Zollverein – a truly unique conference venue
Bigger meeting venues frequently sacrifice character for functionality. Constrained by orthodoxy and economics, large capacity conference halls can lack magic. Yet some conference venues offer unique and stimulating settings for large audiences.
Swiss corporate events – by rail
Plans are underway to establish direct train routes from London to Switzerland with the respective governments signing an MOU last month. For those who don’t want to wait, the London to Switzerland train route is open, fast, comfortable and sustainable. It is a superb way to attend an event in Switzerland.
IMEX 2025 highlights
Just back from the annual IMEX conference in Frankfurt – a meeting point where the business events industry comes together under one roof.
Winter ends with a snow party
Last week, there was a burning snowman in Zurich. Last weekend, there were the final days of glacier skiing in Innsbruck - winter is ending. But it goes out with a bang, with a weekend of sunshine to cap a cold, snowy week.
Burning a snowman to end winter
Zurich was in summer mode last week, with mid-20s temperatures for the Sechseläuten spring festival and the torching of the Böögg – the unfortunate snowman who is burnt and blown up in front of thousands of partying Zurichers. This week, the Alps are being blanketed with a late winter snow dump. It’s all happening.
Corporate skiing through the ages – a seasonal guide
Where to ski, at what time of the year and why. The beauty of skiing in the Alps is that there is a right time and place to ski, in pretty much every month of the year. Event planners have so many options to deliver corporate ski trips year-round.
Mountain huts with differing vibes
A key component of any corporate ski trip, group dining in a mountain hut can take various formats, from pit stops to fine dining, wine, and some Saturday Night Fever on the table.
Art in the open – an event gift that keeps giving
Art arouses emotions, inspires thought, and encourages a deeper understanding of ourselves and our world. A brush with public art during a corporate event can greatly elevate the moment.
Cervinia - the Italian roof of the Alps
Even in the highest ski resort in Italy, you have to arch your back to take in the peaks above the village. The Cervinia horizon includes the highest skiing in the Alps and the mighty Matterhorn.
Morzine-Avoriaz – the best corporate ski trip in France?
5 reasons why we rate Morzine-Avoriaz amongst the best, if not the best, corporate ski resort in France.
Half a metre falls on Tirol
Jan. 29, 2025
A solid half a metre of snow fell on Tirol, Austria in the last 24-hours, with even more in drifts. The biggest dump of the season so far and it was met with clear skies. What a day to be a skier!
Dig that out - Read more
Meeting under water in Berlin
Jan. 17, 2025
Clients can meet on towering peaks across the Alps or beneath sea level in the Netherlands. Berlin offers a fantastic slant on this underwater experience in a style unique to this incredible city.
Meet in the deep end - Read more
Cold, sunny and powdery – snow conditions in the Alps
Jan. 11, 2025
Some days, you head up to the mountains expecting a leisurely piste ski under sunny skies. Then, a riding buddy points out some untracked, distant couloirs.
Powder weekend - Read more
Hospiz Alm – the most celebrated hut in the Alps
Jan. 8, 2025
With roots as a 14th-century high-alpine refuge, the Hospiz Alm is possibly the most famous mountain hut in the Alps. Today, it serves après ski crowds, gourmands and wine connoisseurs. It’s probably the most famous hut in the Alps.
Fine wine & high-life - Read more
Kitzbühel – the most atmospheric resort in the Alps
Jan. 5, 2025
There are arguably prettier villages, certainly more dramatic horizons, and there are undoubtedly resorts with more potent après ski, than Kitzbühel, but it is hard to look beyond Kitzbühel for atmosphere – the place is absolutely captivating.
Be ready to be charmed - Read more
Innsbruck – the best ski transfer airport in the world
Jan. 2, 2025
Airport transfers are the least enjoyable part of any corporate ski trip. Resorts such as Val Thorens and Val d’Isère are victims of the Alps geology and require lengthy airport transfers. But Innsbruck, located in one of the principal valleys of the Alps, offers some of the ski world’s shortest airport transfers.
The best airport transfer - Read more
January snow conditions set to be excellent
Dec. 23, 2024
The season for corporate ski trips rarely includes Christmas or New Year, but the events come thick and fast when the second week of January arrives. The exceptional conditions in the Alps right now will ensure great skiing when the corporate ski trips begin in a couple of weeks.
Best Xmas conditions for many years - Read more
New for 2025 in Lech am Arlberg
Dec. 19, 2024
Whether it was the people or the skies, change was in the air yesterday in Lech am Arlberg, as the most charming resort in the Alps geared up for the busiest weeks of the calendar and a weather system forecast to bring in more than a metre of snow.
New snow and venues - Read more
Repurposed event venues – a silver bullet
Dec. 18, 2024
There is no more sustainable way to create an event space than repurposing an existing site. It creates new corporate event opportunities while maintaining the destination's story. Repurposed event venues are often jaw-dropping.
Venues that time travel - Read more
Europe’s finest celebrations of alcohol
Dec. 10, 2024
As the festive season approaches, we take you to 3 of the finest celebrations of alcohol in Europe. Some topics just deserve to be published.
Premiere league of incentives - Read more
Marginal gains for conference organisers
Dec. 6, 2024
One of the more thought-provoking presentations of 2024 was from Felix Rundel in Berlin. He takes the marginal gains approach to conference design, where conference organisers are given structured feedback on the elements with the potential to enhance the delegate experience.
Learn from the best - Read more
The Arlberg opens – winter is here
Dec. 5, 2024
Glacier skiing beginning in September is always a joyous moment, but when the big beasts of skiing open their slopes, it feels like winter has arrived.
Day 2 and blue - Read more
Snow conditions in the Alps
Nov. 29, 2024
Winter is rolling in, with fresh snow over the last couple of days greeting the opening ski areas. Austria boasts the biggest skiable areas, Zermatt the best snowpack.
News from the slopes - Read more
Near-flung Europe – April incentive travel gems on our doorstep
Nov. 27, 2024
While the corporate ski season is upon us, minds also drift toward the onset of spring and incentive events in far-flung locations. The truth is, incentive trip riches are on our doorstep in Europe.
Incentive travel gems for April - Read more
IBTM Barcelona 2024 – the highlights
Nov. 22, 2024
The corporate event world has just wrapped up another IBTM. It remains one of the great ways to ‘speed date’ the best meeting and incentive event suppliers around. There were many highlights, but 3 stood out.
IBTM 2024 highlights - Read more
5 ways incentive travel offers solutions to over-tourism
Nov. 19, 2024
Incentive travel has many positive components that make it ideal for guiding mass tourism in addressing local residents' grievances in many tourism hotspots.
Incentive travel is a force for good - Read more
Stavanger – west coast beauty
Nov. 12, 2024
Podium places in Norway’s destination beauty pageant are hard to come by. So, who would have thought Norway’s energy capital would stand out in a very competitive crowd?
Where is the oil - Read more
Things are getting good in Bad
Nov. 4, 2024
The 19th and 20th-century destination of choice for high society, Bad Gastein has lived up to its name in recent years - its shuttered hotels and Congress Centre told a story. Bad, though, is turning good.
Bad gets good - Read more
When does the 24/25 ski season start? September 20th.
Sept. 17, 2024
The storm which ravaged central Europe this week brought huge snow deposits over the higher elevations of the Alps.
Winter opens in 3 days - Read more
Corporate event venues – 4 unique venues in Berlin
July 16, 2024
Behind the image of a ‘Made in Germany’ industrial powerhouse, the country hides a secret - Germans are seriously fun-loving people. This manifests itself in quirky and unique corporate event venues, nowhere more so than the truly unique capital, Berlin.
Berlin's unique venues - Read more
St Anton snow conditions – best of the season
April 23, 2024
With roof-bending snow falling across the Arlberg, the end of April 2024 delivered the best snow conditions of the winter in St Anton. The question is - why did the ski area have to close?
April powder in St Anton - Read more
Laughing at future corporate ski trips
April 5, 2024
In 2007, visionary comedians created a celebrated comedy festival in the Austrian mountains – the Altitude Festival – how prophetic the name now is.
Innovating the corporate ski trip - Read more
Corporate ski event planners – 5 ways to avoid a therapist
Jan. 2, 2024
Winter 2022/23 closed with the finest conditions of the season and winter 2023/24 opens with the best snow for many, many years. Is planning a...
Stress-reduced corporate ski planning - Read more
Throwback 23 - Corporate event highlights of 2023
Dec. 28, 2023
Incomprehensibly amazing corporate event highlights from the last year include mind-blowing visual art in Bordeaux, a trio of Italian tenors...
Corporate event highlights of 2023 - Read more
The Arlberg opening weekend – the best conditions in recent memory
Dec. 3, 2023
With more than half a metre of snow falling across the Arlberg and frigid, piercing blue skies today, this was as good as it gets for opening weekends anywhere.
The Arlberg opens - Read more
North to south, Italian corporate events are the envy of the world
Nov. 30, 2023
There are few countries in the world to offer such a diversity of event destinations under one roof. From the glaciers of the north to the emerald...
Events in Italy are the envy of the world - Read more
Sölden opens early, in a winter that arrived late
Nov. 10, 2023
In a normal year, we would be at least 6 weeks into the ski season on the high-altitude glaciers of the Alps. In a normal winter, we would still be a...
Sölden ski resort opens - Read more
Venice in November - cloudless & crowd-less (almost)
Nov. 6, 2023
It is stretching things to say that Venice is ever crowd-less, but early November is a time where the streets, canals and bridges of Venice can be...
Venice in November - Read more
The switch is flicked on winter
Nov. 4, 2023
60cm of snow fell on the Austrian glaciers yesterday, Kitzbühel is blanketed and Ischgl and Obergurgl are on track to open in the next few weeks....
60cm of snow falls - Read more
Europe’s top tables – fine dining, in finer places
Aug. 2, 2023
Cities are becoming giant food courts, with everything under one roof - convenient, and enjoyable, yet unquestionably lacking. Signature regional...
Fine dining, in finer places - read more
Bassins des lumières – beauty flourishes from evil
June 30, 2023
There can be few more poignant stories of redemption than Bordeaux’s Base sous-marine, the Nazi U-boat behemoth that now houses the world’s largest digital art exhibition – a staggering visual display amongst the waters of the disused submarine pen. Bassins des lumières is absolutely unmissable, whether as a visit during an event or as host to a privatised event function.
Prepare to be astonished - Read more
A 2023 refresh of Chamonix-Mont-Blanc après ski
Jan. 16, 2023
Bars come and go in ski resorts, and we thought it was worth a refresh of some of the Chamonix-Mont-Blanc après ski bars. As project tasks go, this wasn’t a hard role to sell.
Best apres ski in Chamonix - Read more
5 reasons why corporate ski trips are peerless.
Dec. 12, 2022
What is that makes corporate ski events so uniquely special, dates in calendars that excite like nothing else? Whilst team events in different seasons...
Corporate ski trips deliver like no other - Read more
Made in Europe – the west is the best
Nov. 30, 2022
Looking at the unique diversity of Europe, we are travelling from the magical, undiscovered southern heel of Italy to the oasis’s that lie on the...
The west is the best - Read moreBlink and it’s back – skiing returns to the Alps
Oct. 18, 2022
Cool and wet weather in the Austrian Alps over the last couple of weeks has delivered the timely opening of the glacier skiing areas. Lifts running on...
Read more
IMEX 22 – a window onto the post-covid events industry
June 9, 2022
IMEX 22 wrapped up last week. There was a real buzz about the place, with a sense that business in the industry is booming as well as some fault lines...
Read more
Voss Gondola – the greenest ski lift in the world?
Jan. 24, 2022
The first ski lifts belched out diesel in off-grid locations. Electrification followed and alpine air became less like rush-hour Beijing. More...
A unique and green ski lift - Read moreBienvenue - the dash to the Alps
Jan. 18, 2022
Supply side bottlenecks are likely to play a big role in the remainder of a winter season that has been beset by changing restrictions. The news of...
Read more
Bergen – the picture postcard was shot here
Dec. 16, 2021
Norway offers almost incomparable joy. It’s such an overwhelming experience, that it’s hard to determine the source of the magic. Is it the sense of...
Beautiful Bergen - Read more
Northern lights in Bodø - spellbinding arctic Norway
Nov. 1, 2021
Events are all about taking clients out of their daily experiences, to elevate thoughts, reboot ambitions and create lasting memories. In our crowded,...
Read more about magical Bodø