Did you know that Lorenz Adlon, namesake and builder of the famous hotel in the heart of Berlin, owned numerous coffeehouses in Berlin and financed the building, completed in 1907, through their revenues?
In this one of the “Leading Hotels of the World” not only stars like Greta Garbo, Sophia Loren or Michelle Obama enjoyed the view of the Brandenbuger Tor, also the Global Female Leaders Summit 2023 took place. Invited were 300 high-level executives from all over the world all motivated to generate significant change in business and society.
Managers from Amazon, Microsoft, KPNG or IMD were present as well as aspiring individual entrepreneurs from different backgrounds. It was important for the organizers to hold this meeting in a relaxed atmosphere and to make sure that everyone felt comfortable. This is a particular challenge for such events where the participants do not know each other. Therefore, the board had the excellent idea to preface the actual summit with a small meeting as an icebreaker.
For that matter the classy “Foye Ball Saloon” was the scenery where, me as a woman entrepreneur and founder of MishkiYaku, should talk to the guests not about business strategies and shareholder value, but about something completely unrelated. Something we all come into contact with on a daily basis.
Several rows of chairs were set up in front of our small stage. However, after just a few minutes, we asked our audience to come forward to the counter so that they could take a closer look at our barista’s performance and hold the coffee grinder themselves.
The formal structure of the session quickly dissolved and soon the group focused on loose talk about grinding, notes, aromas and mouthfeel, as they tasted small samples of our new assortment of Ecuadorian specialty coffees. The evening could be described as the "Berliner Morgenpost" already did in 1929: "In the great hall of the hotel, one could hear the languages of all cultural nations buzzing together".
