Timeline
Business trips organisation
Running your business in the last few months has been probably more challenging than ever. Ordinary situations and meeting due to lockdowns and fear of pandemics have been getting more and more complicated. Still, successful businesses require meetings and talks probably more than ever. Nothing can truly replace eye to eye talks. This is why ITS-Poland helps business people to reconnect and meet for crucial talks. We help with checking current COVID-19 restrictions and the ways how to overcome them. We also assist our clients with all legal procedures regarding crossing borders, arranging transportation and safe places for the meetings. We are happy to say that we have just arranged such individual business trip to Frankfurt in Germany between the 6th and 8th of July. We ensured flight tickets from Warsaw Chopin Airport to Frankfurt and return. We have also booked Mercure Frankfurt Eschborn Helfmann Park Hotel for our client, that is an excellent 4-star property. The hotel is situated in a quiet location with ideal transport links to Frankfurt, the airport and highways. It offers 179 modern rooms with air conditioning and free WIFI. Business travellers can also find here 7 events rooms with natural light for up to 200 people and the view of the skyline from the 5th floor. With more and more people vaccinated all over Europe, business travels are hopefully coming back to normal.
The beauty of small Polish towns
Since COVID 19 pandemics outbreak lots of travellers seek small and safe travel destinations. This time we want to tell you about Uniejów and a private conference that we have organized there. Uniejów is a resort town located by the Warta River in the Łódź Province in the centre of Poland. The town is especially famous for its thermal baths, thermal waters and greenery. The main attraction of the Uniejów complex is to base its activities on the use of one of the few exploited geothermal water resources in the country with a temperature of 68 Celsius degrees, extracted from a depth of 2 thousand meters underground. In addition to hot baths in the modern Uniejów Thermal Complex, visitors can enjoy the tradition and rich history of the city. The magnificent Castle of the Archbishops of Gniezno with the adjacent Castle Park or the historic collegiate church in the centre of the historic Market Square are just some of the local attractions. The meeting took place between the 30th of June and 1st of July 2021 and was planned for 10 participants. The group was residing in Aparthotel Termy Uniejów. We have booked for them a conference room with screen, projector and sound system. Apart from that during the meeting group had lunch and coffee break and, in the evening, private dinner. The whole event was a huge success and gave our guests opportunity to discover the beauties of this cosy thermal resort in the very heart of Poland.
Incentive side events
One of the best parts of international business trips is the fact that you can do some sightseeing and have leisure time in a foreign country. One of such opportunities appeared during a business trip of one of our groups to Greece. The event was taking place in Thessaloniki on the 1st of July and our group had free afternoon and evening. The city is the second largest city in Greece with over 1 million inhabitants. It is located on the Thermaic Gulf, at the north-west corner of the Aegean Sea. The city is renowned for its festivals, events and vibrant cultural life in general and is considered to be Greece’s cultural capital. It also has UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The whole event was planned for 5 hours. We organized for them a panoramic tour of the city on board of a coach with a guide. There were of course also a few stops on the way by the most recognisable Thessaloniki’s monuments. The group had some free time by the coast to enjoy themselves during dinner in one of the famous Thessaloniki’s restaurants. The whole event was a fine and expected break during a packed business schedule. We greatly advice all our groups to plan such short relax breaks during their business travels to make the most of time spent abroad.
International Congresses in Face of COVID-19
Many people think that with COVID-19 pandemics all over the world congresses and conferences cannot take place. It is a huge mistake, especially when we think about such branches of economy as public health, medicine or IT. Advancements in medicine and keeping track of them is totally obligatory for contemporary doctors. This is why even with the strictest anti-COVID policies main international medical events just have to take place and as usual ITS-Poland is completely at your disposal to help with registration, fees payment, getting computer access and technical support during the online conferences. We do the utmost to create opportunity for our doctors to gain the most up to date knowledge in their fields of operation. This is why we are proud to say that also this year we were privileged to assist 15 participants of EULAR taking place from the 2nd till the 6th of June; 30 doctors with EHA, taking place online from 9th till 17th of June; and finally, 21 doctors with EASL, taking place this year from 23rd till 26th of June. We are happy that we can be a part of gaining professional excellence process of so many Polish doctors each year.
Private Business Meeting Organisation
Meetings is something that most of people really crave nowadays. Therefore, company events of this type are truly special and employees really look up to. Of course, taking care of meeting all sanitary requirements is a key factor in the face of the pandemics, as safety of all participants is of utmost importance for all events organizers. Still, with all precautions taken, we were able to organize a truly memorable business conference on the 11th of March 2021. The meeting was organized near Cracow in a peaceful surrounding of the four-star Witek hotel situated in Modliczka about 13 km from Cracow centre and 7 km from Cracow-Balice Airport. Thanks to its convenient location near the main communication arteries, the guests could easily reach the facility but stay away from crowds. Around the building there is a large garden with walking paths and a pond. In the lobby, the eyes of visitors are attracted by a mini aquarium with a real coral reef and exotic fish and additionally each floor is decorated in a different color scheme. 130 places in comfortable, fully air-conditioned rooms, family studios and duplex apartments await arriving guests. They are all equipped with a modern bathroom with a hairdryer and toiletries, LCD TV, telephone, minibar, tea and coffee making facilities and Wi-Fi internet access. Our cameral business meeting was planned for 10 guests of medical background. The gastronomy was based on three coffee breaks and lunch. Witek hotel easily proved to be a very hospitable location for such an event and a meeting was a great success.
Sheraton Grand Warsaw – perfect place for private business meeting
Meetings and personal contacts have been drastically reduced since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemics. This is why the opportunity to talk face to face with your work partners is nowadays a real holiday. We were privileged to organize such a meeting in an extraordinary place in March of 2021. The meeting was organized for a pharmaceutical company and was a private workshop for 10 participants. It took place in Sheraton Grand Warsaw in the heart of the Polish capital. The Palace of Culture and Science is only 1.3 km away. The Royal Castle and the Old Town can be reached by bus in just 5 minutes. The Copernicus Science Center and the National Stadium, located on the other side of Vistula River, are less than 3 km away. The 5-star Sheraton Grand Warsaw can boast a recently refurbished lobby and excellent restaurants. The renovated, unique design of the hotel attracts guests from all over the world. It offers meticulously decorated, air-conditioned rooms and suites with a minibar and tea and coffee making facilities. Each has a private bathroom and a flat-screen TV with multilingual channels. Superior rooms are located on the top floor and include breakfast, snacks and drinks, internet access and a private reception and club lounge. Guests of the Sheraton Warsaw Hotel have free access to the fitness center with a well-equipped 24-hour gym and saunas, including a Finnish sauna. It offers free internet access in the lobby, restaurants and bars. The workshop despite of all necessary COVID precautions and meeting all necessary sanitary requirements, has been a great success and a perfect platform of free thoughts exchange of valuable innovations.
ILC 2020 Digital – the new face of congreses
In the last few months people all over the world has experienced the decline in opportunities to meet both on private and professional levels. Still, this bad tendency is not always the case and people are still willing to overcome the obstacles to move forward professionally. Doctors are of course such group that cannot stand in one place and has to move forward as the state of knowledge also speeds up. One such amazing opportunity to share new ideas and thoughts occurred during ILC 2020 Digital. Digital Internal Liver Congress took place between 27 and 29th of August 2020. Our groups attend this event regularly, so now in the times of COVID and impact of liver diseases on the way how liver patients deal also with COVID, meant that we just couldn’t miss this opportunity to develop. ITS Poland as usual took the challenge to organize everything for our participants. All our group members had our full support for this congress attendance. COVID virus is not an obstacle for us. We have registered 29 congress participants and supported our clients with all their needs. All of them have still also access to digital version of the congress till the end of the year which gives them an amazing study opportunity. This is why we want to share the best wishes of health to all our clients and also invite them to attend all meetings of this type. Such learning experience can be very fruitful.
ASH Orlando Adventure
Today we would like to share some of the details of the event that took place back in December 2019 in Orlando, Florida. The group took part in ASH Conference, which is the annual meeting of the American Hematology Society. The trip was extremely successful. ITS Poland helped organize the entire event from A to Z. To begin with, by booking the most reasonable registration option, the so-called “early fee”, as well as organizing the most conveniently timed flights to the United States and on-ground logistics on site. Our guests stayed at the Marriott Orlando Downtown Hotel, located a 20-minute drive from the Orange County Convention Center. The modern 3-star Marriott Orlando Downtown proved to be a good connection point both with city centre as well as the conference venue. It also offered basic amenities for relaxation, such as a gym and swimming pool. Orlando itself guaranteed great entertainment opportunities for our group. If you would like to learn more please read our Blog entry about the city.
Sanna Manor Conference
At the beginning of February, we assisted our clients in organizing a small conference in the Lublin Province. The choice of venue was the distinctive Sanna Manor. The four-star hotel with conference and gastronomic facilities is located at the very source of the Sanna River. The manor itself is a place filled with history that dates back to the noble times, while its current shape and purpose is the modern history. The renovation works of the facility started in 2008, giving the building its modernized freshness. The surrounding area is known for its local, thriving vineyard and its specialties that are offered at the hotel restaurant. The programme included two conference days with full equipment and catering facilities. The first day of the meeting ended with a fanciful dinner at the Sanna Manor Restaurant. The chef’s menu was a perfect combination of fish, venison and other meats. The delicious dishes were accompanied by perfectly selected local wines. Sanna Manor is the perfect place to organize a conference or incentive trip. Thanks to its excellent service, every participant could learn what real Polish hospitality means.
LINC 2020
We are very pleased that every year we have the honour to organize our clients’ trip to the LINC conference. LINC 2020, a congress of interdisciplinary intervention practice in Leipzig, focuses on lectures on interdisciplinary intervention practice and numerous live presentations of the most modern practices performed in leading intervention centres. This year stayed only 700 m from the conference venue at the 4-star Sachsenpark-Hotel. This modern hotel is literally opposite the Leipzig exhibition centre and 8 km from the city centre. A tram stop is a 10-minute walk away, and Leipzig city centre can be easily reached in about 20 minutes by public transport. Leipzig is one of the most popular tourist destinations in eastern Germany, and thanks to its rich cultural and musical heritage it is regularly listed as one of the most attractive cities in Europe. Due to the compact size of the Old Town, Leipzig is very tourist friendly. The main attractions include: the Old Town Hall and Market Square, the Church of St. Thomas, Church of St. Nicholas, the Monument to the Battle of the Nations, Maddlerpassage and Naschmarkt, Zoo, Botanical Garden, Museum of Fine Arts, Coffee Baum Museum, Mendelssohn House, Grassi Museum and New Town Hall. We hope that next year you will join our group members in Leipzig.
Incentive Meeting in the Sudetes
We would like to share with some of the details of a very exciting incentive meeting organized for the management of one of our clients, that took place in March 2020 in Sosnówka. Sosnówka is a picturesque village in the Sudetes, very unique in terms of view thanks to an artificial lake, a rather rare sight in the Polish mountains. Our group of 20 people stayed at the amazing 4-star Lake Hill Resort & Spa. The group could enjoy all the modern comfort of wellness and spa, right on the shores of a majestic mountain lake. During the stay and in addition to business workshops, the group took part in cross-country skiing training, under the watchful eye of a professional instructor of the Polish Ski Association. ITS Poland comprehensively organized the entire event, including the rental of ski equipment for the entire group. During their stay in the Sudetes, the group carried out all journeys with a luxury business-class coach, making sightseeing even more convenient and enjoyable. In addition to excellent meals at the hotel, such as coffee breaks, lunches and dinners, the group had one gala dinner at the U Ducha Gór restaurant in Karpacz. This property has amazing traditional wooden interiors and specializes in local cuisine. To sum up, with this extraordinary incentive trip to Sosnówka and undoubted originality and high standard we are sure that each and every one group member will remember it for a long time.
Rising Tourist Star
If you are looking for a very original incentive, we want to offer you the idea used by our clients in November. They visited Saudi Arabia. You will probably ask if it is possible at all, because this country has always been closed. The answer is yes, because after years of alienation in September 2019, the country has finally introduced tourist visas and thus opened to the people from around the world. Finally, it gives people from outside Arab countries the opportunity to visit. Our group chose to visit Riyadh, and we enabled them to stay in the country by organizing, among others, tourist flights and visas. Saudi Arabian leaders recognised the importance and economic gains and is seeking to alleviate the law and welcome more tourists in the years to come. As part of the process, Saudi Arabia is constructing a giant resort called “the most modern city in the world”, they also invest in the restoration of the historic monuments and places of interest. Riyadh – the capital of the country – has over 5 million inhabitants and is an important administrative, cultural and commercial centre. The main attractions of the city are Al. Faisalyah Centre, Kingdom Centre, Museum of the Royal Saudi Air Force and Fort Masak. The Prophet’s Mosque (the second-most holy Islam after Mecca) and the modern King Fahd’s Dike are both located near Riyadh as well.
Portuguese Incentive Trip
Portugal is one of the greatest places for a motivational trip. We would like to share some ideas for day trips in Belem and Sintra and sunbathing at Cabo de Roca. The whole trip begins in Lisbon. From here, we take a bus transfer and after about 30 minutes we are in Sintra, a mountain town, which thanks to its location between mountains and the sea looks like a movie set from Lord of the Rings and offers one of a kind and quite extraordinary microclimate. On site, the group visits the multi-coloured Pena Palace and defensive walls. After a short break for dinner, mandatory seafood, the group moves to the edge of Europe, that is, the westernmost cape of the continent. We follow that with a walk in Cabo and Cascais and 2 hours of carefree sunbathing. The group spends the evening in Lisbon’s picturesque Atlantic district of Balem. The whole day full of excitement is a perfect example of incentive trips organized for our client’s employees.
Perfect Madrid
With the conclusion of EULAR 2019, which turned out to be a huge success, we wanted to share with you the details of the event. This year’s EULAR (Annual European Congress of Rheumatology) was held on June 12-15, 2019 in Madrid. We have perfected transport issues: our guests received Madrid city cards already on the bus on their way from the airport, although in theory they can only be purchased on site; we organized the most convenient group and individual transfers in Madrid, both to the conference centre and for dinners; we provided additional accommodation near airports in Poland to make it easier for our guests to catch the most convenient flights; some of our clients that chose to drive to Madrid had their parking fees taken care of in advance. In addition to the above-mentioned logistics part, the culinary component was ideally planned as well. Our guests had the opportunity to dine at the oldest restaurant in the world, Botin, where Mediterranean cuisine is served, as well as admire the panorama of Madrid and enjoy Spanish cuisine from the 30th floor of the Volvoreta restaurant. The whole culinary package was complemented by an original restaurant serving Brazilian and Argentine Rubaiyat dishes. To sum up, this year’s EULAR turned out to be another great success!
Portuguese “Blues”
At the beginning of June one of our groups participated in the EAACI conference in Lisbon. During their stay, we had the pleasure to organize an unusual event with the Association Fado Casto and to present the local tradition of Portuguese Blues. The Fado Casto Association is located in the heart of Alfama (Rua de São Mamede 8A), next to the cathedral of Lisbon. The old palace in Pombaline is definitely a unique place to organize a group event because it was built within the ruins of an ancient Roman theatre with vaulted stone floor and columns dating back to 18th century. It is a six meters high mystical space, which contributes to the unique acoustics of the place. The walls are covered with old Fado vinyl records and photos of over a thousand performers of this genre. There is a counter covered with three hundred magazine clippings and the original Diva Amália Rodrigues newspapers. The entire space has a didactic and musicological component. Fados are sung after dinner and throughout the night. During the event, our guests were served traditional Portuguese cuisine in authentic local clay dishes. Our guests decided that it was the most out of ordinary element of their stay in Lisbon.
Puszta Horse Show Hungary
Another interesting project that we want to share with you is Puszta, a traditional Hungarian horse show. As part of an incentive trip, our group left Budapest to participate in shows at a nearby farm. The whole event was scheduled for about 5 hours. Upon arrival, guests were greeted with traditional cheese rolls and fruit brandy. Then, in horse-drawn carts, they enjoyed the rural landscapes to finally reach the show grounds. As an introduction to the event, participants of the trip watched a short documentary on the tradition of horse championships and visited the stables. After this introduction, the group attended a show presenting over 1000 years of Hungarian tradition of breeding and riding horses. The most memorable moments were archery display while riding and simultaneous riding of 5 horses by one rider. After the shows, the whole group participated in a typical traditional meal. Participation in the Puszta is simply a must during any Hungarian incentive trips.
Seine river cruise
We would like to share with you a very nice side of Paris, which our group of delegates at ESCEO recently had the opportunity to try out for themselves. It is a cruise on the Seine, which lasts about 1:10 hours. The cruise takes place aboard one of the six Bateaux Mouches boats. In the summer season cruises take place every 30 minutes, in the winter season every 40 minutes. The cruise can also be combined with dinner at the Le Club restaurant, which is also located on a boat moored near the Eiffel Tower. In the spring and summer time, cruises are available from 10:00 to 22:30. During the cruise, passengers have the opportunity to see the postcard icons of Paris such as the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame Cathedral and the D’Orsey Museum. Seen from the perspective of the Seine, Paris looks impressive, we highly recommend it!
Goodbye to the 2018/2019 ski season
Our group’s last trip to Zakopane is just ending. This time it was a conference and incentive meeting in Zakopane for the managers of the sales department of one of our regular corporate clients. It was a very successful two days of skiing on the slope on Kasprowy Wierch along with excellent conference conditions in the four-star Grand Stamary hotel, located in the heart of Zakopane, within 650 m from the famous Krupówki Street. In addition to the conference space, the hotel also offers a wellness area with a swimming pool, jacuzzi and saunas. After skiing on the slopes, the group could taste highlander delicacies in Bąkowa Zochylina and Zakopiańska restaurants. They offer such delicacies as an aperitif in the form of honey, or moskol, bryndza paste or oscypek with cowberry. If you also want to discover the beauty of the winter capital of the Polish Tatras, we encourage you to contact our office.
Zakopane Incentive Trip
We want to share with you the idea for an amazing incentive trip, as we have just finished such an event for one of our Ukrainian groups in Zakopane. The main programme was planned for about 5 hours and included dog sled, snowmobile rides and refreshments in the original Indian tipi, located on Gubałówka, which is also the starting point for dog sleds. The whole event went perfectly, and the group’s instructors even spoke Ukrainian, which was a great bonus for our group. In addition to this “outdoor” event, the group also had unforgettable meals organized by us in the Góralska Tradycja and Halka restaurants, as well as relaxation in the spa in Termy Bukovina. Of course, the crowning event was the evening dances in the club Vavavoom. If you are looking for winter entertainment for your group, the Zakopane incentive trip is something that you have to consider!
Caribbean – Pirate’s World
Today we want to bring you an extremely original incentive trip that we implemented in the first week of February in the Caribbean. The programme included an 8-day cruise during which our group travelled 300 nautical miles (over 550 km) and visited 15 islands, including Martinique, St. Vincent, Mayreu, Petit Tabac, Baradal and Petit Rameau. During the cruise, countless attractions included swimming with turtles, diving with barracudas, racing with dolphins, whale watching, trying to count the flying fish, diving in picturesque coral reefs, sunbathing on a desert island that also happen to be a movie set of the famous film “Pirates of the Caribbean”, tour of the movie set and tasting rum in the famous “Bar at Antek”, run by a local enthusiast of Polish culture. To sum up, it was a magnificent experience that provided countless opportunities completely unavailable in our country during the Polish winter. If you think about a very distinctive and unforgettable incentive trip for your employees, the Caribbean is a jackpot.