Being Cultural at Oktoberfest

If not for a QR code and a compelling website, we would have missed some of the world's most amazing art and historical collections.  Last week we were in Munich for the CBS international seminar and looking for something "cultural" to do as a break from Oktoberfest, beer gardens and advertising/branding class.  The hotel visitor desk downplayed museums and the published brochures for the city's museums were quite dull.  Initially, museums were clearly not going to be an option.  On a whim, one of us scanned a QR code on a poster in the subway which peaked our interest.  The website we were eventually driven to was amazing with intense images of diverse art, etc.  This got us to reconsider and we decided to go to Munich's Museum District.   At Alte Pinakothek we saw one of the few publicly displayed Leonardo DiVinci paintings, and paintings by masters like Raphael, Rubens and Durer.  At Pinakothek de Moderne, Picasso, Dali and Warhol were on display.  And at Deutsches Museum, the lab table where the atom was first split, a moon rock, and first helicopter and submarine were presented.  The volume and importance of what we saw was truly astounding.  Subsequently we learned that Munich hosts one of the world's greatest museum collections.  We would never have experienced this without digital promotion.