Jasmin Wölke hosts galas, award ceremonies and company anniversaries in Bern, in German and in English. The gala host travels from Ludwigsburg near Stuttgart and is in the venue by the afternoon for rehearsal and technical checks.
Every Bern venue tells a different story
Bern offers a festive evening very different stages. The Kursaal stands for the grand, celebratory setting with a view over the city. Casino Bern brings concert hall atmosphere right into the centre. The Zentrum Paul Klee places art and architecture behind the programme, and the historic cellars and guild houses of the old town, a UNESCO World Heritage site, make an evening dense and personal. In summer, the Aare river and the Gurten hill join the list. Jasmin therefore asks about the venue first and builds the dramaturgy second. A vaulted cellar with eighty guests needs different transitions than a ballroom with four hundred. The honours, the management speech and the free moments of the evening get their place before the catering starts dictating the rhythm. That sequence sounds simple, yet it is what separates a hosted evening from a long dinner with interruptions.
Honours for guests from across the country
Many hosts in Bern are organisations with a network. Swiss Post, SBB, Swisscom, Mobiliar and BKW are headquartered in Bern or its agglomeration, but their people work all over Switzerland. For an anniversary gala or award night, honourees and teams travel in who often only meet on this one evening. Add the associations of the federal city, which honour their volunteers and delegates. Jasmin collects the stories behind the names in the briefing and tells each one in a minute, precise rather than sentimental. That suits an audience in Bern that weighs before it applauds. How many programme items an evening can carry is something she demonstrated at the Leadership Excellence Awards, a corporate reference with 250 guests and ten award categories.
Date, running order and language
In Advent, the popular venues in Bern are booked early, and summer formats by the Aare depend on the weather and need a plan B indoors. Jasmin recommends fixing venue and date before the programme. Ahead of the evening she aligns the running order, technology and production team, and if international guests are in the room, the welcome and the honours switch between German and English according to plan. How a gala evening is structured is shown in the guide on gala running order and programme. The format itself is described on the gala moderation hub, and all engagements in the city are gathered on the Bern city page.
Enquiry for your gala in Bern
Share the occasion, date, venue and number of guests via the contact form. You will receive a quick assessment and, after the briefing, a written offer with a fixed fee, with travel costs to Bern listed separately.