| National
Alumni Association Event : Vienna |
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Annual
Alumni Event in Vienna
Our yearly conference in Vienna on September 26-29 was a great
event with more than 180 alumni participants. On Thursday
afternoon we gathered in our base station for the weekend,
the Intercontinental hotel. In the evening the group went
to the Burgtheater to see E. Rostand´s "Cyrano
de Bergerac" play with Karl Maria Brandauer being the
main actor or to the Staatsoper to listen to Gaetano Donizettis
"Roberto Devereux", one of his 74 operas.
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Friday morning started as pedestrians with a paper-chase through
downtown Vienna. We learnt a
lot about Vienna, its language, monuments and sights. Following
Roland Berger Strategy consultants´ invitation we took
a lunch rest in the Palais Kinski, followed by three interesting
presentations and discussions in the afternoon. Manfred Reichl,
partner of the Vienna office of Roland Berger and responsible
also for the emerging Eastern countries spoke about the economic
and social perspective of the 10 new EU candidates, followed
by Hans Hammer´s presentation about the entrepreneurship
forum and Phil Anderson´s vision about the Alumni Community
as a foundation for global leadership in 2010. After the intellectual
part we took dinner in a typical Vienna Heurigen Pub at the
Zimmermann in Grinzig. Early Saturday morning we went to the
Palais Pallavicini, where Mr. Elmayer, head of the - according
to the New York times - most famous dance school of the world,
taught us about Carrée-steps, quarter and half turns
to prepare for the ball in the evening. After this fun excercise
we went to the big auditorium of Vienna university, where
Erhard Busek, former vice chancellor and EU-representative
for the balkan stability pact spoke about democracy, welfare
and safety - wish and hope for the whole of Europe. We took
a buffet lunch in the Vestibül of the Burgtheater and
relaxed for the big ball in the evening. The dinner and ball
venue was at the Palais Schwarzenberg, one of the most prestigious
palais of Vienna. We will keep the excellent cuisine, the
ball introduction by Mr. Elmayer and his professional dancers
and the fun we had in mind for a long time. |
On
Saturday we started with an alumni board meeting where Joelle
du Lac MBA '85J, Director of Alumni Relations, explained her
roles and responsibilities and Michael Roskothen MBA '63,
President of the International Alumni Association, illustrated
the basic elements of the IAA-INSEAD partnership contract,
the 3 year plan and budget, the planned financing and code
of conduct for the national alumni associations. Stefan Willich,
IAAG, presented the results of the Young Alumni questionnaire
and the consequences to organise two top events per year per
region in Germany. |
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We also welcomed the roughly 80 Wharton Alumni who will participate
in our IAAG activities. Erbert Willam, IAF, explained the
importance of donors for the school and two new IAAG-board
members, Stefan Reschke and Roy Loeschner, were elected. |
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After
the board meeting we listened to Giacomo Puccini´s Messa
di Gloria in the Augustiner church, had a special tour through
the baroque national library and finished our meeting with
a golf tournament at the Fontana Club in Oberwaltersdorf.
All in all we had a wonderful weekend that presented Vienna
and its fascinating possibilities and gave us an opportunity
to refresh our INSEAD friendships. |
| Phil
Anderson, The IAF Chaired Professor of Entrepreneurship &
Family Enterprise |
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