If your company were a fairy tale, what would it be: The Emperor’s New Clothes or, perhaps, that Ugly Duckling (transforming into a beautiful swan of course)?
Corporate Story Time as Hans Christian Andersen Celebrates 200th.

Denmark will be celebrating their most famous author’s 200th birthday in 2005. How about telling your own company’s magical story with a ‘Princess and the Pea’ themed dinner in Funen, the island of his birth, or ‘The Little Mermaid’ costume party in Copenhagen, where the famous statue of the character looks out to the harbour? The whole world will be in Denmark next year celebrating the great man’s birthday – still time to get in on the act and give your corporate event a real fairy tale ending. 

“Plenty of opportunity to see, taste and experience the best”

If you can’t wait until Spring, why not take your clients to the traditional Christmas Tables in the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain shop at Amagertorv. This year, guess what?  Hans Christian Andersen stories and characters are the main theme.

Dominating the city’s waterfront, one of the world’s most advanced opera houses will open in Copenhagen in the New Year. This is set to be one of Europe’s most exciting buildings and a fitting venue to take your most special corporate clients, not to mention a great place to hold a cocktail reception or special launch.  The season kicks off with a production of Aida on the 26th January – a grand opening for a grand new building.

Blazing a Trail
A meeting planners’ event that is part exhibition and part incentive trip: this is Trailblazers, and it’s coming to Copenhagen in summer 2005. In this annual trade event, Great Britain, Ireland, Monaco, Canada and Denmark invite around 80 representatives especially chosen amongst North America’s most prominent companies in the meeting planner industry.  Participants meet the suppliers in the traditional way but also get to tour the places their customers will visit later, so they will have plenty of opportunity to see, taste and experience all the best that the capital of Denmark has to offer in architecture, design, art, gastronomy and entertainment.

Great news for non smokers: Copenhagen opened its first smoke-free hotel in November.  Choice Hotels has decided to make its Comfort Hotel Esplanaden, a 100% smoke-free zone to meet the increasing demand for a smoke-free environment.  70% of the hotel’s guests are business and
leisure tourists travelling from countries where smoke-free hotels are standard. Choice Hotels reckon that more than 50% of their guests prefer a non-smoking room and are considering making more of their hotels entirely smoke free.

Was Hans Andersen a Team Player?
Love golf but hate the rain? Denmark has the answer thanks to the world’s largest indoor golf centre, Copenhagen Indoor Golf Centre (CIGC). The centre is making its main hall – the 10,000 m2 columnless Jubii Hal – available for events, parties, product launches and so on, during the summer season when the golf centre is closed.  Ten minutes from Copenhagen’s Town Hall Square, the venue also has meeting rooms which can accommodate up to 60 people. So, what to do with that old golf umbrella?

Hans Andersen lived for a time in Odense, which has opened its first Team Building Centre, a part of the existing Congress Center. Outdoor activities will include rappelling and parachute jumping, while a range of indoor activities can be held in the capacious trade fair halls. The four-star conference centre consists of 22 different rooms capable of hosting 2-4,000 people. The hotel has 102 large, bright rooms and seven suites, excellent for the busy business man/woman, conference guest or travelling guest – a happy ending to any event.