Here is a piece I wrote a while back on Iceland which might be of interest to some of you...

Remember the time when the company had record profits and took everyone from the CEO to their secretary to Tahiti for a five day offsite fueled by suspicious drinks with names like The Volcano? Well Dennis, those days are over and the bean counters have forced you, the "senior decision-maker" to ditch the hula and find something a bit
more responsible for the season's planning sessions, while still providing (in this order) a. exotic locales b. wi-fi and blackberry compatibility, c. sexual tension for the CFO. Well then it's Iceland. Honestly!

Yes, it's that rock in the Atlantic conveniently located mid-way between Europe and America to ease those transcontinental tensions. Iceland is the perfect neutral battleground to discuss split accounts. It is also a natural stopping off point for migratory birds and home of the Reagan-Gorbachev summit. A fairytale land where the predominant smell is sulfur, the national icon is a dwarf, and where the only trees are three feet high. What could be more motivating? More exciting? More glambofabu?

Landing.

First off, Keflavik International Airport is the most beautiful airport in the world. You could almost hold your offsite at arrivals, gliding around on polished wood floors with high glass walls that overlook all tundra all the time.
Icelandic architecture in general is quite amazing - it seesaws between a Mennonite church camp and organic Rem Koolhas, depending on where in town you happen to be situated.

Settling In

Assuming you make it out of the airport through 40 miles of lava fields to Reykjavik, there are two places to settle in - first is the 101 Hotel, a clean and serene venue in the middle of the city. Nice toiletries. Meeting rooms will hold small size groups. Good for: Ad agencies, media owners, fashion folks, PR flacks, and that type. It's a bit of a Nordic Ian Schrager.

101 Hotel
Hverfisgata 10
101 Reykjavik, Iceland

For top management and other brass who like to be ensconced in history, try the Hotel Borg, Reykjavik's oldest luxury hotel is situated on a little square close to everything and with a finely amicable staff and plenty of herring at the breakfast buffet. Great for: finance people, industrial moguls, fast moving consumer good clients, and corporate warriors who like fluffy sheets.

Hotel Borg hf.
Posthusstr?ti 11
121 Reykjavik, Iceland
Telephone: +354-551-1440

Because Iceland is volcanic and God likes jokes, it seems that the water in Reykjavik is the cleanest and healthiest in the world, containing trace amounts of silica that actually makes your skin look younger. Unfortunately it also smells like sulfur, so you have to soap up while holding your nose not to gag. It's part of the local appeal.

More "fyrri til baka naesta" Please

Most people don't know this, but the colder the water, the better the fish, and that makes Iceland a fishing capital bar none. Here there is so much seafood it practically leaps up at you and screams, "eat me".

Think lobster salads so big you can only eat half. Tuna sashimi so pink you actually suck on it before you chew it. Scallops the size of small UFOs.

Like the architecture, there are two camps here - the traditional and chic modern. For the herring and potato set, check out the restaurants dotting the city center - many located in little houses with lace doilies and pictures of fishing boats on the walls.

For the big corporate dinner, try Pearl located on a hot water spring in the middle of town. Its a revolving restaurant. This is cheesy enough, but the food is good and all the Icelanders send tourists there to marvel at how small the city is from its only hill.

Lucky for top management, the Best Restaurant In The World is located in Reykjavik: Sjavarkjallrinn! Its sooooo expensive, starting at about $30 an appetizer. Chef Larus Gunnar Jonasson was trained at London's Spoon at the Sanderson Hotel, then picked up and moved back home to Iceland to try his own restaurant on different exchange rates. But it is 10 times better than Spoon because the ingredients are muy fresh,
flown in every day from around the world, and with all that cold water fish. Think pigeon in coca-cola, the most amazing foie-gras with tuna, and cherry chocolate mousse, all in a dark cellar surrounded by glowing tropical fish. The best ever. Period. Case over. Finito. Buy the stock.

Perlan (Pearl)
Oskjuhli
105 Reykjavik
Tel: +354 562 0200

Sjavarkjallarinn
alstr?ti 2
+354 511 1212

Because it is the arctic and there's nothing else to do, Icelanders (who are famously liberal and super hot) like to party till the sun comes up, which in the winter is around noon. Make sure to schedule your offsite midweek so that sales managers can have Friday night to go out and sample the local hedonism, er, culture. Perhaps the only
city that is apres-ski without the skis, Reykjavikians actually go out in 80s outfits that make Footloose look back en vogue. 80s hair, off the shoulder sweaters. They're so far ahead, they're behind.

Try Astro Bar, or just walk around downtown and follow the rattling windows to
thumping base. Seriously, you can hear the clubs from across town.

Bonding with Staff.

Cold air. Hot water, misty fog rising up in the distance. Beer. All this and more can be yours at the Blue Lagoon, a thermal hot spring and one of the Ten Best Things You Could Ever Do. Guests spend hours frolicking around in volcanic nooks and crannies, smearing white silcia mud across their faces and pretending to be ice monsters.
Really fun and unmissable.

Iceland offers pony rides on fields of moss so soft that you can actually drink champagne while on the horse. It has Jeep tours across glaciers where if you look the wrong way you can fall 200 feet down a crevasse (Hey... what happened to Gwen from HR?). Whale watching. Puffin tasting. Seal scouting. What more could they want?!

Finally, there's plenty of time to get work done. As the days get longer, Iceland turns into a medley of shifting winds and green moss, high cliffs and sunny days. There are actually more hours of sunlight per year in Reykjavik than either Miami or Rio de Janiero... so when they groan and try to have your hide over that commission, just grin
and make them go. They'll love it. Honest.
LucaMar 5, 2007 @ 18:58