New for 2025 in Lech am Arlberg
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.
Repurposed event venues – a silver bullet
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.
Europe’s finest celebrations of alcohol
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.
Marginal gains for conference organisers
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.
The Arlberg opens – winter is here
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.
Snow conditions in the Alps
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.
Near-flung Europe – April incentive travel gems on our doorstep
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.
IBTM Barcelona 2024 – the highlights
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.
5 ways incentive travel offers solutions to over-tourism
Incentive travel has many positive components that make it ideal for guiding mass tourism in addressing local residents' grievances in many tourism hotspots.
Stavanger – west coast beauty
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?
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
Skiing starts on the Stubai Glacier, Innsbruck
Oct. 11, 2021
The leaves are falling and the days shortening – all this means glacier skiing. This weekend marked the start of the winter ski season in Tirol,...
Stubai opens - Read more
Blink and it’s back – the 21/22 winter ski season is go!
Oct. 8, 2021
Snow is falling, lifts are running, and expectations are high for winter 21/22. After a cancelled 20/21 winter, there’s palpable excitement in the mountains that winter 21/22 should be a markedly more typical experience, with foreign guests again enjoying the splendour of the Alps.
Winter 21/22 kicking off - Read more
Hedonistic sustainability – the ultimate win, win.
Oct. 5, 2021
How better do we really want to build our post-COVID world? There is the tantalising prospect that we can create infrastructure to simultaneously meet our climate and hedonistic needs, examples of which were springing up across the world before COVID-19 arrived. So, are our decision-makers going to be courageous or revert to type?
Hedonistic sustainability - Read more
The activities we’ve missed
July 7, 2021
In a world of Deliveroo, Netflix and Amazon, there aren’t too many pleasures that are out of reach when we have a digital connection. Leisure...
More about what we've missed
The experiences we’ve missed
June 11, 2021
We’ve certainly endured many new experiences during the pandemic, but you would be hard pushed to describe many as positive – maybe reconnecting with...
Read more
Futuristic meeting & event venues to drop jaws
June 7, 2021
In a world of relentless technological leaps, we are conditioned to look forward in anticipation of the inevitable, disruptive products and services that continually emerge. Future-focused is the only way for most enterprises. So, when a team comes together for a meeting, incentive event, product launch, whatever the goal, it pays to ensure the backdrop is visionary.
Futuristic event venues - Read more
Ride the rails to some Euro gems
June 2, 2021
Regular rail commuters may justifiably struggle with the notion that trains can offer the quickest, most comfortable and cheapest transit to some incredible destinations. We look at a selection of northern European gems that can be seamlessly reached via Eurostar services from central London, offer thrills such as your own seat, unoccupied walkways and arrival in unfamiliar lands.
Green travel - Read more
The cities we’ve missed
May 26, 2021
Rural areas have been highly prized assets during the pandemic. Clean air, social distances and nature to help recalibrate of personal values, have...
Read more
The end of the winter 20/21, what will the next one look like?
May 20, 2021
Last weekend, we took our final ski of the 2020/21 winter. It brought to a close a unique, salvaged, salvaging season, one that nearly never happened....
Read more
The pools we’ve missed – our top 5 swimming pools
May 13, 2021
Watching UK lidos and swimming lakes open over recent weeks has added to the excitement of the trajectory the country is on. Witnessing the joy of...
Read more
Project to make the best skiing in Innsbruck bigger & better edges closer
May 10, 2021
Long a dotted line on the Innsbruck region ski map, the decision as to whether Muttereralm / Götzens ski areas will finally be linked to the fantastic...
Linking Innsbruck ski areas - Read more
The food we’ve missed
May 7, 2021
Home food delivery has helped to keep us sane over the last 12 months. But dining in the confines of a home school, home office, overnight...
Read more
2 into 1 – the emerging congestion for winter 21/22
May 4, 2021
Client feedback suggests that a cancelled winter hasn’t been well received by corporate teams and they are already in the process of arranging their...
Read more
The sounds we’ve missed
April 30, 2021
AirPods used to be the preserve of ‘personal time’. Audio books, Spotify or those moments when you Facetime friends from the Seoul Metro. But never in...
Read moreThe end of virtual backgrounds - scenery to reformat the mind
April 26, 2021
Vehicle spray during a bumper-to-bumper commute was never a highlight of modern living. Home office comes along and soon enough we’re crawling up the...
Read more
Après ski 2.0 – the future of ski boot dancing in a socially distanced world
April 22, 2021
In theory, 2m distancing and caps on group sizes should spell the end of après ski as we know it. The schnapps ski, long seen as a team unifier would...
Read more
Waiting for the last run in a place where skiing is a birthright
April 6, 2021
Back in autumn, when borders were closing and public health pressure mounted, an Austrian official stated that skiing was a birthright. The ski lifts stayed open.
Last run of strangest winter - Read more