Along with the popular event setups – like parliamentary, row seating, block or U-form styles, – you can try out these latest event arrangement methods.
Are you already familiar with fishbowl, world café, barcamp, design thinking or walk & talk? All these approaches let your team's creativity flow and encourage everyone to be involved. Our MICE team can only recommend!
A circle of chairs (4 to 6 chairs) and one or several outer circles of chairs are set up. Only the participants in the inner circle are expected to talk, while those in the outer circle listen. Should a participant from the outer circle want to join the discussion, they take a free chair in the inner circle or stand behind one of the speakers. The speaker should then bring their thoughts to an end and leave the circle. The other person then takes the free chair.
Participants in the inner circle can leave their place at any time, either to take a break from the discussion or after have already said their points. Once you have left the inner circle, you can of course rejoin again afterwards. Should a speaker get too dominant, this comes to public attention immediately.
In practice, after some initial uncertainty, a natural ‘coming and going’ feeling develops, and this does not interrupt the debate. Those who talk too much are quickly, and preferably, “kicked out”.
It is recommended to have a moderator in a fishbowl discussion. The moderator can sit in the inner circle or support the discussion from “outside”. The advantage is that the public is more involved.
Group size: 20 - 30 people Session duration: 1 - 2 hours
Advantages
Dynamic, interactive group discussion
Small manageable discussion circle, listeners in the outer circle can join the discussion at any time by moving into the inner circle
Unrestrained development of discussion, new topics can arise at any time
The fishbowl method is not suitable for pure decision-making discussions, as it is not clear how many people agree with which argument. The method is described as a ‘fishbowl’ "because the people in the discussion are being observed, just like fish in an aquarium”.
During a world café, small groups of people sitting around small tables have conversations with each other in a casual, trust-fostering environment, similar to chatting in a coffee house.
At the beginning, the participants group together and the moderator explains the world café method. At each table, a specific topic or aspect of a topic is discussed. The topics are usually formulated as a question or provocative statement. After that each participant joins one of the tables, and the discussion begins.
Important arguments and statements from the discussion are written on the table covers. After a specified time (e.g. 30 minutes), the moderator gives the signal to change and the participants are requested to move on to the next table, apart from the host. The host's responsibility is passing on the results from the latest discussion to the next group. In this way, the extensive interchange transforms visions and experience into a tight network of ideas.
After each group has visited all tables, or after a certain time, all participants come together again and the results are presented.
Group size: 20 - 30 people, more than 30 people Duration: 2 hours Materials: Tables, table covers to write on, a bell or gong
Advantages
Promotes active, attentive listening
Producing a new vision
Various viewpoints clash to produce innovative approaches
A barcamp describes an open meeting with open workshops where the content and procedure is determined by the participants at the beginning of the meeting and is shaped as the event continues. Barcamps provide for exchange and discussion of content, however, can also partially show concrete results at the end of the event show.
The procedure can be summarised in the following steps: welcome, introduction round, session planning, sessions and final round. In the welcome stage, the organisers are introduced and the barcamp rules are explained. For the welcome and organisation, a moderator should be chosen in advance to lead everyone through the day and coordinate the session planning. An introduction round follows where the participants introduce themselves with two or three sentences.
In the session planning stage, all participants offering a session present their topic to the group in a few sentences. If people are interested, the topic is incorporated into the session planning. A schedule including room information should be prepared beforehand and placed on a pinboard. The sessions are pinned onto this. The pinboard then serves as a daily programme. 1 hour should be scheduled for each session: 45 minutes for the topic, 15 minutes for participants to move from one session room to another. After the session planning, the participants meet in the individual session rooms.
The content of the session should be recorded (e.g. via Twitter, word document, flipchart). The session topics and the content worked on serve to provide needs analysis for trends and topic needs and can be incorporated into the planning of further events. In the final round, all participants come together again to form a plenum. Photos, tweets and impressions of the day should be collected and presented in the final round. The final round also gives the opportunity to provide feedback on the organisation and the topics.
Group size: 50 - 150 people Duration: 1 - 2 days depending on group size and topics Rooms: Meeting room, plus several break-out rooms/group rooms or seminar rooms Materials: Moderator’s toolbox, several flipcharts, pinboards, pens
Advantages
Topics are not pre-defined, but arise on the spot
Everyone can participate and introduce topics
Very interactive groups, high exchange of experience
New perspectives and creative approaches arise
Many small sessions at the same time on several topics
Design Thinking is a creative and collaborative problem-solving method from a user’s perspective. The aim is to find solutions which are convincing from the point of view of the user. Design thinking keeps the end user in mind, consists of 5 phases which can all be repeated at any time to achieve the best possible outcome.
Design thinking consists of 5 phases: Understanding and observing (empathise), defining problems (define), finding ideas (ideate), developing prototypes (prototype), testing (test). In phase 1, the aim is to mark out the problem, namely from the customer’s (or target group’s) point of view. This is best achieved through interviews, barcamp or social media surveys. In phase 2, the realisations from phase 1 are analysed and interpreted and the problem is defined. In phase 3, various creative ideas are developed. This is done in teams, e.g. in a brainstorming meeting.The ideas are collected on post-it notes. In phase 4, the best ideas are selected and concepts or prototypes are developed which are then tested in phase 5 with the customer (target group).
Phases 1-3 are ideally carried out in a hotel during a 2-3 day event, e.g. day 1 barcamp, fishbowl or interview with customers, days 2 and 3 for phases 2 and 3.
Group size: 20 - 30 people Duration: 1 - 2 days depending on group size and topics Materials: Moderator’s toolbox, several flipcharts, pinboards, pens
Advantages
Refreshing, restructuring or further development of products, services, trade goods
Direct exchange with customers, customer is the focus
Creative problem solving, teamwork, visualisation of solution approaches
Movement sets your body and soul free, and it works even better in the fresh air outdoors. It's hard to be creative if you spend your time looking at the grey walls day by day. Visiting new places brings about new impressions - and new ideas. With the Walk & Talk method, new thought pathways are set free during a stroll through the woods. Researchers from Stanford University have confirmed the creative power of a stroll.
Instead of group work in a group space, participants go on a stroll or light walk through the forest. While walking, participants talk to their walking companions.
During the walk, there is the possibility to swap partners by sometimes walking at the front, in the middle or at the end of the group. If the body is moving, thoughts are also more often on the move and a lively exchange of ideas takes place.
Group size: max 10 people (per walk) Duration of walk: 30 - 60 minutes Materials: Trainers or sturdy shoes, depending on environment
Advantages
Promotes creativity
Refreshes the body and mind
Development of new perspectives and approaches
BE INSPIRED
Meetings & Creativity
Inspire yourself and the others – at conventions, conferences and meetings.
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Check the Space Planning Tool to see where each space is located, or take a 360° tour of our conference atrium and our "Badersee" and "Pfaffenwinkel" meeting rooms in the Seehaus building:
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Treat yourself to delicacies that will indulge all of your senses. Visit our Werdenfels Restaurant during the day and enjoy the view of Germany’s highest mountain. External guests are welcome as well! Then let us welcome you to our Talstation Evenig Bar in the evening: The bar made of illuminated onyx stone, an open fireplace and comfortable lounge furniture provide the perfect setting for engaging in inspiring conversations and making new acquaintances.
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The Loisach Valley offers countless leisure opportunities. Be it sightseeing, relaxing, mountaineering, biking or skiing - here you will find the right activity at any season.
Use our leisure guide below and feel free to contact the reception for assistance.
Discover the Zugspitze area on hikes, biking tours and versatile outdoor activities.
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We are happy to welcome you in our Badersee Blog. Here you would discover a large choice of activities and destinations for your holiday in the Zugspitze area, as well as the current trends related to travel and hotels. Enjoy your reading and feel free to share our blogs with the others. Our editors are out in the nature all year round, you can find their impressions here in the Badersee Blog and in our Leisure Guide as well.
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We live amidst this nature and we spend a lot of time in the mountains at any season. Therefore, it is crucial for us as a local enterprise to contribute to the preservation of our environment and resources. What is good for the environment is also good for our business! We do our best to take care of the environment and treat the resources at our disposal with care. We review our operations on a regular basis to identify and implement new opportunities that would drive our sustainability commitment.
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