The morning already started with some music – traditional music. The “Blaskapelle” and the crowd around us woke us up. Even though we could have easily watched parts of the opening ceremony from our appartments’ balcony, we decided to dress up in traditional Austrian clothes (Dirndl and Lederhosen) and join the crowd outside. Many people followed the march of the Blaskapelle and the opening speeches from governor of Tyrol Günther Platter, which started in the middle of the town next to Jakober and then ended outside of the Alpbach conference centre.
In the afternoon our first seminar session was awaiting us.The meeting point of my seminar was in one of the classrooms in the Middle School of Alpbach. All I knew was the name of my seminar “4Cs4U” and the room I had to go to. When we arrived there we were all a bit surprised. About eight members of the Austrian Military Academy Wr. Neustadt were welcoming us in their military garb. The introduction was short. The mission clear: In the following days we were to learn leadership models and skills and also executing them by doing some practical group exercises outside in the beautiful nature.
We got handed over some technical equipment and then went to the military trucks. Outside of the school building two cadets were already awaiting us in front of their vehicles. After a short introduction on how to climb up and down the leather into the back seats of the military truck, we could all take a seat and the cadets drove all the seminar members to today’s training spot, which was a few kilometres outside of Alpbach. On the campsite more military personnel awaited us. They had already prepared a few exercises for us. Before we started with the introduction they however handed out our equipment for the next days. As we spent every day outside in the nature (in downtown and in the forest) they gave us some drinking bottles, sun protection, a rain jacket and sunglasses. As a gift we also received some covid masks and some stickers which should remind us of Alpbach for a longer time.
The task and topic of the day was “team building” and to get to know each. In three different groups we had to draw a 10 x10 metres world map just with ropes and some crayons on the flour and then position ourselves according to our home countries on this map. Also we had to arrange ourselves blindly according to age and size. After a final introduction of the plans for the following days the cadets then drove us back to Inneralpbach where the seminar day ended.
The whole 4Cs4u seminar was definitely one of the best and most exciting seminars I have ever done in my life. I am very grateful for getting to know many interesting people and creating new friendships thanks to this first seminar week in Alpbach. I want to thank the whole organisation team for the initiative and the great opportunity to get insights into a new field. A field that I didn’t get in touch with a lot in my whole life. I definitely learned a lot and can totally recommend choosing this seminar next year.
von Claudia Pfeffer