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Melbourne Cup event in Frankfurt

Adina Apartment Hotel, Frankfurt Neue Oper

The 2014 Frankfurt Melbourne Cup Event was a night of fun and lively competition. The highlight being Protectionist, a German born and bred horse winning the 2014 Emirates Melbourne Cup. We could not have asked for a better Australia – German link for the focus of the evening.

The German Australian Business Council was fortunate to be able to partner with the Adina Apartment Hotel Frankfurt and Tourism Victoria to make this a truly memorable event. While the highlight was the Melbourne Cup race and sweep and the Business Card draw, the Antique Horse Racing machine, with inspired race calling by Dirk Löb from the Adina Apartment Hotels, was the true focus of the evening for many of the guests. We were also entertained by a fashion parade highlighting a young Frankfurt fashion designer, an exhibition by Glow Shoes and tastings of some top Australian wines courtesy of German Australian Business Council Members Karin & Olaf Czirr from the Australien Wine Store and Bob Gogan from Gogan Wine Imports. This was a particularly popular networking point throughout the evening.

Special congratulations got to Sabine Höfferling from PPI Aktiengesellschaft, the winner of the business card draw; a trip for two to the 2015 Melbourne Cup Carnival including return airfares with Emirates, four nights accommodation at an Adina property in Melbourne and Members passes to Derby Day and Melbourne Cup Day courtesy of the Victoria Racing Club.

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Economic Update Down Under

Allen & Overy LLP, Frankfurt

On Wednesday 26th March, ABIE members and friends were provided with an Economic Update on Australia by Peter Sargent, Head of Global Loans and Transaction Banking with ANZ Banking Group.
The event was supported by Austrade, who were instrumental in securing Peter for the presentation and Allen & Overy LLP who provided one of their  Board Room’s as the venue for the event.
Peter Sargent provided an excellent overview of Australia’s current financial standing in terms of Balance of Trade, major projects – completions and those still in progress, interest rates, Consumer confidence, labour costs and opportunities for development and investment.
Peter also provided a strong perspective as to why Australia is a strong economy to invest in and why it is so well located, from a strategic point of view, to the growing markets in Asia.
Peter presented a number of interesting slides throughout his presentation and these will be available shortly on this website.

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Lunch Seminar on Frontier Communications

Kameha Suite, Frankfurt

Lunch Seminar on Frontier Communications held by Telstra Global, Austrade and Ovum.
At the exclusive setting of the Kameha Suite in Frankfurt, Telstra Global, Austrade and Ovum presented an insightful luncheon seminar on enterprise productivity in the 21st century. After an introduction given by David Campbell, Consul-General and Senior Trade & Investment Commissioner, Hugh Bradlow, CTO, Telstra Corporation presented the ten emerging technologies that are getting ready to reshape the world of corporate information and communication technology and how they will impact the business world. Richard Edwards, Principal Analyst at Ovum, followed-on with his presentation on the challenges of new technologies for the corporate world. The presentations gave rise to a lively discussion on privacy, data security and cloud computing that continued during the lunch that was served in the attractive atrium of the Kameha Suite. ABIE Germany would like to thank Telstra Global and Austrade for inviting ABIE members to this event.

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Australia Day 2014 – AUSTRADE Strategy Lunch

Villa Leonhardi, Frankfurt

This year’s Australia Day was celebrated at the beautiful Villa Leonhardi near Palmengarten with around 35 attendees. Marcus Madelung, Head of Sales Europe of our corporate member and event sponsor Telstra Global, introduced Telstra’s plans for Europe. During the delicious three-course meal, Consul-General and Senior Trade & Investment Commissioner, David Campbell presented the Austrade Strategy Update followed by the launch of the new Benchmark Report by Stefan Augustin, Country Manager – Germany, Austria, Switzerland at Austrade. Although it was not the right season to use the garden, guests were able to enjoy the beautiful views into Palmengarten during the networking. Many thanks go to corporate members Austrade and Telstra Global for their support of this event.

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Ambassador’s Dinner 2013

Senckenberg Museum, Frankfurt

On 26 September 2013 ABIE held its annual Ambassador’s Dinner withH.E.Mr PeterTesch.
As part of his keynote speech, Ambassador Tesch shared his perspective on the economic consequences of the elections in Germany and Australia, noting some significant current initiatives and upcoming opportunities for Germany and Australia.  Germany ranks eleventh among Australia’s trading partners and tenth in sources of foreign direct investment.

The event was attended by over 90 guests representing various sectors from business, politics, education and culture.  Frankfurt’s SenckenbergMuseum made a wonderful setting for the evening!

The evening also markedthe lastdinnerwith the Ambassador, as his posting will come to an end in November 2013. ABIE Germany paid tribute to Ambassador Tesch, acknowledging his energy and strategic vision, and the significant positive impact he has had on German-Australian relations throughout his tenure.

H.E. Mr David Ritchie, who is Australia’s current ambassador to Italy, will commence as the Australian Ambassador toGermany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein in January 2014.

ABIE Germany thanks the State of Victoria and Telstra for their support for the evening.

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Summer Networking Event

Bob’s Fine Wines, Hofheim, Frankfurt

A group of enthusiastic ABIE Germany members and friends met in Hofheim (near Frankfurt) on 3 August 2013 to venture on a gourmet trip of the Australian wine industry. Hosted by Bob’s Fine Wines in their beautifully restored half-timber house, ABIE Germany attendees were not only presented with a range of fine wines produced by Anvers Winery but also with an insight into the current status of the Australian Wine Industry. Anvers owner and creator Wayne Keoghan mesmerized the audience with lovely reports around the making of the wines and the stories behind the mysterious labels and names. Many thanks go to ABIE Germany member Bob Gogan and his wife Monika as well as Anvers owner Wayne Keoghan for a very entertaining evening which lasted well into the night and gave ABIE Germany members and friends a chance for more informal networking and a different perspective on an important Australian industry.

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The Australia-Germany Innovation Forum

Australian Trade Commission, Frankfurt

Hosted by the Australian Trade Commission (Austrade), the Australia-Germany Innovation Forum was held in Frankfurt on January 24, 2013. Its focus was the future of Australian-German collaboration in the fields of innovation, research and development.
Industry and academic experts from both countries took their turns behind the microphone to put forward ideas and present compelling examples of existing successful cooperation, as well as to show how Australia and Germany can benefit from each other’s strengths in business partnerships.
As the first speaker, Australian Ambassador to Germany Peter Tesch gave an overview of the existing business relations between the two countries – and noted that there is still a lot of potential for cooperation in tackling the big challenges of the future. Both governments have identified preventative health, biodiversity and clean energy as the priority areas for developing common agenda.
“There are many, many more things happening at the university level, and we are very keen to exploit those to help create an awareness of what Australia brings to the table,” said Tesch.
In his keynote address, Göran Roos, a pioneer in the modern field of intellectual capital science, pointed out that Australian firms are exceedingly good at reactive problem-solving – a skill he considers to be an offshoot of the “outback mechanic” mentality. Conversely, he sees Germany and other Germanic countries as places that specialise in long-term, strategic thinking. Such differences are complementary, he added, noting that both sides can benefit from each other’s skills.
The following eight speakers were a mixture of industry and academic representatives. First up was Calum Drummond, Group Executive for Manufacturing, Materials and Minerals at CSIRO (Australia’s national scientific research body), who presented a facts-and-figures overview of the institution. He was followed by Karl Föger from Ceramic Fuel Cells, who explained how his company operates in both Australia and Germany in the field of clean-energy innovation. Jens Schlimbach from Quickstep also talked about how his company benefits from its international operations in the production of technology for the aerospace, defence and automotive sectors.
Steffen Walz of Melbourne’s RMIT University discussed how game-design thinking and experimental entertainment can positively affect and alter architecture and urbanism, mobility, popular media, storytelling, engagement, other sciences and even society itself. The university’s research body in this area, GEElab, also has a base in Germany and fosters active collaboration with German industry partners.
Dominik Stampfl from Audi presented the Audi Urban Future Initiative, which aims to establish a dialogue on the synergy of mobility, architecture and urban development. He talked about how game-design thinking, as described by the previous speaker, can be incorporated into the project.
James Steele from Plantic Technologies showed the audience how the bioplastic developed by his company benefits the environment and the consumer. He sees Plantic Technologies as a good example of Australian development and innovation combined with German manufacturing excellence: an R&D base in Melbourne and manufacturing operations in Jena.
Hannes Lau gave an insight into his invention, LiquidKeyboard – a virtual keyboard for touchscreens and surfaces that adapts to the user’s natural finger positions and allows users to touch-type on smooth surfaces. He recalled his positive experiences in gaining support from Australian institutions for turning his idea into reality.
The last speaker, Frank Wagner from German research organisation Fraunhofer, provided an overview of Fraunhofer’s Australian-based activities and its cooperation with Australian research institutions, government bodies and businesses.
At the conclusion of the event, all attendees were invited to join in a buffet lunch. This gave everyone the chance to mingle, network and find out more about the companies, organisations and projects introduced by the speakers. Members of Austrade as well as ABIE were present and available to answer questions on German-Australian business and research opportunities.