Side Events

Canyoning involves walking from the top to bottom of Vorarlberg’s most beautiful gorges using a wide variety of different types of movement: from simple walking and easy climbing to abseiling, sliding and jumping, everything is included. Admittedly, it sounds a bit intimidating at first, but the tours are accompanied by guides and the level of difficulty and the choice of gorge is always tailored to the group. 

Creative minds and technical skills are required here. The task is to build a soapbox that can be raced from pre-made kits. There are no limits to creativity here. The next two hours will see participants fastening, measuring, building, glueing, painting and carrying out several test runs.

This bridge is high, fair enough. One hundred and six metres should suffice for a gentle fall on an elastic rope, as well as for a good adrenaline cocktail in your body. This jump is considered seriously cool – the extremely tough safety standards have been proving themselves accident-free since 1997. This is the perfect place for anybody bravely looking for the next adventure.

Start your day on the top of a mountain, watch the sun rise and remind yourself of the scale of things – this brings you back down to earth for the tasks to be faced. However, night owls can take a sigh of relief: observing the sunset from the stop of a mountain has the same, salutary effect.

For some, dashing through the woods at a speed of 130km an hour is just a speed kick at an altitude of 160 metres. For others, it is the craving for their own wings that you get for the duration of the flight at least. 

If in doubt, the viability of a team can be ultimately tested by means of the communal building of a boat on the water. Combining skill and teamwork, the floating boards can either advance into a successful project – or the whole team comes a cropper. 

Those who practice yoga give their bodies a break and a conscious start to the day. And where would this fit better than before an intense day of conferences and meetings?

Feel that grass beneath your feet, and breathe in the freshest mountain air. Countless edible wild herbs grow in our meadows, from dandelions to yarrow. But how to distinguish the beneficial herbs from the weeds? Luckily, there are various hiking excursions available where you can learn exactly that.

Recreation from exciting workshops is best achieved in the great outdoors – simple and good are the two words that characterise this accompanying programme. Herbert Edlinger’s pleasure walks focus on regional agriculture, nature and its products as well as local cheese and the production of specialities. 

The Rhine Delta nature reserve extends over an area of 2,000 hectares and is characterised by alluvial forests, wet and bedding meadows, reed beds and extensive sandy beaches and is a breeding and resting ground for birds.

The region’s architects have been picking up international prizes and awards for some time now, and it is well worth taking a walk to visit interesting buildings in practically all of the towns and villages in the region. The re-interpretations of the traditional wooden buildings to be found in many a region are simple, natural and sustainable, and have already characterised a certain style.

At the end of a hard day’s work in lovely meeting rooms, an exclusive wine-tasting session in any one of the many wine cellars in the region is the stylish way to finish off the evening. For instance, the water tower on Gebhardsberg built in 1079 has been afforded a new role since over a hundred different wines from the best wine-growing estates in Austria and the region of Bodensee-Alpenrhein have been stored in it.

Give your tired feet some fresh air and experience the joy of walking barefoot through meadows and forests. This is not only therapy for your otherwise confined feet, it’s also medicine for the soul and your entire physical body.

A very special natural monument takes you right down to the depths of the Cave Schneckenloch in Bizau. The biggest cave in Vorarlberg requires a certain degree of stamina and sure-footedness, yet once the visitors get back to terra firma they are usually lost for words, overcome by images of subterranean halls, stalactites and natural tunnels, some of which you have to crawl through.

The Kunsthaus Bregenz is one of the most important museum buildings in the world when it comes to contemporary architecture. It has been attracting art enthusiasts as well as fans of architecture ever since its inauguration in 1997. An hour-long guided tour on the theme of architecture affords attendees a look behind the scenes of the multi-award-winning building by architect Peter Zumthor.