Deborah On Tour In Warsaw – Day 2

Day 2 of Deborah’s trip to Warsaw…

“Having declined the opportunity to join the optional morning walk at 0630 (!), we gathered for the morning session – after the welcome from Catherine Chaulet (CEO GDMCP), Michael Dominguez, (Chief Sales Officer, MGM International Resorts) delivered an interesting presentation on global sales and economy.   

The Emcee for the weekend was Sam McNeil from SongDivision. As well as being a great speaker, he & his team write ‘instahits’ (songs written in about 5 minutes based on answering a few questions about yourself) and provide various musical based entertainment, great for team building or general/meeting conference interaction.

The rest of the morning was the 1-1 appointments with individual DMCs who gave me an overview of their destinations and how they could assist us on future enquiries. 

After lunch we had a choice of activities and I joined the ‘Communist Warsaw’ tour run by a great guide from the Adventure Warsaw company.  The tour was very enlightening about life in Warsaw under communist rule and included a visit to a museum showing what the workers homes were like in the 50-80’s. However, travelling in a period minibus which has it’s engine inside the bus and no windows that opened, made the journey somewhat uncomfortable – the 35 degrees outside seemed cold by comparison!    

After a much needed shower, we departed for dinner at Lazienki Park. This beautiful park houses the former summer residence of the Polish royal family until the early 19th century. Unlike the centre of Warsaw, which was devastated by bombing during WWII, these buildings thankfully suffered little impact. After a 10 minute walk through the park (reminiscent of Hampton Court Palace), we were treated to a short piano concert featuring works by Chopin in a beautiful and intimate theatre. This was followed by dinner in the orangery which leads out onto terraces overlooking the park and gardens – it is an elegant and impressive location for a large group private dinner.