School Goes Business - Part 5-8

In 2023, the Alpinmesse was supported by pupils from the Ferrari School and students from the Innsbruck Media College in the area of social media. Here is the second part of the report.

Part 5 - Between reason and irrationality 

The show editorial team at the trade fair is mainly made up of young adults. Students and pupils who do responsible work for the public. The pressure is pretty high. Especially because young people are often accused of being unreasonable, careless and lazy these days. 

But if you observe the goings-on in the exhibition halls and in the editorial offices, the young media professionals prove the opposite around the clock. On Saturday alone, they produced and edited around 30 articles, all of high quality and with a wide reach (85,000 accounts reached). Solo climbers and freesolo climbers also have to contend with prejudices in the alpine community. Athletes labeled as “daredevils” are accused of being weary of life and ready to take risks. In order to get to the bottom of these prejudices and, if necessary, to break them, the Alpinforum is dedicating a discussion round to top athletes who have devoted themselves to particularly dangerous climbing.

The guests in this round were Laura Tiefenthaler, who climbed the Heckmeir route on the Eiger solo as a 25-year-old, Alexander Huber, who has made a name for himself as an extreme climber together with his brother as the “Huberbuam”, and David Arnold, whose climbing skills can also be admired on Netflix. All three are known for their special achievements in mountain sports and have often had to justify their willingness to take risks. In the discussion round, the athletes are also asked whether they are tired of life and can identify with the term “daredevils”. “When you free-climb, you try to calculate and minimize the danger. That's why I don't accept the title 'daredevil',” says young climber Laura Tiefenthaler about the fact that daredevils are unreasonable and irresponsible. “You have to want to climb a bit. That means you have to prepare, train and not climb for the first time,” explains David Arnold, adding ”I also grew up in the mountains and climbed hills as a child, it's in my blood.”

Alexander Huber takes a more nuanced view of the term “hasardeur”: “Climbers are aware of the dangers and risks they are taking. The difference to hasardeur:in is that the professionals don't ignore the dangers afterwards, but work with them, look ahead.” He later adds: “Fear on the mountain is our best life insurance. Because fear allows us to focus on the essentials, check the route and ensure our safety.”  The conclusion of this discussion was therefore that only people who see their dangers but ignore them are daredevils, but that risk-taking sport climbers are not heroes, but well-reflected athletes who are aware of what they are doing. This makes it clear that terms and labels cannot simply be imposed on someone and that a conversation about motives and motivations for behavior is necessary, and the same applies to young media professionals. They prove their talent every day and give the exhibitors and experts at the trade fair the space they deserve. More about this can be found on the Instagram channel @alpinmesse and on this blog. 

Part 6 - Focus on learning

As already mentioned in previous articles, the Alpine Fair also has an educational mission to a certain extent. For example, there are stands for mountain rescue, avalanche protection and many more at the fair. But what has not yet received much attention are the numerous workshops and lectures that take place in the seminar rooms at Messe Innsbruck.

The young media experts from the Medienkolleg Innsbruck and the Ferrari School have therefore made it their mission to bring one of the lectures in front of the curtain. Here is a brief insight into the snow.institute project: Snow.institute is a website dedicated entirely to the education and training of ski and touring enthusiasts, as well as mountain and hiking guides. The project describes itself as a thirst quencher for knowledge about snow, ice and the risk of avalanches and is an initiative of the Avalanche Warning Service Tyrol and the Arge Alpe Association. What can you find on the site? In addition to complete presentations on a wide range of specialist topics relating to snow, ice and avalanches, you will also find graphics and images as well as well-prepared snippets of information. 

What makes this project so valuable is that all the materials can be used for your own lectures and training courses without having to worry about the legal framework. It is a great collection that makes life much easier for trainers. The language and design of the website is kept in such a way that it appeals to the main target group of instructors and multipliers as well as to young people who want to gain more experience in freeriding. In addition, the function to visit the website in Italian gives it an international feel. “The content of the website goes far beyond the topic of “What to do in the event of an avalanche”. The knowledge can be used for ski school weeks, for physics and geography lessons, but also for the training of mountain guides,” says one of the project initiators enthusiastically. 

The focus is on informing as many people as possible about the alpine world and its dangers in order to prevent accidents in the mountains. For this reason, the information is also free and available to everyone. However, anyone can also contribute. As the site is still a work in progress and is constantly being updated, the initiators are very grateful for constructive feedback from website visitors. Further information on the program items at the Alpinmesse can be found on Instagram at @alpinmesse and on this blog. 

Part 7 - Before the curtain

With more than 30 creative minds in a small showroom and several clients, it is incredibly important that there is someone to keep an overview.

In addition to the initiator Riki Daurer and the teacher Martin Wieser, three pupils and students in particular deserve special mention for their great efforts. Valentina and David from the Ferrari School and Stefanie from the Media College took over the editorial management and ensured the smooth development of the contributions.

Her tasks included:

• Getting an idea of which events, trade fair stands and people should be in the spotlight in the articles
• Determining teams for the individual assignments.
• Coordinating the teams. This includes allocating equipment, assigning buddies and scheduling the development of the contributions.
• The final approval of the contributions.
• Posting the contributions.
• Being a contact person for classmates and students.
• Being a mediator between clients, teachers and editorial team members.
• And much more.

There is no denying that these tasks demand a great deal of responsibility, a sense of duty and leadership skills. However, the result at the trade fair weekend shows that the three have successfully mastered this. But what did this task mean for the young editorial managers? The three answered the following questions for the blog:

How have you fared in your role as editorial director? 

David: I was only Valentina's assistant because there were so many additional tasks and I wanted to support her. Nevertheless, it was often very stressful and challenging to be in editorial management. I learned a lot and also had a lot of fun, so I felt comfortable in my role. Especially because we also received encouragement from our fellow students.

Valentina: I was very overwhelmed at the beginning. The tasks and being an editor in general are new for all of us. But I worked intensively on my role and prepared myself and the more I did that, the more I succeeded in managing. More and more, I've combined management with fun and I'm very proud of myself.

David and Valentina: But the credit for the work should go entirely to our participants.

Stefanie: In this project, I was mainly responsible for the students of the Media College. This task was very important to me, as I was able to help my fellow students with information. Later on, I also became more and more of an information point for the Ferrari students, helping them out and establishing a kind of buddy system between the college and the Ferrari School. In this way, we at the college were able to pass on what we had learned in Nuremberg at the Kirchentag.

How did you like the Alpinmesse and working there, what did you take away with you?

Stefanie: Due to my job of staying at the stand and being the contact person for both trade fair visitors and participants, I didn't get to see much of the trade fair. What I did see, however, was how much fun my colleagues had at the fair, through the videos but also through their verbal reports, and I shared in this joy. The great interest of the trade fair visitors was also exciting. We were always in their field of vision in the showroom and so some of them came to me and offered us new projects or wanted to find out about training for themselves and family members.

David: Above all, I took a lot away from the fair for later life. Whether in the sporting-alpine or editorial field. The most important point is definitely “it doesn't always work out right away”. But if you keep at it, you'll get there eventually. I'm sure it's the same in real working life.

Valentina: I learned how to deal with problems and how to coordinate tasks well. I will never forget this experience. 

When asked whether the three young media specialists and editorial managers would take on the task again, everyone gave a resounding YES!

Part 8 - The author

Alicia Martin Gomez has been a student at the Medienkolleg Innsbruck since 2022. The 26-year-old was interested in journalism right from the start of her studies, particularly in reporting on art and cultural projects. She gained experience in the field of art and culture and events through her many years of work at the Tiroler Landestheater, but also through her participation in the World Championships of Performing Arts in Long Beach California.

Other projects of the young media specialist included video production for Circular Design Week 2023, directing and designing the radio program “Good Vibes Only” (on air on Radio Freirad on 21.06. 2023 17:00), participation in the multimedia editorial team at the German Protestant Church Congress 2023 (creating contributions for Facebook, Instagram and website), sound engineering for the radio program “Bewusst Leben” (on air on Radio Freirad on 27.02.2023) and a three-day internship at Ö1 in April 2023 (participation in the production and editing of a program). Since February 2022 she has also been a freelance editor at Regional Medien Austria, especially in the Western Central Uplands region.

She also wrote two articles for the cultural magazine Komplex. With her work at the Alpinmesse, she primarily gained experience in public relations (press releases and press conferences).