadership Delegation went on a two-day retreat on April 26 and 27 in a Chaska hotel. It was the same group that had planned to go to Burlington, Vt., a trip canceled because of its expense.

The Chaska excursion was chosen as a middle ground between the Vermont trip and staying at a Mankato hotel, as the delegation did in 2007.

“It was exactly what we were hoping for,” said Barb Embacher, vice president of community development for Greater Mankato Growth, a combined chamber of commerce and economic development group.

“They were able to focus in on the community’s needs in a way that would’ve been harder to do right here in town,” she said. The 2007 retreat, held in the then-new Hilton Garden Inn, left delegates free to take time off to go home or to work.

Despite the recession and layoffs, Embacher said the leaders “came back energized and optimistic” from the Chaska retreat.

The trip cost $525 for business delegates and $375 for everyone else. There were nine public employees — Mankato City Manager Pat Hentges, Mayor John Brady, Councilman Charlie Hurd, Blue Earth County Administrator Dennis McCoy, County Commissioner Colleen Landkamer, Mankato Schools Supt. Ed Waltman, Eagle Lake Mayor Tim Auringer, State Rep. Kathy Brynaert, and Ronda Allis of Region 9.

The Vermont trip would have cost $2,400 for business people and $1,500 for everyone else.

Delegates noted the absence of North Mankato officials. City Administrator Wendell Sande said the council received an invitation but decided against it “given the budget situation and the reductions they were making in other areas.”

He said North Mankato continues to cooperate on ventures such as Envision 2020 and the City Center Business Association.

Hentges singled out the quality of the speakers, which included Jim McCormick, the chancellor of the Minnesota Colleges and State Universities system; Peter Hutchinson, president of the Bush Foundation; John Elmore, U.S. Bank executive vice president of community banking and Congressman Tim Walz.

“We would not have been able to get those people to come had it been in Mankato,” Hentges said.

A major part of these trips involves allowing the delegates to socialize and Hurd, serving his first term on the council, said it was a good way to get to know people.

He also said there was discussion about combining governmental services, though not units of government. In other words, cities could share police departments, but they would probably not merge entirely.

One of the priorities identified by a leadership committee included “prepare for and embrace increased diversity in our community.”

Despite that goal, there were few ethnic minorities among the delegates.

Bukata Hayes, executive director of the Greater Mankato Diversity Council, led a session and asked the group to “look around and see who wasn’t in the room and get those folks at the table.”

Even so, he said more leaders were interested in preparing for diversity than before the meeting.

It’ll be up to many institutions — including Greater Mankato Growth, local businesses and the diversity council — to help the area be welcoming and inclusive to minorities, Hayes said.

During the next several weeks, a planning committee will turn the priorities identified in the retreat into action steps.

The group would still like to visit other cities for future visits when the economy improves. She said they’ll “give a hard look” to Burlington.