Exciting news from Poland!

I've just come back from a quick weekend trip to Poland to help organize our field trips and conference in July (10th - 17th).

In case you haven't heard - we're organizing our first mindat conference and field trips in July this year in the Lower Silesian town of Lwówek Śląski.

Why there? Because not only is it the richest mineralogical region in Poland (we've got some amazing field trips lined up), it's also a town which likes to celebrate the fact, and 20,000 people or more are coming to the town for the weekend Agate Festival, which we'll be a part of.

So, I made a short trip to help plan details, to make sure this event is the best mineral event you'll ever attend, and to take a few photos to show you what we're doing already.

Here's the town center. The beautiful town dates back to at least 1217, and although damaged during World War 2, most of the town's medieval center remains, including the wonderful Town Hall



First stop was to meet the town mayor. He was at a Fire Service fun day, which we gatecrashed (nice sausages!)





The town have been amazing helping us out with this event. They are very excited to have us there and are giving us everything we need to put on a super event - as you'll see!

We're going to be giving everyone who comes to the conference a goody-bag packed with useful things, including a exclusive Mindat conference T-Shirt, and some other surprises. One of the more useful things everyone will get is this map:



The reverse shows the town center. I've marked on the important places (in this article) as A to E - everything is in convenient
walking distance. I don't have photos for 'C', which is the Hall of Culture, where Jeff Scovil's photography workshop will be run, Location 'E' can be seen in the very first photo on this page - it's where the large stage will be erected for the town events.

During the 'Crystal Days' festival - Thursday to Sunday - the entire area inside the yellow ring road is closed to traffic, and parking outside is usually a problem - but not for Mindat Conference guests as there will be parking at the conference venue (Location A on the map) a 2 minute walk from the center for our exclusive use.



Here is the town hall (B on the map). Not only is it the most iconic building in the town, we'll be hosting several parties in here with live music, great polish food and the opportunity to meet collectors from all over the world.



Did I mention all over the world?

We currently have people coming from: USA, Canada, Austria, Finland, Italy, Japan, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden, The Netherlands, Germany, UK, Hong Kong, Australia and more...

Here's a quick snap of the inside of the Town Hall and some of the old carvings. This is where we'll be having some of our parties.







And we are already hard at work settings things up for the exhibitions and the conference. There is a themed exhibition of Quartz at the Town Hall (and Conference visitors will get the first opportunity to see it). I interrupted the setup to take a few exclusive photos:









Andrzej is an expert on minerals from Strzegom and has discovered many amazing things there. For most people Strzegom will be the highlight of our collecting trips. We are planning to go to NINE different quarries, three on each day - so if you go on a group on the second day, you won't go to somewhere that was collected out by the people on the previous day. Already we are hearing that some people want to go to Strzegom on all THREE DAYS, and that's perfectly fine!



For those of you who have registered and are wondering what's happening about booking of field trips - don't worry! We needed to wait until some of the details have been confirmed, particularly for the Lubin mine trip (which as we suspected is more limited in numbers). There will be lots of options!

And, several people asked "can we buy hammers and tools in the town?". So, of course, we have arranged it - the local toolshop (location D on the map), which is very conveniently next to one of our venues, will be opening early on the Monday and is ordering in extra stocks of geological hammers of three types and chisels (and they are not expensive - the cheapest geological hammer is about five euros).

If you want to buy tools here and not take them home with you, the Spirifer Organization in Poland will be very happy for you to donate them to them at the end of your trip for their young geologists to use on field trips - nothing will be wasted.



Here is (Location A) the entrance to the sports complex, it's brand new and we'll be taking it over entirely for the conference. During Conference days the gates will be guarded so only people with conference badges can come in and park. You will realise on the final weekend how important this is when 20,000 people descend on the town.



We're converting the sports hall into our conference venue. It may not look right now, but the transformation will be very effective - split into three sections, one for the mineral show, one for the conference, and one for the dining area.

We've dramatically improved what we will be offering for food (compared to our original plans) - we'll be providing lunch and hot evening meals every day - self service buffet style with a choice of several dishes including vegetarian options. We spent two hours yesterday going through all the fine details of the food - mostly polish cuisine but designed to cater for different tastes of the people from around the world. We've put a lot of effort into this!

And there will be beer, wine and vodka as well - at least during some of our evening parties!



We have other rooms in the hall available to us. This one will be set up (with a different arrangement of tables) for people with microscopes and/or computers to work on things. It will be secured when not in use.



And this room will be a free area for mineral swaps - bring your unwanted minerals to exchange here.



As you may have figured, the parties are a very critical part of our activities. This is an opportunity for collectors and mineralogical professionals to meet, to have good food and drink, and to enjoy this beautiful part of the world. So we wanted to have an outdoor event - and so we went in the Agate van to scout possible localities for this.



This place was heavily overgrown, but it has some rather attractive sandstone cliffs behind it - so we liked it! So the town are going to get the grass and weeds cut back to make it nice for us, and we'll have a tent there and a grill to provide grilled food and grilled vegetables for our evening party on the Wednesday night.



The conference will be the launch of our new range of Mindat.org merchandise, including the long-awaited mindat t-shirts. I can now reveal there will be SEVEN different designs and you'll want one of each.

If you're very lucky you'll even be able to get one of these, the VERY limited edition mindat.org hip flask (it's laser-engraved). These will not be offered for sale before the conference, and there are less than 40 available! Price will be 20 euros. If there are any left we will offer them online after the conference - but I don't think there will be! And please don't email me asking to keep one for you - unless of course you'll be coming to buy it at the conference!



Finally, I took a few photos around the town to show some of the sights.





Photos from my trip May 13-16 to Poland to help organize for our conference.









If you still haven't registered for the mindat conference, go NOW to

http://www.mindatconference.org

You have until May 31st to register at the standard price. From June the price will go up!

See you there!