Notes from my visit to Innsbruck and Med-El HQ

[Tim]

My wife and I are doing a trip to Germany and decided to start it off with a stop at Med-El headquarters in Innsbruck, Austria.  I met about 10 Med-El employees and had a wonderful time.  I just want to make sure to thank all of them at the very beginning.  

This message is going to be a little long with travel tips that perhaps other find helpful. 

We weren't able to arrange a good flight to Innsbruck. We flew in to the Munich airport and caught a train down to a big Munich train station, then another train down to Innsbruck.  We reserved the train ticket in advance, costing about $50 each.  The train was okay but a little old and added a couple of hours of travel after long international flight(s).  In hindsight, flying straight into the Innsbruck airport would have been better but it is a small airport and might not be practical.  
In Innsbruck, we used Hotel Rufi.  From the train station (Innsbruck HBF), we just bought a 2.80 Euro ticket to get to Hotel Rufi on the R bus line.  Hotel Rufi is right there at the Technikrause stop (about 10 minutes by bus).  

From Hotel Rufi, it is about a two block walk to Med-El HQ. They run promotions that can work quite well for a visit.  We used the "Winter Romantic Getaway" special which was perfect since the Med-El visit was on our wedding anniversary. This included an "Innsbruck Card" for local bus/train access, museums, and more. Would have been nice to have a full day or two in Innsbruck after visiting Med-El to make good use of this.

Med-El is on the opposite side of the river from the university and most of the neat "old town" area of Austria.  It is an easy bus ride or a long but pleasant walk (~1 or 2 miles). After finishing at Med-El, we dropped bags and walked to the old town area.  The old town area is wonderful. We asked Margot from Med-El for restaurant recommendations and she suggested Stiftskeller in the old town area.  We loved it. Very friendly and great food. Nice multilingual menu. Thanks!  Very easy to then catch the R bus line back to Hotel Rufi.

Hotel Rufi had a great breakfast included that was really nice with a selection of meats, cheese, and pasty products long with eggs, yogurts, and more.  This was a really nice way of starting off the morning and better than I'm used to for a hotel continental breakfast.
If we had been planning on spending a few days extra in Innsbruck, staying in a hotel on the other side of the river closer to the train station and the old town areas would have been better.  Given that our main focus was Med-El, Hotel Rufi was great.

Messaging the Med-El moderator at Hearpeers can put you in contact with someone about arranging a tour. I was lucky to be able to meet about 10 Med-El employees.  The tour of the manufacturing plant was nice.  It really highlights how careful they are to keep their manufacturing process under control.  
Med-El employs about 1600 people in Innsbruck, making them the largest private employer.  The expansion and new buildings shows their commitment to growth and their wide portfolio of systems for addressing hearing loss.  

The emphasis of the tour was on the manufacturing of the implant.  That makes sense since the processor is nice but is more like traditional small consumer electronics.  On the other hand, the implant needs a lot more attention.  After the manufacturing tour, we got to the training lab for surgeons.  Very impressive!  The tour was a little over an hour.  

I was a little surprised that there wasn't a "company store" with Med-El swag or accessories.  Whether it was stuff like a Med-El logoed notebook, backpacks (Med-El US includes a very nice one for new users, not sure if that is true in other countries but even including old generations of swag could be nice.)  As for accessories, replacement retention clips, tools, Power One CI disposable batteries, maybe hats or headbands for holding CIs would all be good. Perhaps some books about hearing loss.

The Innsbruck Science Museum has a strong hearing orientation - not surprising given Med-El's presence.  Maybe their gift shop has some swag stuff but I didn't get a chance to visit the science museum during our visit.

The city of Innsbruck was wonderful. The lively, walkable downtown, active restaurant scene, and wonderful history including buildings over 500 years old. I could picture spending a week or more there as a relaxing vacation spot or adventurous area for skiing.  Highly recommended!  

Here are a few pictures from my trip. 

The first picture shows a random view of the Innsbruck old town area. A beautiful city! 

The second pictures shows the original Med-El building with the peaked roof, in the background just barely poking out is a new manufacturing building, on the right is the new main building with an aerial skyway connecting to another Med-El building.  The main building has the reception area where you would enter as a scheduled visitor. 

I am writing this post from the train on the way from Innsbruck to Hanover after spending about 36 hours in Innsbruck. Would have loved to spend more time in Innsbruck!

 

[Mary Beth]

So glad you had a nice visit @Tim

In the US, there is an online shop to purchase Med-El swag.

https://medelmerch.com

[Tim]

3 hours ago, Mary Beth said:

So glad you had a nice visit @Tim

In the US, there is an online shop to purchase Med-El swag.

https://medelmerch.com

Interesting - I had not run across the merchandise store online.  I'm surprised that their baseball hat doesn't have a hole and strap for holding a BTE processor.  I already purchased one on Etsy after hearing it discussed.

@Mary Beth Thanks for helping make the introduction by way of the Moderator for arranging a tour!

Tim

 

[Kylie]

@Tim this sounds fabulous! So glad you added this to your trip.

[Dianna]

Awesom tim!!!

[Tim]

I don't want to bore anyone but I feel obligated to close the loop on this forum thread that Med-El posted a part of the interview from my visit on their website.  It isn't on their blog (blog.medel.com) so it wasn't linked on the hearpeers forum.  No big deal. 

It is old stuff since I was just 2 months post-activation in March.  I said that Hearpeers was a great community and I still stand by that!  Thanks everyone and especially @Mary Beth. 

 

Off-topic but a couple of hours ago I finished running a small 5 day international conference in Mexico. There were about 120 people from about 15 countries in attendance with less than 20% being native English speakers.  Until two weeks ago I thought I was just going to be the second in charge of the conference but then the #1 person said he could not attend and I would get to do both of our jobs for the first time.  The noise and accents were a challenge but it all went so much better than I had even hoped.  I could not imagine having done that before getting the CI.

My big benefits:

• No SSD head turning and having to explain that I'm not being rude (at least not in that sense!)
• No extra exhaustion after just an hour of meetings in noise - instead I was doing meetings from 7 AM to 10 PM
• A seemingly normal amount of asking mumbler/whisperers to repeat themselves. (Yes-even normal hearing people need to ask some people to speak up.)
• Being able to talk to all the people at the noisy round table dinner event instead of just the person on my right.
• Not getting "cranky" about loud background noise

I know I have a long way to go in rehab but already finding good, positive results.  I'm looking forward to further improvements.

 

[Lauren]

Fantastic! 👏 

[Kylie]

Those segments come across so well!

[mahatab]

Your trip to Germany sounds like an amazing adventure. Reminds me of the time I explored Europe and stumbled upon some unexpected delights. Speaking of delightful surprises, have you ever considered the luxury of flying business class https://travelbusinessclass.com/? It's like adding an extra layer of comfort and elegance to your journey. As for Innsbruck, your detailed account makes me want to pack my bags and head there right away. Thanks for sharing your experience and those helpful travel tips.