2009. NOW MORE THAN EVER!

The world looked very different from the one we had discussed at Lake Tegernsee just twelve months earlier.

Lehman Brothers had collapsed. The financial crisis had turned into a global recession. Investment was drying up, forecasts were bleak and uncertainty was everywhere.

So what did we call Unternehmertag 2009?
“Jetzt erst recht!” – Now more than ever!
Looking back, I still like that title.

Our answer to the crisis was not to sit around discussing why everything had suddenly become impossible. We wanted to talk about what entrepreneurs can do especially when times are difficult: spot opportunities, take risks, invest and build companies.

And while everyone was talking about the crisis, we deliberately looked for companies in “Internet/New Media” and “Technology” that, as we put it at the time, remained “optimistic about the future”.
That may sound obvious today. In 2009, it wasn’t.

Entrepreneurs and investors who still believed in growth and new business models came together at Tegernsee. Tim Draper joined us from Silicon Valley, as did Klaus Hommels, Erich Sixt and many others.
And once again, Guido Westerwelle.‍

By 2009, Guido was no longer just a guest at Unternehmertag. We had become close friends, and that same year I also became involved in his federal election campaign.
Political campaigning was beginning to change fundamentally. Facebook, Twitter and online video suddenly offered possibilities that simply hadn’t existed a few years earlier. We experimented with many of them, and during that time I also accompanied Guido on trips to Estonia, Japan and China.

In September, the FDP achieved 14.6 per cent, the strongest federal election result in its history. Guido subsequently became Germany’s Foreign Minister and Vice-Chancellor.

But back at Tegernsee in April, we had been asking a much more fundamental question:
What do you do when times get tough?
Our answer in 2009:
Jetzt erst recht.
Eighteen years later, our anniversary motto is:
STOP COMPLAINING. START CHANGING.‍

Perhaps Unternehmertag has remained remarkably true to its original spirit.

And one other tradition had already become firmly established: after the first conference day, we headed to the Bräustüberl for our Bayerische Gaudi.
Crisis or no crisis. Some things really didn’t need changing.

Next stop: 2010.