YOUR FORUM FOR PLAY, SPORTS UND LEISURE AREAS
On April 12th and 13th 2016, the trade journal Playground@Landscape organised the fourth "Bewegungsplan" (movement plan) Plenum in Fulda, Germany. More than 180 participants from cities and communities, landscape architecture and city planning as well as trade and science took part to attend exciting and informative presentations concerning the main topic, "City planning in motion". Also, for the first time, they also had the possibility of taking part in workshops providing more in-depth information on the topics. Reaction from the participants was very pleasing – in the final evaluation, more than 92% of them characterised the event overall as "very good" or "good".
Over the last years, the "Bewegungsplan" Plenum in Fulda has developed into the largest educational event involving play, sport and exercise topics in Germany. The fourth event held on April 12th and 13th 2016 in the Maritim Hotel am Schlossgarten in Fulda was attended by more than 180 registered participants – a plus of around 50%. This meant that the conference room was full to the last place with an interested audience, looking forward to a varied and comprehensive programme of presentations and workshops.
After two successful initial speeches, the first day's programme included the introduction of an exercise areal in Frankfurt a.M. and a podium discussion on the meaning and benefits of exercise circuits in public areas. After the lunch break two approaches to school playground design was discussed before participants were able to take their choice from a total of four workshops. The selection included an excursion to the "playable and ownable" city of Petersberg, a discussion group on the interpretation of standards in the field of playground safety, a comparative practical workshop on school playground design and an intensive analysis of exercise courses. In the evening, all participants met up again for dinner.
On the second day, two best practices projects in Mülheim a.d.R. and Zurich first took the foreground. The topic of playground safety was then discussed with presentations on risk and play, product liability and risk responsibility as well as new changes to the DIN standard. The finale of the "Bewegungsplan" plenum was formed by two presentations on the topic of, "Play and exercise as an integration factor for refugee work – an exchange of experience", involving two projects in Bremen and Rottenburg am Neckar.
The "Bewegungsplan" Plenum 2016 was an all-round success with many interested participants from throughout Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Along with the informative content and the opportunity to ask questions or make their own statements, many attendees also took the change to exchange views with experts from other communities and work fields or to visit the accompanying trade showing by the sponsors. This makes the "Bewegungsplan" Plenum more than just a training course, because experts from widely differing orientations meet here. The congress as a whole is rounded off by the super ambience of the conference hotel and the baroque city of Fulda. The majority of participants confirmed the positive summary in their final evaluation and helped provide topics for the coming year with their many suggestions. Planning has already started for the "Bewegungsplan" Plenum 2017, which will be held in Fulda on April 4th and 5th 2017. Make a note of the date!
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