“This time our conference will take place at a superb and secure event venue in Mannheim”.
What an exhilarating sentence! Right now, you can finally do things differently. The time is ripe – the success of the conference is you!
We have more than one event venue for your conference in Mannheim. The Straßenheimer Hof and its staff offer you the inspiring setting you need for a conference set outside in nature and yet in the middle of the metropolitan area. Our concept: you enjoy the venue exclusively for yourself, be it with 20 or 200 people. Modern technology is available on request so that external participants in Mannheim can also take part online. This way, the meeting can be hybrid, purely online or a webinar with your own configuration
Nestling in a landscape conservation area, our event venue in Straßenheim is located in the heart of a green oasis just outside Mannheim. For your guests, this means leaving behind the hectic pace of their everyday normality, getting out of the fast paced hustle and bustle, being drawn out of their comfort zone, and slowing down so as to become receptive to new thoughts. Let yourself get involved with the natural, the original and the real, the uncomplicated and the weather-dependent happenings every day here with us on the estate – an adventure in all but name!
Surrounded by nature, we have been practicing sustainable farming on our farm in Mannheim for generations, with the goal of preserving our operation for the long term and adapting it to the prevailing climate and available resources. We apply this philosophy to all our conferences. Upon request, we offer you an authentic experience of nature and agriculture. We’d also be happy to provide you with ideas for sustainable, rustic professional or promotional events to complement the program during your conference in Mannheim.
We strive to use materials in all areas that can still be used by future generations. We maintain these materials using sustainable, biodegradable cleaning products to ensure the long-term durability of our event venue and to protect our wastewater system and the natural environment around us.
In our kitchen, we use regional products whenever possible, preferably from our own farms in Mannheim or those of our partners. We try our best not to throw away any food. We cook just enough so that there is plenty to go around, but never too much left over.
We deliberately do without air conditioning and built-in air filters in the historical buildings: all of our rooms have the option of a fresh air supply. Pure nature!
Outside: nothing is healthier and more inspiring than being outside in the fresh air. This uses your own energy and frees your brain therefore making it all the more sustainable. Just put the flip chart outside on the meadow!
No more sitting in the same conference room for days on end – ever since Corona, if not before, you should be thinking about a varied conference setting when planning your event.
A room is never too big and your conference in Mannheim will only be particularly successful if you change rooms several times during the day. Start the day in the plenary session on the gallery, then divide into different groups throughout the location building or outside in the estate garden. Finally, celebrate your successful day in the old stables with a get-together. Whether with 20 or 200 people!
With us, you can rest assured: Hygiene is a given for us, but more importantly, we take the time to personally attend to your needs and, upon request, provide everything you need to make your conference a success—all from a single source:
You will have exclusive use of the entire venue. This means you and your guests will have the place all to yourselves—with no foot traffic or other events taking place at the same time.
Our buildings and outdoor spaces offer plenty of room and fresh air—ideal for working in a relaxed atmosphere while maintaining a safe distance.
Both indoors and outdoors, a wide variety of spaces are available to suit your specific design needs. Up to six areas can be used simultaneously or alternately—including for exhibitions held alongside your event.
The site is designed to be accessible and is partially directly accessible by vehicle, making deliveries or special setups easy to handle.
Unser Team kümmert sich persönlich und aufmerksam um Sie und Ihre Gäste – von der Vorbereitung bis zum letzten Programmpunkt.
Gemeinsam mit Ihnen entwickeln wir ein individuelles Rahmenprogramm – auf Wunsch auch über die Grenzen Mannheims hinaus.
Whether rustic or elegant—our catering services are tailored to your preferences and the character of your event.
Located in the heart of the metropolitan area yet surrounded by nature—a unique blend of easy access and a rural atmosphere.
The event venue is conveniently located and easily accessible from the airport.
There are dedicated, free (bus) parking spaces available for you and your guests right in front of the venue.
There are numerous lodging options for your guests in the surrounding area—all easily accessible from the venue.
We provide you with personalized planning materials and offer comprehensive advice on organizing your event—including in English.
| Conference formats | participants | Description |
|---|---|---|
|
Walk and Talk |
1-5 people |
Meetings and discussions while walking |
|
Break Out |
from 5 people |
Lunch break of a different kind |
|
Barcamp, Open Space or Unconference |
20-200(0) people |
Loosely organized events where the lectures and discussions are co-developed by the participants |
|
Fish Bowl |
20-200(0) people |
Moderated discussion with experts and participants |
|
Speed Geeking |
12-100 people |
Mini lectures convey maximum condensed information in rotation mode |
|
Walt Disney strategy |
5-6 people with moderator |
Idea generation with subsequent idea refinement and evaluation |
|
World Café |
12-200(0) people |
Discuss problems or issues intensively in small groups |
Never has the desire to engage all five senses been stronger—especially touch, smell, and taste. But it doesn’t always have to be an open-ended dinner; why not delight your customers and employees at your corporate event with a “coffee break” or “tea time,” and build your program around it? During the day is the best time to showcase your products.
The boring, uncontrolled coffee break, during which 80% make phone calls or check emails, is a thing of the past. You can stage a field and forest bathing or meadow treading. Walk barefoot across the Mannheimer field in a way that makes you happy and after this exercise, the coffee goes down all the better. If you don’t like it so rustic, we can show you what grows and lives out there in nature on a tour of the field on a tractor or by bike in just under half an hour. For exercise, we will be happy to set up a table tennis table, a foosball table, football goals or haptically real table game equipment for you in the location. Those who prefer a nap can retreat to a hammock. So that everyone can participate and concentrate on the here and now, we will be happy to set up a Wi-Fi-free zone for you in parts of the venue or everywhere and offer a free mobile phone collection service.
Barcamps are loosely organised events – also with the help of the internet and social media. One characteristic of the Barcamp method is that there is no predetermined program with permanent speakers. The lectures and discussions are therefore developed by the participants at the beginning of each barcamp. During or after a wonderful breakfast buffet in our location, the participants introduce themselves briefly at the beginning of an opening session in the gallery. Usually with three self-chosen keywords. Afterwards, everyone who would like to give a lecture or contribute to a discussion group presents their topic. It can be a lecture or an open question. The other participants indicate with a show of hands whether they are interested in this proposal. The host of the barcamp then decides whether and in which room to offer this session. They then distribute the sessions over the day and the available rooms, outside if the weather is nice – and near the middle of Mannheim. This session plan is then hung up in clearly visible places. At the end of a barcamp there is often a feedback session or a summary of the day. The concrete results of the individual sessions are usually not presented because the content often spreads by itself among the participants. Some organisers are now recording the sessions as videos and then sharing them in their community. Many organisers also offer a get-together on the evening before or after the barcamp. This gives the participants an even better opportunity to network.
The method is suitable for groups of 20-200 participants in our event venue.
By deliberately changing rooms, interactive conference formats can also be used in different ways in our venue. For example: After an opening, perhaps a theoretical introduction in the full session, with (also technically supported) impulse lectures and `speed-geeking´ in the Galerie (our old, rustic but beautifully done out granary), you switch to a vital lunch in the inner garden courtyard followed by a walk and talk in small workshop units. Max. 6 groups work indoors, 6 groups outdoors. The whole thing can even rotate as a ‘World Café’. For this purpose, we have already set up the flip chart for you, e.g. during lunch in the manor garden when you will be served coffee. At the end you will come together again in the full session to clarify important questions with experts in a final round. Why not just sit in the garden courtyard with its chairs or on comfortable sofas in the horse stable set up as a living room? The participants will also be happy to relax on straw bales or pallet furniture. After a while, we will be happy to serve you an aperitif and you can end the successful conference in Mannheim with an open-air barbecue and enjoy the work results together with satisfaction.
If you are looking for an everyday solution to a problem or if you want to specify your goals, the Walt Disney method can help you in the creative process. It is used to find ideas and then refine and evaluate them. It is a creativity technique in which you approach a problem from different perspectives and slip into different roles to do so. Optimal group size: 5-6 people with facilitator.
12 to 100 participants form several small groups of three to six people. Up to fifteen four-minute mini-lectures are then given in parallel. At the end of each talk, the participants have one minute to ask questions. After that, the participants or presenters rotate. After a round has been completed, the process can continue with new topics.
Due to the brevity of the presentations, the information conveyed must be condensed as much as possible. The small, intimate groups also promote dialogue, thus a lot of different information can be conveyed and processed in a short time.
The Fish Bowl also enables more introverted participants to get actively involved. A moderated discussion with experts in the inner circle and the participants in the outer circle makes it possible to briefly contribute with a question or expertise and then just listen again.
The basic idea of the “World Café” is to get the participants talking to each other so that they can intensively discuss and reflect on problems or issues in small groups. It begins with a welcome and explanations of the procedure and the role of the hosts. The hosts are the fixed discussion leaders at the respective tables.
In successive discussion rounds of 15-20 minutes, questions or problems are discussed simultaneously at all tables. In each round, the participants write, draw and scribble what they think is most important on the paper. After each round, the participants reshuffle. The hosts remain at their table, welcome the newcomers, summarise what has been discussed so far and get the discourse going again. If necessary, the results are briefly presented by the facilitator at the end. By dividing the groups, the whole thing can confidently take place in a single room (but with enough space) and also outside.
We’d be happy to advise you and work with you to put together a program that’s right for you.
