World Business Dialogue 2012

The “World Business Dialogue” is the world’s largest student-run business convention. Here, 60 top-class personalities from economy, science and politics enter a discussion about economically and socially relevant, future-oriented topics with 300 international students and just as many executives, notably from German companies. For 25 years, Cologne University is converted into a convention centre for the economic elite for two days. 

Also known under its former title “Deutscher Wirtschaftskongress”, the World Business Dialogue will once again take place on March 14-15, 2012 for the 15th time. The convention’s organisation is realized by the members of the Organisationsforum Wirtschaftskongress e.V. (OFW), where approximately 40 students are responsible for the project’s success. Furthermore, during the period leading up to the convention, the OfW e.V. is assisted by sponsors and a supporting team of 200 students who allow for the smooth running of the convention.

The World Business Dialogue’s singularity and relevance are supported by a large number of well-known speakers that have participated in past conventions; among these are Josef Ackermann, CEO of Deutsche Bank, Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, and Michael Bloomberg, governing mayor of New York, who made use of the convention as a platform for discussion and exchange and appreciated the student’s commitment. The same is also true for the 300 corporate participants who were and continue to be attracted by a mixture of cross-generational dialogue, deeply founded topics, networking and recruiting.

Fees and allowances

The participation fee of the World Business Dialogue is mandatory to all students.

• International Students: EUR100
• German, Swiss and Austrian students: EUR50

The differentiation of prices is proportional to the risks taken from us on covering your accommodation expenses and your assured presence in case of being selected. Cooping with immense travel expenses can be an issue for student participants.The convention is able to provide a much higher amount of Dialogue Scholarships, in order to diminish the financial obstacle for participating in the Dialogue. The Dialogue Scholarship covers a student’s travelling expenses from a major airport/train station to Cologne, Düsseldorf or Frankfurt.

You are chosen by a company, which inherits the costs of travelling entirely. In addition to the financial aspect of the Dialogue Scholarship,it is offered a unique networking experience for students and companies involved: students receiving a Dialogue Scholarship are exclusively meeting the company incurring their travelling expenses at a special event hosted at the Dialogue. There are also possibilities of external Dialogue scholarships

In order to qualify for a Dialogue Scholarship it is necessary to interpret the 15th World Business Dialogue’s topic in a creative way by turning in a topic related creative work such as videos, photographs, songs, essays and any kind of creative ideas. Be creative and get your ticket to Cologne for free. The application for a Dialogue Scholarship is processed by applying for the participation in the 15th World Business Dialogue via the Online Application Tool. However, do not forget that your videos, essay etc. are subject to the following restrictions. If the restrictions should not be incorporated the application for a Dialogue Scholarship becomes invalid. The format of the submission is to be chosen by you. 

Please take care of complying with the following limitations.

-Videos/Sound recordings; any type of presentation: Max. 3 minutes

-Essays, any type of written document: Max. 300 words; stating the exact word count

• Accepted formats: doc, pdf, docx, ppt, pps, pptx, ppsx, vhs, dvd, avi, mpeg, mov
• All sources must be quoted
• Plagiarism will result in disqualification
• Only individual works are allowed
• The work must be exclusively written for the 15th World Business Dialogue Scholarship

Eligibility

You need to be student in order to apply.

Application process

For the application to the Dialogue it is required a CV detailing your curricular and extracurricular experiences, as well as a valid student ID. Moreover, you need to answer a questionnaire with regard to your visions, ideas and motivation.

1. Why do you want to participate in the World Business Dialogue?

2. Why do you think that you should be chosen?

3. How do you think is the global consumption going to change in the course of the next 10 years?

4. What could be possible solutions regarding the change of today’s energy markets?

5. Please name the greatest advantage and disadvantage of Online Consumption concerning the future market expectations.

For questions 3, 4 and 5, it is expected from you to share your ideas in concise and organized answers. The application is to be made online through the “Application Tool”, which can be found here. The maximum amount of characters for each question is 1000. The deadline for the application is 31 December 2011.

Contacts

In case of any further questions, please write an email to application@ofw.de

Phone: +49(0)221 / 921826-0

Fax: +49(0)221 / 921826-9

eMail: info@ofw.de

Read more and apply: http://www.world-business-dialogue.com/kongressteilnahme0/