In six Months we celebrate 20 Years of Unternehmertag!

20 years. Incredible. I never thought we would get this far!

Since 2007, every year – with the exception of the Covid year 2020 and 2023 – we have invited up to 600 people to the Althoff Seehotel Überfahrt on Lake Tegernsee. The first two events were still a little more intimate, but it didn’t take long for things to become bigger and more professional.

You can see that in the photographs taken over all those years, which I’m currently scrolling through.

There are only a few from 2007. They are dark, slightly blurry and were probably taken with whatever mobile phone was at hand. It probably wasn’t an iPhone. Steve Jobs had only just unveiled the very first model in San Francisco. A touchscreen instead of a keyboard – a revolution! Everyone wanted an iPhone back then. Germany’s first Apple Store wouldn’t open until a year later.
We called that very first Unternehmertag “Internet – The Big Wave”.

I didn’t start it with some grand plan to turn it into an international event for more than 600 entrepreneurs, investors, decision-makers and thought leaders. I really just wanted to create the kind of networking event I had in mind – one I would actually want to attend myself.

With the right people. People I like, people I find interesting and people who want to make things happen. With conversations at a high level, but without the stiffness of a traditional conference. And with enough time to sit together in the evening and carry on talking.

While we were discussing the future of the internet at Lake Tegernsee and Amazon was expanding its still-young cloud platform AWS, the first signs of the US housing and mortgage crisis were already looming. In February, Vladimir Putin had openly challenged the Western-led security order at the Munich Security Conference. I could never have imagined then that almost exactly 15 years later, Russia would launch a full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine – a war that is still continuing today.

There was so much we couldn’t have imagined. Much of what shapes our world today was only just beginning back then or didn’t even exist yet. Things we now take for granted were, in some cases, still unthinkable.

Now, 19 years later, I’m scrolling through thousands of photos and preparing for the next Unternehmertag. And because looking at these pictures brings back so many stories, people and moments, over the coming months I’ll occasionally share some of those memories and thoughts with you.

On 3rd March 2027, we’ll be back in the present.‍

Three days, from 3rd to 5th March, as always at the wonderful Althoff Seehotel Überfahrt on Lake Tegernsee.

Our motto: Stop Complaining. Start Changing.

If you would like to join us, you can request a ticket here.
I look forward to seeing you there.

Best
Conny

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