KarlshochschuleNewsletter I/2010

erlebnisrausch at the Best of Events 2010On the 20th of January, 2010 some members of erlebnisrausch e.V. had the possibility to visit the ’Best of Events International 2010’ in Dort-mund, Germany. This is an international trade fair for events, live marketing, event services and congresses.

Early morning three fully packed cars left for Dortmund with us, first semester students, other students from the third and fifth semester and Prof. Stefan Luppold.

After arriving we could feel the Rheinish men-tality of the slightly stressed parking lot atten-dant. We, the first semester students had to face some difficulties at the entrance as well, but luckily we able to clear up the misunder-standings.

After this we were able to enter the fair and got immediately captured by the atmosphere. Finally we got impressions of the industrial sec-tor that we are really interested in. In the three huge exhibitory halls we were welcomed by LED-walls, fountains, molecular catering, pyro-technics and crazy facilities and felt ourselves immediately comfortable in this colourful world, to which we will hopefully belong in some ye-ars.

During the day we discovered new technolo-gies, décor, artists, catering companies, agen-

cies... everything that you need for a good event.

At the end of the day we started our trip back home a bit exhausted but fully equipped with new pens, flyers, business cards and of course with new ideas and dreams. If you are interes-ted in this sector, then the ’Best of Events’ is surely the right place to get first impressions! We are already looking forward to the next trade fair that we are going to visit!

Annika Rockstroh (MMEEC2) and Mona EL Raddaf (MMEEC2)

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The student project ’Backyard TV’ celebrated its first anni-versary and started a cam-paign to attract new members for its team. Besides the reg-ularly Backyard TV re-

ports about (youth) culture in Karlsruhe and its surroundings several other multimedia pro-jects were offered during the semester.

All the students of Karlshoch-schule, who are interested in working with media, have the possibility to join the initiati-ve. The editorial team of the university sees itself as a kind of media lab and has shown

enormous development over the past year. In the mean-time adequate equipment with editing suite is available for the members. As the coach of the team, Patrick Breintenbach, the Head of Communication at Karlshochschule helps the successful work of Backyard TV.

www.backyardtv.de

Student Initiative: Backyard TV

Events for International Students – Trip to SpeyerOur trip to Speyer started early in the morning under grey sky. Maybe because of the weather or maybe because of the first day of the new week, at the beginning we were all pret-ty quiet. After about an hour travelling by train we reached Speyer.

Speyer is a small city which has around 50,000 inhabitants. Our first impression of Speyer was that it looks really new even though it is one of the oldest cities in Germany. After the big fire in the year 1689 the city was rebuilt in 1700. Most of the buildings that were sur-rounding us were more or less 300 years old because during World War II this beautiful city was not damaged. After 10 minutes walking from Speyer main train station we reached the “Old Gate” (Altpörtel). This was the place where we met up with our guide Jutta Hornung. Then following her suggestion we started our tour from the Old Gate of Spey-er. The main building of the Old Gate was built between the years 1230 and 1250. It was originally built as an exterior gate, connecting the old town with the suburb of St.Gilgenvorstadt. A 20 meter high roof was added between the years 1512 and 1514. After that the Old Gate was used as a Watch Tower. Soldiers were watching out for enemies and the outbreak of fires. Nowa-

days this Gate is 55 meters tall and has 154 steps to reach the roof. We were so excited to see the view of Speyer from the roof so we started to ascend to the roof. When we

reached the top we were all satisfied with the amazing view of Speyer and we all imagined how Speyer must have looked from the tower 300 – 400 years ago.

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Our second destination in Speyer was the Medieval Jewish Courtyard and its buildings. This place was built on the 21st September 1104 in accordance with the promi-se of the Bishop who invited Jews to Speyer. The Jewish Courtyard consists of 4 parts: Women’s Prayer Hall, Gothic Annex, Ritual Bath (Mikveh) and the Synagogue.

We started to look at some parts of the wall of the Court-yard, which is still standing, just before we went to see one of the only Jewish Ritual Baths in Germany.

After we were informed about the Jewish Courtyard we star-ted to walk through the church in Speyer. When we entered the church we all started to take photographs and started to become really interested in the things around us. Then we congregated around our guide to learn all about this old chur-ch. This church was built in 1717 and it was the first public building in Speyer. However when they built the church, it was not accepted easily by the public because they built it using poor people. Most of the churches in Germany were damaged during the Second World War but this church is still standing with the original style from 1717. The other important information about the church is that the first five pews have two sides because this church has two focuses, one side of the pew focuses on the pulpit, the other side on the altar.

Our last destination with our guide was the Cathedral of Speyer. We saw the Cathedral 2-3 minutes before we reached it because this cathedral is located on one of the highest parts of the city even though the cathedral has a height of about 72 meters. Our guide started to explain the tradition about the bowl which is stan-ding next to the cathedral and she said: “People of Speyer were filling the bowl with the wine when the new bishop came to the city and there was free wine for everybody and this tradition continues today.” The huge bowl has a capacity of approximately 1,600 liters. Afterwards we went into the Cathedral, which was built in 1100, to look it up close. Some of us started directly to take photographs, some of us started to tell each other our first impressions and some of us went to see the graves that are in the central aisle in front of the altar. Some other interesting features of the Cathedral were the paintings that are hanging on the walls. These paintings were prepared and hung with the purpose of making the Cathedral more enjoyable according to the wishes of the King of Bavaria.

After we said goodbye to our guide we took an hour’s break to eat something in the city center. There is one large and white main street in the city where you can find a varied selection of restaurants and foods. Then we separated into small groups. After we

congregated again we decided to go to the Speyer Technical Museum instead of the boat tour on the River Rhine. After a quarter of an hour walk we were in the museum. In this museum we saw commercial planes, aircrafts, submarines, locomotives, helicopters, mo-torcycles, a fire engine coll-ection, some musical organs and various types of vintage cars such as Trabant 601 S Limousine that was produced in 1990, Mercedes Benz 500 K that was produced in 1935 or a Cadillac Eldorado that was produced in 1976. We shared a lot of unforgettable moments and we had a lot of fun in the museum.

After the museum it was the time head for home. We were all tired because of the long day that was full of fun. On our way back home we were still talking about our impressions in Speyer. Thanks to Karls-hochschule International Office Staff who continue to make our stay more smooth and enjoyable.

Tayfun Karadag (IMC, exchange student from Turkey)

Cooperation with Dolce Hotels & Resorts opens new ways for Karlshochschule

The Dolce Hotels & Resorts in Neuheim, Ger-many is everything but an ordinary hotel. With over 2700 square meters of event area, an art nouveau theatre for 800 guests and 27 confe-rence rooms with the newest technology the hotel provides facilities for all kinds of events.

The basic principles are: Nourishment (Cuisine, Spa, Amenities and Activities), Connectivi-ty (Technology, Design and Architecture) and Community (Great Guest Experience, Green Initiatives and Local Community Outreach).

Elvis Presley sq. 1, the address of the hotel is already appealing. Dolce is very successful in the MEEC business because of its innovative USPs. For Dolce it is very important to bring people together and inspire them to develop new ideas. And it has precisely achieved this through its location in Bad Neuheim (20 min-utes away from Franfurt am Main), its floor-to-ceiling windows with a view to nature and a

welcoming atmosphere.

Nevertheless the com-petition never sleeps and innovations are crucial: Karlshochschule comes into play at this point. A new energy concept, a fragrance-marketing plan or a process and perfor-mance optimisation - Dol-ce is open for curios and committed students and gives them the possibility to combine theory with practi-ce to develop new USPs and to be able to compete successfully in the future as well.

Michael Prokop, General Manager of Dolce and Vice President Development Germany, Austria and Switzerland said that Dol-

ce would not be adverse to doing something crazy. They would be thankful for new impulses and innovative thoughts. A cooperation would be of benefit to both sides in this regard.

There are different ways possible e.g. a shor-ter or longer internship or the chance to write a Bachelor‘s thesis linked to Dolce. More-over Michael Prokop is going to participate in Karlshochschule‘s mentoring programme.

The cooperation is going to open exciting new ways for the university.

Rike Schmitz (MMEEC4)

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University politics: Bologna-Congress in StuttgartOn the 8th March, following the invitation from the federal state government President Prof. Dr. Michael Zerr, Dean Prof. Dr. Andreas Müller and Sabine Postels (IMC, 4th semester) discussed the disputed Bologna-reform with about 450 other experts and people concerned. Some background information: in 1999 in the Italian university town, Bologna twenty-nine ministers of education and sciences agreed upon an initiative to create a common European Higher Education Area. A consistent study structure with standardised levels of degrees building upon each other and the breakdown of study contents into modules are the elemenents of this new system.

Minister Peter Frankenberg, the host of the conference described the development as very positive. He said that the higher education institutions in Baden Württemberg had reacted well to the changes - they had only got stuck in a few areas. The protest of the critics is based on, amongst others, the too high exam load

and the lack of choice in the new system. Be-sides it is also criticised that it has been made more difficult to change the place of study, e.g. to go abroad for a semester.

However the situation is totally different in the case of Karlshochschule’s students: their mobi-lity has extremely increased - on average every fourth student goes abroad. In the upcoming fall semester it is going to be even more, above 50% of the students are going to complete a semester at one of our partner universities. Just to compare, this number is far under 50% in Germany. ’We are committed to the consistent internationalisation and this process just gains momentum.’ said Dean Andreas Müller. Fu-thermore, with regard to the contents and the didactical consistence of the degree programs he sees Karlshochschule as far ahead of other higher education institutions. ’Analytical and constructive learning is systematically integra-ted in many of our modules. - Reflexion instead of ”bulimic learning”.’

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Prof. Dr Lutz Becker in the scientific ad-visory committee of the PMO SymposiumProf. Dr. Lutz Becker from Karlshochschule was appoin-ted to the scientific advisory committee of the PMO Sym-posium. At the event, which takes place in Hamburg from the 28th until the 30th of Sep-tember 2010, the results of a European- wide online survey in the topic of project manage-ment are going to be presen-ted.

More than 2,500 executive

managers from all over Europe are going to submit their votes in the topic of the symposium (Project Management Offices). The study is going to provide industry specific findings and approaches for a European-wide benchmark. The analysis

of specific, intercultural issues is another important aspect. As a result of the fast changing international markets intercul-tural processes and intercultu-ral know-how play a more and more important role.

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Karlshochschule International University is organizing an international conference on “Narrative and Innovation” with the aim of bringing together scholars and practitioners from different contexts to discuss the topic. The conference forms part of an interpretive approach towards business administration, strategic management, and entrepreneurship, by introducing instruments of semiotics, ling-uistics, narratology, and others.

From an entrepreneurial perspective, the ear-ly recognition of change in societies, markets and organizations is crucial. Not only from a competitive point of view are the signals more valuable, the earlier they are recognized.

Early recognition based on narratives opens windows for innovation and helps to foster new business opportunities.

It has largely been acknowledged that organ-isations are built, maintained and developed by story-type tools of management and lead-ership. The communication of missions and visions, the setting of myths and basic values, the implementation of change management processes through rhetorical issues, and so on, are amongst the most powerful means of driving the organization forward. As a conse-quence, text based analyses of the organis-ational self and of organizational meaning has been gaining interest in organization theory continuously over the last decades.

Less known and still to be discussed is the role of the cultural context in this regard and the way in which the mutual influences of organi-sational story building and the narrative pro-cessing of knowledge in a culture do actually interact.

• How do value systems of cultures and organ-isations exchange their scales and priorities?

• Which narratives form part of the encounter of partners in a complex network of stake-holders, which interaction formats can be

identified?

• How do generic structures change, how can the sense-making character of new signs and stories be interpreted?

• How do styles in story-telling change and what does style shifting indicate?

• Where are the strategic and organisational challenges?

• What are the levers that open new paths to opportunity recognition, entrepreneurial in-novation and business development?

The proposed symposium is organized by Prof. Dr. habil. Andreas Müller and Prof. Dr. Lutz Becker of Karlshochschule International Uni-versity. It will deal with these last questions. Slight changes in the construction and the semantics of narratives or stories might repres-ent the weak signals Igor Ansoff spoke about and which make the strategic anticipation of change possible. How can they be detected, what kind of analysis is apt for their descripti-on? Several theoretical backgrounds, e.g. organisation theory, system theory, discourse analysis, sociology of knowledge, cultural stu-dies, as well as the practitioners’ perspective on innovation in uncertain and contingent mar-kets should be taken into account. Everyone with an interest in the topic is invited to send us a proposal for participation.

Narrative & Innovation - international conference on new innovation chances

Karlsgespräche - Karls’ TalksKarlsgespäche, which could be translated as Karls‘ Talks, is already a tradition at Karlshoch-schule. Each semester we invite interesting and well-known personalities to share their experi-ences and thoughts about their area of experti-se. This semester we were able to welcome the following speakers:

Lothar Leonhard, Chairman of Ogilvy & Mather Frankfurt: ”Success. What you need for it and what you can do with it.“

Dr. Ulrich Fischer, regional bishop: ”Corporate ethics from a Catholic point of view.“

Gerhard Goll, retired State Counsellor of Baden-Württemberg: ”Where have our ideals gone?“

Prof. Ernst Elitz, founding director of Deutsch-landradio, a national public radio broadcaster: ”The ’bad’ media! The ’mean’ politics! - Ten

suggestions how journalism could better pic-ture reality.“

Prof. Dr. Hermut Kormann, retired chairman of the board of Voith AG, one of the biggest family owned enterprises in Europe: ”The way to survive - Hedging strategy concept for com-panies.“

Dr. Rudolf Kühner, district president: ”The world of public administration.“

Karlshochschule goes internationalThe first step to a mar-ket presence in Turkey has been made as part of the university’s international mar-keting strategy: on the 10-11th April 2010 Karlshochschule International University pre-sented itself for the first time in Istanbul, Turkey at the IEFT International Education Fair. Besides DAAD and Goethe-Institut Karlshochschule was the only German participant and we were glad to welcome a lot of visitors and to have numerous interesting talks. We would be happy if we could welcome some of the visitors as our new international stu-dents!

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A new erlebnisrausch Managing Board was elected - Patrick Haag, Dominik Wehner and Marc Beil would like to do their best to conti-nue the successful operation of the association and to further develop it.

Erlebnisrausch is an event-planning agency of Karlshochschule International University opera-ted by its students. It was founded in 2008 and was created to give Karlshochschule‘s students the chance to put their theoretical knowledge into practice. Being members of erlebnisrausch students are given the possibility to participate in numerous exciting projects, to get to know interesting people and to implement creative ideas.

Erlebnisrausch plans various projects for this year: e.g. it is going to organise the graduation ceremony of the university, a project team is going to redesign and optimise the web page of the association. There is a project especially for tourism students: the planning of a seminar-weekend for the members of erlebnisrausch. Furthermore a team is going to work on a new

marketing concept for a local café not far from the university.

Through the projects the members of erlebnis-rausch can further develop themselves, impro-ve their soft-skills, learn how to work indepen-dently and responsibly and gain experiences in real projects. Besieds the soft-skills erlebnis-rausch provides some further advantages for their members:

• Certificates for all the projects

• Tickets for events and fairs

• Participation possibility at events of organisa-tions of the MEEC-industry

• Exclusive seminars and workshops

• Internal programmes (e.g. erlebnisrausch weekend)

• Free subsciptions for professional magazines

All the students who are interested, are wel-come to join erlebnisrausch!

Erlebnisrausch New Managing Board is elected

Important happenings were announced, it was time again for a university excursion.

On the 28th April a huge traffic volume, which was caused by three fully packed busses, took the adventurous troop to its destination. In one of the busses a travelling party came to life despite the early mor-ning time. We arrived at the first stop of the trip, in South Pfalz a bit delayed. After a short hike in the mountains we visited Teufelstisch, a special rock formation while Prof. Dr. Zerr kindly gave us some infor-mation about the formation of the rock and mythology of it.

Shortly after we got to the final destination of our trip: a wood-ed area with a small lake next to the village Hauenstein. Here we could try different sports like raft building, water wheel-ing, archery and slack lining. While the raft builders were trying to agree on a common strategy and principles of group dynamics, others enjoy-ed themselves with the water wheel, first and foremost our esteemed president. Some others practiced shooting with bows and arrows and another group discovered the beautiful surroundings.

At the end of the exciting day there was a canoe competition where all of us participated with great enthusiasm. Some already lost balance at the start line and they rescued

themselves with an previously built raft that was just floating around. With a good technique half the battle was won, but of course muscular strength was another important factor. At the end of the competition all of us were very hungry and duly started to eat our grill plate, fitness salad or tarte flambee. Afterwards we briefly enjoyed the evening sun and then got on our way back to

Karlsruhe.

For all of us this day remains a beautiful memory and we are already looking forward to the next spectacular trip. We would like to say thank you for the great organisation to our CEO, Mrs. Habermann in the name of all the participants.

Jan Paul Kersting (IMC2) and Maximilian Mank (IB2)

Water sports a bit differently: University excursion to Pfalz

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The first Summer Academy on Intercultural Experience cooperatively organized by the Karlshochschule International University and AFS – Interkulturelle Begegnungen e.V. approa-ches relevant topics in the field of intercultural management and communication and is intended to foster the intercultural perspective within the field of management studies as well as to develop applied solutions for the prob-lems in business and society.

It is going to last three weeks from August 16 through September 3, 2010 and students can enrol for either two or three weeks.

The goal of the Summer Academy is to bring together scientists, practitioners, and students to work together on the following questions:

• What are the major themes in intercultural communication, what has been done in regard to the globalisation process, how has commun-ication changed?

• How do management and the world of busi-ness react to the intercultural challenges in a world of growing complexity?

• How are cultures constructed, what are their origins and how do people perceive the world, how can we solve the problems that arise when different cultural values meet?

The Summer Academy will comprise lectures on intercultural communication, intercultural management, cultures and conflicts, Euro-pean cultural studies, intercultural training and coaching as well as leadership in intercultural teams. All the courses will have complementary workshop sessions with theoretical and practi-cal content offered by trainers who are experts with large experience in international environ-ments.

Summer Academy @Karlshochschule

In May 2010 I had the possibility to teach 60 students of our partner university SSPU (Shanghai Second Polytechnic University) as a guest professor and at the same time visit the EXPO 2010.

Impressive experiences in this mega-metropolis - just because of the fact that China is so much bigger and much more colourful than Germany!

The EXPO extends over an area of 5.2 square kilometres, one part (Puxi) to the north of Hu-angpu river and another, the bigger part (Pu-dong) to the south of it. It is approximately four times bigger than the area of EXPO Hannover 2000 and despite its own EXPO-subway, bus-shuttle and river-ferrys it is a real hiking trip to get an impression of it. You can walk 20 kilo-metres or even more on an EXPO-day.

Unfortunately long waiting times of up to five hours are real plan-killers - this is the reason why I saw the Chinese pavilion, surely the most famous building of the EXPO, only from out-side. But it is very beautifully illuminated during the nights as well thanks to the Siemens-subsi-diary, Osram.

The German pavilion was especially important

for me; I know the agency that came up with the whole concept for it and I wanted to have a look at how it was implemented. Applause for the adorable and simultaneously high quality representation that brings Germany and the slogan „Balancity“ closer to the EXPO-visitors. It is a comprehensive artwork from garden gnome to „High-tech made in Germany“. The pavilion welcomes around 25,000 visitors and sets an emotional final chord with a huge multi-media-orb called ”Sphere“ that starts swinging through the interaction of around 600 visitors. Apart from this the friendliness of the German EXPO-team is also an important success fac-tor in the participation at the world-exhibition. At the end of the round tour the restaurant of the pavilion meets expectations: especially the Chinese visitors finish their trip there with brat-wurst, sauerkraut and Bavarian bier.

I have too many impressions to describe them in a short article. This is why I plan to invite tho-se who are interested for an ”EXPO-gathering“ with more information, photos and we will may-be go live to a Karlshochschule student who works in Shanghai.

Prof. Stefan Luppold

Mega-city, mega-event, mega-fun!

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Participation in the ERASMUS Intensive Pro-gramme ”Environment Awareness. Communi-cation. Interpretation“ in August 2011Our partner university in Latvia, Vidzeme Uni- versity of Applied Sciences (ViA), is starting a new ERASMUS Intensive Programme this summer that focuses on the management and communication systems in protected natur-al and cultural areas with public usage. The programme contains lectures, workshops and field trips and will be held as a summer school in Valmiera, Latvia, between 4 and 18 August, 2010. More details can be found under http:// biss.va.lv.

An Intensive Programme is a short study programme that encourages teaching of spec-ialist, interdisciplinary topics and brings tog-ether students and staff from higher education institutions of at least three countries and par-ticipating in the Lifelong Learning Programme. It can last from 2 weeks or 10 continuous full days to 6 weeks of subject related work.

A renewal application for the programme for the summer of 2011 was submitted in March with an extended list of partners, including Karlshochschule International University, and has now been approved. In August 2011, around 35 students and around 12 teachers

from Germany, Greece, Latvia, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Turkey will come to Val-miera and explore the subject of environment awareness, nature protection and communica-tion. Travel and accommodation expenses of mobile students and teachers as well as orga-nisational costs will be subsidised with ERAS-MUS funds.

The international group will include one profes- sor and a group of students from Karlshoch- schule. Details such as the content to be offer-ed and course recognition will be organized

in spring 2011, and there will be an announce- ment inviting teaching staff and students to apply. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of the programme, the application will be open to faculty and students from different study prog-rammes.

We are looking forward to next summer and will keep you up-to-date regarding our common project with ViA!

Dr. Jutta WalzUniversity Development / International Office

Impressum:Karlshochschule International UniversityKarlstraße 36 - 3876133 Karlsruhe

Postfach 11 06 3076059 Karlsruhe

Tel.: +49 721 1303-500Fax: +49 721 1303-300Email: info@karlshochschule.de

www.karlshochschule.de