Archive for category: EVENT REVIEW

The day after President Trump’s “Liberation Day” couldn’t be more fitting to discuss unexplored opportunities between Germany and Australia.

At an event of German Australian Business Council on 3 April 2025, Joe Capurso, the Commonwealth Bank’s Head of International & Sustainable Economics, illustrated how the new imposed tariffs impact the US and global economies, and how this can bring about further opportunities for German Australian trade relations.

With the changing geopolitical and geo-economical landscape, decarbonisation remains a global hot topic. Australia, being the top liberal democracy in global production of metal and minerals, presents opportunities to Europe’s needs

Following the presentation, all participants continued discussions over a spot of networking in the beautiful surrounds of Villa Metzler in Frankfurt.

We thank our premium sponsor Commonwealth Bank of Australia for their partnership to make this event happen.

LinkedIn: Commonwealth Bank of Australia

A new year, a new vision! Kicking off 2025 with our energised Board…. ⚡️

Our German Australian Business Council Board came together recently for our annual Strategy meeting, with the aim to reflect, review and revise our strategy into actionable activities for 2025. Activities with our Members top of mind, how we can enhance our benefits to Members while also attracting new interest to grow our membership.

Topics that continue to be our focus, include:

• How we communicate with our Members
• Our offerings for our Members
• Our online presence
• Our policy and advocacy efforts
• And of course, enhancing our Events schedule.

We’re pleased to say that we had a very productive day and are excited for the year ahead.

Thanks so much to the team at Adina Hotels for making our day comfortable and perfect for deep discussion and planning, and to our attending Board members from Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich coming together for this session.

Stay tuned for more updates as the year progresses.

The German Australian Business Chamber was once again hosted by our valued corporate member, FrankfurtRheinMain, for a great event on November 13.

CEO, Eric Menges, welcomed guests and opened the evening with a brief overview of FRM activities, notably the recent opening of offices in Sydney and Melbourne, thus making the Frankfurt Rhein Main region the only “city” in Germany to have a business development representation in Australia.

Members and friends came together for a networking event designed for Members to meet Members under the heading of

Thought Leadership…

• Uncertain times… global transport of people, goods and data.
• How do we deal with issues of sustainability, cyber security and geopolitical tensions?
• How do we connect, in a world that can be so divisive?

We were very pleased to welcome Klaus Tusche, Sales Manager Germany for Emirates, Stefano Giardini, General Manager Mondiale VGL Europe and Phil Douglas, CEO of 2e Systems, who all gave a brief and interesting overview of their companies activities highlighting especially initiatives around sustainability and geopolitical challenges.

The evening then concluded with lively discussions and networking around fingerfood and drinks.

Australia 1872 is a story of courage and entrepreneurship, of the son of a poor Hamburger fishmonger who made history with his 630 lbs nugget and left a legacy of life in pictures. As a businessman and politician, he continued to build bridges, by showcasing Australia to the world. Literally building bridges, he was one of the proponents to the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge!

We were fortunate to have the story of this legacy presented by the book author Christoph Hein and Sydney artist Chris Dingle whose work brought the photographs to living colours. The evening was filled with stories of bridge-building, inspiring us to continue our personal journeys of building bridges between Germany and Australia.

Thank you, Christoph and Chris for bringing this legacy to live on the deeply moving evening.

We are delighted to welcome our new patron Ambassador Natasha Smith at our Ambassador’s Dinner in Frankfurt this week. Ambassador Smith introduced herself in a Q+A fashion, interviewed by board member the Hon. André Haermeyer, expressing her commitment to energy as well as interest on people in the long history of German-Australian relationship.

We welcome our co-patron Consul General Kelly Matthews and thank the representative of five states John Langoulant AO, Vanessa Rehn, Pallavi Mishra, Thorsten Terweiden, Russell Canning and Stefan Augustin for their support and presence in this convivial evening of 90 guests.

We thank our premium sponsor Commonwealth Bank, gold sponsors Sonic Healthcare Germany and Vulcan Energy Resources, silver sponsor Government of Western Australia, and bronze sponsors ANZ, FrankfurtRheinMain and Mondiale VGL without whose contributions our event would not be what it is. Thank you Cris M. for giving us insights on the significance of lithium deposits in the upper Rhine valley and zero-carbon extraction technology.

Fine Western Australian wines from Voyager Estate were enjoyed, supported by our silver sponsor and supplied by our corporate member 2IslandWines, Ben Lengyel, the smooth organization of the evening credit to the team effort of Dietrich Klusemann, Lucia Santoso, Suzanne Heim and Gordana Paton and the beautiful photography of Jens Braune del Angel.

Photo credit: Jens Braune del Angel