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Entrepreneurs in dialogue
From 1998 onwards UW/H students have been inviting outstanding representatives of the business community to the university for regular sessions; they report and discuss their professional experience with lecturers and students. Entrepreneurs in Dialogue is not a lecture series but a forum for discussion; the event is unstructured and informal with an intimate atmosphere inviting personal exchange.
“The event is not open to the press or the public,” says Patrick Rebacz from the organizing team. “The idea is to create a private atmosphere to get to know our guest better.” The evening suitably ends in a shared student flat with dinner prepared for the guest. And Witten students are frequently surprised to find their prominent guests quite unpretentious and very much down-to-earth.
Invitations for the “Entrepreneurs in Dialogue” sessions at Witten/Herdecke University go to personalities from all spheres of business, industry and society. For the organizing team, entrepreneur is an attitude and not a profession. So they presented a wide range of interesting speakers over the years, among them young start-ups, seasoned self-made men, family firm executives, top managers, or personalities from other areas with specific entrepreneurial achievements.
In general, the forum is open and without a specific topic, since each guest has his or her unique history. But they all answer three questions in the first round: Who am I and how did I get where I am? Why did I become an entrepreneur? What can I teach young people?
As a rule, the answers to these questions are as diverse as the personalities who give an account of themselves.