Bocholt Summer Evening

Our idea during the rainy summer of 2012: turn the client event into a Bocholt Summer Evening. We had invited clients, business partners and friends of the group of companies. We had capped attendance at 99 participants. Not a chance. We were able to welcome far more guests. Internally, we raised the limit day by day during the response period. But at some point that was it – the event was fully booked. Then came the summer evening. At some point our air-conditioning units gave up the ghost, and heads were spinning. We promptly moved the question-and-answer session following the panel discussion into direct, personal conversations on the roof terrace, and our guest speaker stayed until late in the evening. With success. It was a long summer evening, and one that was thoroughly enjoyed. And the run on the 99 seats was down to him: our guest speaker Christian Lindner, member of the state parliament and chairman of the FDP parliamentary group, as well as chairman of the FDP regional association in North Rhine-Westphalia, wanted to speak – in a non-partisan manner – on demographic change in mid-sized urban centres, and had already generated enthusiasm in advance without saying a word. During the summer evening, Steffi Neu, specially borrowed from WDR, coaxed one or two secrets out of Christian Lindner. She also taught us that Lindner is considered the rhetorical machine gun of the FDP. Oh yes, we can only confirm that. An important part of the evening was the panel discussion – the one later relocated to the roof terrace: Ludger Dieckhues, managing director of Bocholt city marketing and economic development; Jürgen Elmer, managing director of BEW; Jürgen Paschold, regional managing director of the employers' association; Prof. Dr. Horst Toonen, dean of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Bocholt; and Josef Terhardt, managing director of Hübers Verfahrenstechnik Maschinenbau GmbH, made their positions clear. Musical entertainment was provided by later DSDS contestant Susan Albers. The guests' culinary well-being was indulged by the exceptional chef and owner of the "J" Restaurant & Lounge, Schloss Ringenberg, Hamminkeln, together with his wife Florence. And that the food was a direct hit was something Mr Lindner even told the chef in person: if that wasn't a successful evening. For more, please read the just.bocholt article attached below, or in the just.bocholt 08/2012, published here on Issuu. You will want to go directly (and, unfortunately, must) to page 78. [wpfilebase tag=file id=7 /]