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'Vision of Risk' Karlsruhe-Kaiserslautern-Darmstadt, Germany; November 2002
It all started on November 18th 2002, when I was sitting at home and looking through the ESTIEM agenda. I saw the Vision seminars held in 3 German cities (Karlsruhe, Kaiserslautern and Darmstadt) between November 24th-30th. I thought that it would be nice going there, but well, I could only dream about that, since during that time I was supposed to have an exam. The next day I went to my University and the date of exam was set... on 22nd. I was more than excited to see it! I rushed home and the first thing I did was writing an e-mail to Helli that 'I am coming!' :) And then all preparations for the trip started. I was thinking about all the things I need that I almost forgot that on Friday I had the exam, and that ment studying... a bit at least ;) But everything went perfect and I could enjoy my trip.
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I had a flight booked from Gdansk-Warsaw-Zurich-Stuttgart. Quite a long trip was waiting for me, but the flight itself took just a few hours. I left my house on Sunday morning at 6.15. At 8.50 I was on the plane to Warsaw, then 2 hours of waiting and next flight to Zurich. In Zurich I had to wait for 3,5 hours, so I decided to go downtown for some sighseeing. I just couldn't waste that chance. I spent 2 hours walking along Limmat River and admiring the beautiful sights and architecture of Zurich. I spent there very little time, but this city made big impression on me and I know that I want to go there again, and this time not just for 2 hours. At 5.55PM I was back on the plane to Stuttgart. The flight was very short (just 40 minutes). It was already dark and the weather was so beautiful that I could enjoy seeing little towns full of light. Finally I landed in Stuttgart. I rushed out of the plane, grabbed my rucksack and hurried for the train going to the city center. At the main train station I had enough time to buy the ticket to Karlsruhe and relax a bit. Finally, at 9PM I arrived at Karlsruhe train station, where I met Helli and Cornelia (my host). And that's when everything began. I left my things at Cornelia's flat and we went to the welcome party at 'Z10', where I met everybody.
The next morning we got on the bus and went to DaimlerChrysler 'A-Klasse' factory in Rastatt. First we had a video presentation of the whole company. Later we went for excursion around the factory and could see the assembly shop. At the end we spent some time in a sort of 'exhibition' room, where we could see, listen to, read and touch everything that has to do with Mercedes. Unfortuantely I don't have any pictures from that trip, since we weren't allowed to take any cameras or even bags with us. After that excursion we went for a dinner to a nearby restaurant. Before 3PM we were back at the University, where we had 3 lectures: "New product introduction process at Motorola Semiconductor: How to maximize the market success of new designs" (by Motorola); "Strategic placement of new products in the markets" (by MRU Friedrichshafen) and "Drug development and Risk Management" (by Boehringer-Ingelheim).
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But the best part of the day was still waiting for us: 'StraBa-Party' - it means a Party on the tram... yes, tram going around Karlsruhe. Some of us didn't realize what a 'StraBa-Party' is until we got there. It was really wild partying with other students, great music and a lot of different things like 'lemon vodka' :) On Tuesday morning one could tell who had a great party the night before. Anyway, we managed to get together and pay attention to the lectures: "Brand extensions - opportunities and risks" (by Roland Berger) and "Risk-Management process for new product introductions at HP" (by Hewlett-Packard). After the lectures some of us decided to go sightseeing - we saw the Karlsruhe Palace and visited the Museum of Karslruhe... unfortunately everything inside the museum was in German. I also wanted to buy some souvenir from Karlsruhe, but believe me, I didn't find anything. I had problems even with finding a postcard, but finally I got it!
At 4PM we met again at the University, packed our things into cars, took the last picture and left for Kaiserslautern. Some of us got there by train, but some were lucky enough to go by car... I was one of the lucky ones. It was really nice to sit in the back of Mercedes, chat a bit, slip a bit and fly through the highway with an average speed of 180 km/h. We arrived at Kaiserslautern University as the first ones. When we got into the room, I said 'Hi, my name is Dorota', and in reply I heard 'Hi, uhh, were you on the list?' :-) Anyway, in a while all the others came, we ate some pizza and went to our hosts. In the evening everybody met again at 'Underground' for a party.
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Wednesday morning was divided in two parts. Because the first lecture was in German, those who spoke German went to University. All other participants got on 3 cars and we went to visit the Opel factory near Kaiserslautern. We were supposed to meet a guide and 'see' everything in English. Well, we were lucky to have our two German friends with us, since our guide was ill and the trip around Opel was half in English and half in German. But I have to say that our 'interpreters' did a great job and we heard and saw many interesting things. This excursion was different from the one on Monday. At DimlerChrysler we saw how the parts are put together and at the end the beauriful cars are ready to go. Here, at Opel, we saw the production line of engines and some parts of body of the cars. At about 10.30AM we were back at the University, drank a lot of coffee and were ready for the lectures: "Risk Management vs. Opportunity Management. Examples in OBI" (by OBI), "New capital accord (Basle II)" (by BearingPoint) and the final lecture by one of the University lecturers. After that we went to mensa for a dinner, where we could chat a bit with the company representatives. Later we had some time for resting a bit and then we met at the Kaiserslautern market. We spent there about two hours drinking mulled wine, making jokes, singing the ESTIEM Song in different ways and, in general, having fun. At about 8PM we headed to A6 club for a Disco Night. That night was the 'Ladies Night', where ladies paid 50% for drinks... and so WE bought all drinks for everybody. It was really funny sitting at the bar, asking the bartender for 5 drinks, and when he wants to say how much it is, I asked for another, and another... after a while the bartender tried to avoid me, but since there were about 30 of us and very few girls... we had fun. Till late we were dancing and talking. It was a great time.
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On Thursday morning everybody met at University again. We ate some breakfast, said goodbye to some people and went to the bus stop. There was supposed to be a bus waiting for us, but it was the other way round - we waited for him... for one hour. But finally, the bus arrived and we got on board. After a while some of us fell asleep, but soon were awoken by the voice: 'Good morning ladies and gentlemen, welcome on the bus to Frankfurt. Please fasten your seatbelts and pay attention to our crew..... If the preasure drops, the oxygen masks will drop out automatically. If you're travelling with a child, first put the mask on your face and then help your child. If you're travelling with more than one child, please decide now which one you love more..... We wish you a pleasant trip.' On the way to Frankfurt we left our bags in Darmstadt. At about noon we finally got there, ready to visit the Deutsche Borse Group - the German Stock Market. First we had a video presentation about the company, how it works, what are the procedures etc. Later we went to a sort of 'balcony', where behind the glass we could watch the stockbrokers at work, electronic charts changing every few minutes and other screens with loads of numbers and information. After visiting the Stock Market we had some free time to do whatever we wanted to. And so... we got on a bull to take a picture, ate hotdogs and, what else could we do... we went sightseeing! At first we went up to the roof of one of the shoping stores, where was the observation point over Frankfurt (the result of it can be found on my 'Panorama of Frankfurt'). When we were on the ground again, we went South to Romerberg and the market square surrounded with many beautiful medieval buildings. The market was full of people and small wooden shops with sweet specialties and different things for Christmas. The atmosphere there was wonderful, we had a great time wondering around the old part of Frankfurt. And as we wanted to go to the museum in the Old City Hall, we realized that in 15 minutes we should be back at the Stock Exchange, so, no visiting this time. We hurried back, however, on the way I managed to buy a small souvenir :) At 3PM we met the guys from Darmstadt and Bremen, took a picture and went for a lecture: "Risk Management in the Banking Sector: Particularities of KfW" (by Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau). This time the presentation was in the company. When the presentation was over, we got on the train and headed to Darmstadt. As we got there, we took our bags from the University and went to our hosts. I stayed together with May, but since our host wasn't there, yet, we went to Andreas's place, where we had really nice time together eating toasts, listening to Spanish music and stories from world-wide trips. In the evening we went for a quiet party held in the office of Darmstadt Group... we had to save some strengths for the next day.
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On Friday morning we had an official welcome at the Technical University of Darmstadt, and after that a long day with one company - Booz Allen Hamilton. They started with a presentation about "Risk Management in companies. Approach", and after lunch we were supposed to solve a case study "Integrated Risk Management (for a railway industry)". We had just two hours to solve the case, but we had a great time solving it, and then presenting and discussing with the company representatives about the mistakes that we made and the mistakes they made... we had fun. After the case study we had little time for ourselves. At 7.30PM we were supposed to meet back at the University. Unfortunately I was late a few minutes and everybody was already gone. However, I was lucky enough to have Wolf's cell number... after a while we met and he took me to the restaurant 'El Greco', where everybody waited for the dinner. It was a great evening with a lot of fantastic food, laughing, singing, talking and giving e-mail addresses... everybody to everybody. At the end of the dinner I thank the organizers (Max and Andreas) for a wonderful week and gave them special Polish vodka - Zobrowka... they liked it :) We had such a great time that I didn't want to leave, not yet. I knew that the next morning I would have to say goodbye, but there was, still, a guided trip around Darmstadt waiting for us. And so, during that evening I decided to postpone my flight... I wanted to do it so much, that when my cell phone died, I just borrowed one and did it! The last goodbye party was after 'El Greco', in the Irish Pub. We were lucky, because that night there was a band playing live. We were dancing, singing and, as always, having a great time. Of course we didn't forget about the ESTIEM Song... how could we! And during that party we had to say goodbye to guys from Bremen - they left in the middle of the night. After the party we went to the car through the University park... and you can see on the pictures what the guys did. There was a kind of bulldozer standing, with its lights on, doors opened and nobody around. Obviously guys were very curiuous of how different machines look like and they peeked inside and... closed the door. At the beginning they closed just one of them, but as they figured out that they couldn't open it anymore, they happened to close the other one as well... ooops :) |
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The next morning everybody was realy lazy. Finally, we could get some more sleep (or at least we thought we could). At about 10AM everybody met at the office for the brunch, and then left for the bus. At the Luisenplatz we said goodbye to the last participants, and I found out that I was the only one who stayed. But I was very happy about that, since there was a guide waiting to take us sighseeing around Darmstadt. We heard some history and stories about that town. Darmstadt is a small and very beautiful town. It was really a nice day. At 2.50PM I was back on Luisenplatz with my ruchsack, got on the bus and waved goodbye to Darmstadt.
I thought that it was over, that now I will get home and sleep for ages. Well, finally, I got home, but not as fast as I thought. As I was leaving Germany, the weather was beautiful with about +6 C degrees. I had a flight back from Frankfurt-Warsaw-Gdansk. As I was landing in Warsaw, I saw that it was snowing a bit. Well, after all, it was the end of November. But as I was waiting for the plane to Gdansk, I saw that it was delayed. I didn't know why, but after few minutes I found out that... the flight to Gdansk was cancelled because of bad weather (snowstorm, to be exact) in Gdansk. Wow, that was really fantastic! But I knew that there was another flight in 2,5 hours... no way, it was cancelled as well. But they told us that there would be a bus instead of plane... we left Warsaw at about 10.15PM and were in Gdansk at 4AM. And as we were getting closer to Gdansk, it was snowing more and more. In Gdansk it was completely white and cold. Finally, I was home. I could get in my bed, close my eyes, and dream of all the things that happened to me during that past week.
I had a great time during that trip and for sure I won't forget it anytime soon.
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