Posted on 4 June 2013
The German branch of the University of Wales Alumni Association recently held two very important events. Maintaining a strong community of University of Wales Alumni, the Branch held its annual symposium for existing branch members in April, and then welcomed potential new members at the University’s Graduation Celebrations, celebrating the achievements of the German Students attending on the day.
Helmuth Stahl, a key member of the German branch, tells us more about both events:
On Saturday the 27th of April we held our annual symposium at a top location in Hamburg, the five-star Hotel-Restaurant Louis C. Jacob on the river Elbe.
The agenda was designed to meet the interests of our members and we had three prominent speakers who presented on very interesting topics which led to many lively discussions.
Prof. Dr. Dieter Haselbach, co-author of the book The breakdown of Culture, presented his provocative thesis on the financing of cultural activities mainly with public money without sufficient rationality to spend it meaningfully. It was very insightful to learn about how money is spend and partly wasted when it comes to cultural issues.
Dr. Bernhard Miebach, head of CMC Corporate Management Consulting, spoke about how computers change business and enterprise. It became clear that computers and new media are crucial success factors for any company and that the internet, as well as social media, provides a huge vista of new business models in view of e-commerce.
Prof. Dr. Thomas Zacher covered the topic Green Economy as political and economic Challenge. He explained why it is one of the greatest challenges of our time to achieve sustainable developments with balanced ecosystems which are in the best interests of us all.
In the afternoon we held an annual meeting of our members, where we dealt with general issues and updated members of the latest developments and activities.
The day ended with a superb dinner and an excellent view of passing container ships. During a break in dinner, our colleague Hans-Georg Langholz spoke to members about how he studied for and completed his Doctorate degree at the University in Hall in Tirol (Austria) alongside his professional activities.
The following week our German students were participating at the University of Wales Graduation Celebrations in Cardiff on the 2nd of May. They were impressed by the ceremonies surrounding this event and in particular that they were all personally greeted by the Vice-Chancellor and welcomed into membership of the University‘s alumni organisation as new graduates.
To end this most memorable day in style, the German Branch invited all the new graduates, together with their accompanying partners, to a celebration party at Henry‘s Cafe & Bar in the centre of Cardiff where they were all congratulated for their achievements. We sincerely hope that many of them will become active members of our German Branch
Both events were well organized thanks to Mrs Mandy Scheibner and Mrs Dorit Streitferdt from Allfinanz Akademie, Hamburg.