The DACH Forum is an annually rotating regional event between the CEMS schools University of St. Gallen, WU Vienna and University of Cologne. It is organized by local CEMS Students and consists of four intensive days set up in an innovative course format, including lectures from an experienced lecturer, brainstorming, group work, guest lectures from industry experts, company presentations and social events. This year’s DACH Forum was hosted by the University of Cologne and was devoted to the topic of Social Entrepreneurship.

The Forum started out with a Career Fair – an information fair where students had the opportunity to get to know CEMS Corporate Partners and to learn about possible career opportunities. The Career Fair included nine Corporate Partners and was attended by both DACH Forum participants as well as UoC CEMS students.

After the fair, the Forum was officially opened with a warm welcome to all participants by the Center of International Relations of the University of Cologne as well as Dr. Kronen, the Academic Director of the Forum. The four days of intensive work on the topic of Social Entrepreneurship began. According to the topic of the Forum, the students’ task was to develop new social business models in the industries of Life Science, Consumer Goods and Financial Services with the support of this year’s Industry Hosts Bayer, Procter & Gamble and zeb. In groups, the students put a lot of effort into setting up a pitch and a presentation of their business idea while the Industry Hosts provided valuable guidance through constant feedback and creative workshops.

A welcome distraction to the hard work during the days were the three Corporate Dinners hosted by Volkswagen, zeb and the newly acquired Corporate Partner Daimler. The dinners were great occasions for the students to get their minds off the work and to get to know the dinner hosts in a cozy and informal environment.

On the last day of the Forum, the results of the four days were presented in front of all students and company representatives. Despite the short amount of time, the ideas presented were stunningly creative and thought through at the same time. All participants could be truly proud of the outcome of their work during the Forum. In order to celebrate the successful completion of the academic part, the Forum ended with a Farewell Event in a beautiful bar, where students were able to get together and mingle one last time.

Overall, the DACH Forum 2017 was a great success and was highly appreciated by all the parties involved: Corporate Partners, university representatives and participants. The University of Cologne is looking forward to hosting the next CEMS DACH Forum in 2020.