Hey there!
The week in Berlin was quite the ride! I was aware that the workshop week would be intense, but it was even better than anticipated. From Monday to Friday, it was a spiral of learning: Getting a lecture in the morning, applying the topic in a case, presenting it, getting feedback, having another lecture on another topic, applying the new knowledge in another case, applying the knowledge from before as well, presenting it, getting feedback… so that in the end of the week we ended up with a “monster”-case, where everything they taught us in the days before was to be applied.
All this learning took place in wonderful Les Fontaines, which was as cool a place as the website had promised. Beautiful place. But see for yourself: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hollender/sets/72157603290310452/
The weather was not that great most of the time, sun only came out rarely, but when it did, oh boy was it good! It must be just perfect to be at Les Fontaines in summer.
Most important point was the people (who would have thought!). I worked in a case team with a German, an Austrian, two Dutch and a French. Talk about globalization! We had people from all over the place, though most came from Europe (I think they do the CSW at a US location, too, but I would have to look that up to confirm it). Across the board, I met people that were pleasant to work with and spend time with. It was a good mix of many beginners, straight out of university or their first job in the industry, and a few veterans with 10+ years of experience. Nobody played the hierachy card, in fact I only got to know that two of my team mates were actually managing consultants (which is way higher up the food chain than I am) on the last day when we exchanged business cards. It was really only the person that counted, not rank, and we all respected each other, regardless of how old you are or where you are from. This made the whole week, especially the intense teamwork, really really interesting and fun.
So what was it then? Was it a networking event? Yep. Was it intense training? Oh yeah. Was it a fun week? You betcha!
Can I please do it again?!
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