More Information

 

Dates

Taking Malta out of the Box will take place on 11-15 May 2011. The first day of the conference, 11 May, will be devoted exclusively to organised bus tours and other activities. The presentations and keynote speeches will take place during the day on 12-15 May. Every evening of the conference will feature organised meals and activities that will give delegates a taste of Maltese history and culture. It anticipated that some delegates will be unable to attend the entirety of the conference: Thus, local participants are welcome, for example, to attend the conference only on the weekend if they wish.

 

Conference Fees

Conference registration is £60 (standard) and £40 (students and Malta residents). This fee covers entry to all conference presentations and keynote speeches and includes a number of refreshment breaks over the course of the conference. In order to keep conference registration prices low and give our foreign and local delegates maximum flexibility, some additional events will be ordered and paid for separately. More information on organised bus tours, walking tours, meals, and cultural events will be available soon. Click here for more information on registration.

 

Location

Valletta, the capital of Malta, was built by the Knights of Saint John following their triumph over the Ottoman Empire in the 1565 Siege of the Malta. With a population of just 4000, Valletta is at once intimate and majestic. Every one of its magnificent plazas and narrow lanes exhibit the Baroque architecture for which the city was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

 

Nevertheless, Valletta is no museum piece: Its numerous cafés, restaurants, and wine cellars cater to both tourists and the vibrant local community. The same can be said for its shops, cinema, and theatres, the latter of which include the stunningly renovated St James Cavalier Centre for Creativity and the 300-year old Teatru Manoel. Among Valletta’s heritage attractions are the Malta National Museum of Archaeology; the Grand Master’s Palace, with its State Rooms and Armoury; the National Museum of the Fine Arts; and of course the eminently walkable city walls. Not to be missed is the ornate St John’s Co-Cathedral, a treasure trove of artistic masterpieces. In Valletta, art is not limited to the display case: The city is a testament to the sculptor’s craft, with saints and animals of sandstone and marble adorning nooks and crests in nearly every lane.

 

Just outside the city gates and next to the conference venue is Malta’s central bus terminal, from which one can catch buses to all corners of the Maltese archipelago.

 

Venue and Accommodation

The conference portion of Taking Malta out of the Box will be held at the five-star Hotel Phoenicia, located just beyond Valletta’s main gates. Hotel Phoenicia was built in 1939 and is Malta’s oldest grand hotel, with 136 rooms and suites spread out over four floors. The hotel’s 7.5-acre garden culminates in the Bastion Pool, which overlooks Manoel Island and Marsamxett Harbour. With four bars and restaurants of its own in addition to the dozens of dining options in neighbouring Valletta, Hotel Phoenicia provides luxury accommodation at the Taking Malta out of the Box meeting site as well as uniquely easy access to the island’s various natural and cultural heritage attractions.

 

This makes Hotel Phoenicia ideally placed to combine participation at Taking Malta out of the Box with a Maltese holiday, thus allowing foreign delegates to visit the archipelago’s attractions that they will not have time to see during the conference.

 

Hotel Phoenicia is offering special accommodation rates for conference delegates in May 2011:

• €120 per night for a single classic room

• €140 per night for a double classic room.

All rooms include breakfast. Booking takes place on the Hotel Phoenicia booking website. The promotional code to use when booking in order to support the conference and receive the special room rates will be available here shortly.

 

Although we strongly recommend staying at Hotel Phoenicia, conference delegates are free to choose their own accommodation. For information on other accommodation options in the vicinity, please contact Adam Grydehøj, the convenor.

 

Updates

To keep up-to-date about Taking Malta out of the Box, join the Island Dynamics mailing list.

 

 

 

 

 

Additional information on conference side events as well as conference conference venues will be available soon. For more information on Malta itself, go to the Visit Malta website.

 

The best way of keeping up to date about the conference is to join the Island Dynamics mailing list. If you have any questions, please contact Adam Grydehøj, the convenor.