René Seifert – Entrepreneur & Global Citizen

Temperature-wise, it makes quite a change: Last week in Lapland at -32° C I could not have thought of stepping out in shorts and T-shirt and enjoy it like I did yesterday on my terrace in Bangalore. Unfortunately there is not too much time to hang out in the sun as I have quite a tight travel schedule in the next days. 

Tomorrow, it's going to Delhi for the "Regional Integration Event" (=RIE 2009), a congregation of all Indian Chapters of the Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO). These events used to be always a blast in terms of enthusiasm, bonding, speakers, learning and fun. Last year it happened in Bombay, to be precise in the lately heroic Taj Mahal Hotel (see my blog post here). 

Unfortunately, I will only be able to stay for the whole Saturday and leave one day earlier, as my bed for the night to Sunday will be in LH 761 Delhi to Frankfurt in order to make it on time at 2 pm for the opening of the DLD. In my view the finest conference of Digital, Lifestyle and Design in Europe, featuring digital innovation in a broader context of science and culture. 

Like last year around the subject of "India", I will have the honour this year to moderate two panels within the newly created format "Technology enables Success" which will take place on Tuesday afternoon. "My" two panels revolve around mobile and e-commerce, whereby we will focus on the critical role of technology as a strategic differentiator for business. The good thing for the audience is that I am not alone, but will have four distinguished thought leaders on each panel from big incumbent players to new start-up which intend to disrupt the current landscape – guess what, by technology.

So the preparation these panels besides day-to-day business is keeping me quite busy. As I learned from old school moderation of 10 years in radio: Lots of preparation allows for lots of spontaneity. So I am siphoning through the CVs of the panelists, calling each and every one up for a small up-front chat, reading up on their companies and piece by piece formulating questions and ultimately some common thread to spin a meaningful conversation on stage. 

Moreover, besides all the facts, atmosphere is essential: Relaxing the situation from the very beginning with everyone involved. That's something one could really obeserve from the new U.S. president during his campaign which got a name I really like: "No drama Obama" :-)