Hotels are not just places for spending the night anymore. No. Tapping into the events market, it’s now the norm for hotels to provide hall spaces for weddings, parties and conferences. Depending on the particular hotel chosen, there’s a whole range of spaces on offer – from small rooms to large halls and every other type of space in-between to fit most budgets.
Staying at a hotel is one thing, going there for a teaching conference is another. Couple that with a landscape to die for and it’s a hat trick made in heaven.
That’s what the region of Erzgebirge offers.
Erzgebirge is a lovely looking district located just along the Eastern side of the German-Czech border. It’s blessed with more than its fair share of glorious mountains, beautiful valleys, a tradition of expert craft making, delightful villages and old towns.
The region was named Erzgebirge after the ore that was found there centuries ago (12th century, to be precise). Erzgebirge translates to Metal Ore Mountain Range. It’s also commonly referred to as The Ore Mountains.
There’s a whole manner of things to do outside attending a conference at a hotel like Hotel Erzgebirge Mountains (Hotel Erzgebirge). It would be a shame not to visit and explore the old mines that still exist today, or to attend the mining parades that are periodically held in memory of an important and industrious part of the region’s history. Or to see and buy the wonderful wooden crafts that are created there. The area is well known for producing some of the finest traditional Christmas products in the world – some which include Nutcrackers and Christmas pyramids.
And then there’s the skiing! Skiing Erzgebirge (Skifahren Erzgebirge) is an activity that’s widely available to beginners and more experienced skiers alike. But it doesn’t just stop there – a whole range of other winter sports are on offer such as ice skating, snowboarding and snow hiking.
Different conferences have different requirements depending on size and duration. Though there are several hotels in Erzgebirge that can probably accommodate this, it’s advisable to book in advance. It’s best to compile a list of requirements that are needed over the conference’s duration and check this against what a hotel can offer (for e.g., number of guestrooms, size of conference room, parking spaces available, etc.)
Some hotels provide equipment commonly used in conferences such as computers with the software required to run presentations as well as flipcharts, projectors and computerised whiteboards. Some might even have an in-house technician or engineer who can be hired out over the duration of the conference.
One can imagine that it might feel slightly surreal to attend a conference in such a beautiful place and that it might actually be a distraction. But if one considers it to be a lovely holiday in Erzgebirge …with a conference about education thrown in as an afterthought, that should do the trick!
