Wolfenbüttel, 26.10. - 27.10.2017
The winter workshop 2017 from the 26th to 27th of October took place at Parkhotel in Wolfenbüttel.
This city is a very old and historical city with a lot of famous buildings e.g. Georg-August-Library. Additionally, many famous people lived there. One was the writer Lessing which is the reason that Wolfenbüttel is also called Lessing-City. The destination could be reached from Magdeburg by train in nearly one and half hoursand the hotel was near from the railway station. The hotel provided adequate facilities for the workshop. We started our journey at 7 o’clock and arrived at the workshop venue a few minutes to 9 o’clock.
The workshop had 24 contributions in the form of presentations and posters. Usually, the workshop should consist of more contributions but unfortunately a few members cancelled their participation in last-minute. In 17 presentations each participant was given 15 minutes to present current research results followed by a 5 minute discussion with the audience.
This proven format allowed to identify helpful approaches for sticking points as well as to ignite further discussions during coffee breaks and social activities.
During the poster-presentation seven participants first introduced the content of their poster in a few presentation slides. Afterwards there was time for all participants to study the presented posters and discuss questions with the presenters in detail.
The first day closed with a city-tour through the city centre of Wolfenbüttel and dinner in the restaurant Bayrischer Hof. These social events gave opportunity to learn something about the history of Wolfenbüttel and much more important to discuss some issues or problems with colleagues which could not be discussed in detail during the workshop. Moreover, social programme supports growing together of the whole group and integration of new members, respectively.
The workshop format was proven successful when nearly everyone was able to stick to their scheduled time. When it was necessary the discussion was continued in coffee breaks, during lunch or social events. The workshop also included a board meeting.
We departed on Friday after a student meeting and lunch for our journey back to Magdeburg.
Here you can find the program.