One of the funniest moments of the evening came between watercress soup and tomato risotto, when the daughter wrote a WhatsApp and shared her enthusiasm for the goodie bag. Period underwear, cell phone chains, facial serum… All gifts that the participants of the “Women 100” dinner on Saturday evening at the Munich Hotel Bayerischer Hof were able to take home in a beautifully packaged bag. The giveaways were posted on Instagram long before they were unpacked. That’s how networking works.
In the goodie bag, networkers present the range of their entrepreneurial activities with a selection of products.
(Photo: Robert Haas)
Female entrepreneurs who joined forces at “Women 100” used the goodie bag as an opportunity to showcase the range of their entrepreneurship. After all, drumming, supporting each other and standing up for each other is the essence of a network. The gifts for the ladies’ evening included not only a selection of products, but also personal success stories that the women shared in the luxury hotel’s garden restaurant.
The focus of the meeting was on female founders, which is why the network fits so well with “Bits & Pretzels”, the three-day conference for the startup scene. The “Founder Festival” takes place in Munich until Tuesday. Oliver Kahn, Robert Habeck and Michelle Obama are on the program as top speakers.
“Bits & Pretzels” co-founder Felix Haas with actress and networker Ursula Karven.
(Photo: Robert Haas)
How it was possible to bring the former First Lady of the United States to Munich was found out before the appetizer by three men in lederhosen who, with their good mood, almost passed for Oktoberfest party crashers: Andreas Bruckschlögl, Bernd Storm and Felix Haas are the hosts of “Bits & Pretzels”.
It could also have been a pair of lederhosen that lured Michelle Obama to Munich. Namely the one that Barack Obama tried on when he was a “Bits & Pretzels” star guest four years ago, as Haas guessed with a wink. The ex-US President sent a photo of it to his wife, who wanted to see the city for herself. Michelle Obama is a woman who stands for so many things, including the question of how to overcome boundaries in difficult times. In short: an inspiring person who is therefore a “sensational” fit.
According to the applauding women, this also applied to Alisa Jahnke. The 31-year-old founded the fashion jewelry brand Purelei seven years ago, with which she now has annual sales of 60 million euros. It took courage to achieve that – the noun of the evening that ran through all the stories that were heard.
Jahnke remembered one of her first appearances as a founder at OMR, a trade fair for digital marketing and technology. Heavily pregnant and with thick feet, she stood on stage in front of 7,000 people, worried that “my water would burst in the next 20 minutes.” But: “I wanted to push the topic of children and careers. I wanted to be a role model and achieve something cool.” And show that you can also talk about it with a child in your stomach.
Microsoft manager Magdalena Rogl began her career as a nanny
Magdalena Rogl, project manager for diversity and inclusion at Microsoft, also needed courage. The 38-year-old started her professional career in her dream job as a childcare worker; she dropped out of school after the tenth grade to pursue training. But then she discovered social media, became a community manager at Focus Online, and later manager for social media and online communication at Tomorrow-Focus AG until she moved to Microsoft in 2016. “It’s not about what we studied. It’s about what we want to learn,” she appealed to the networkers not to let themselves be dissuaded from their goals.
The hosts Janina Hell (left) and Felicitas Karrer from “Frauen 100” with Uschi Glas, who reported on her association Brotzeit.
(Photo: Robert Haas)
A message that supports “Women 100”. According to its own definition, the network wants to bring together “…*thoughtleaders* from business, politics, media, entertainment and sport”, promote a feminist discourse, set topics and turn them into legal, political and social reality. Janina Hell and Felicitas Karrer, the founders, can count on prominent supporters. The guest list includes many well-known names, including the author and journalist Jagoda Marinić, the racing driver Laura-Marie Geissler, Head of Public Affairs at Airbus DE Claudia Oeking, Riani marketing boss Felicitas Gutjahr, actress Ursula Karven and her colleague Uschi Glas, also an encouragement of the evening.
Glas, now 79 years old, grew up in a time when “mom still had to ask if she wanted to buy a new sweater or silk stockings.” Glas needed courage to assert her will and not want to live like that. But she also impressed with her report about her “big baby”, the Brotzeit association, which provides 15,000 primary school children throughout Germany with a free breakfast every day so that they don’t go to class hungry. “We have to start supporting the children early,” said Glas. That is the task of society, “including us, who sit here like maggots in bacon.”
The poppy ice cream on the almond cake with plum ragout for dessert made some participants melt and ask Glas about support options for their club. The networkers couldn’t have ended the evening better.