Jasmin Wölke moderates events in Basel in English, in German or in a planned switch between both. After more than ten years of international corporate work, the conference moderator keeps mixed audiences together in both languages.
One workforce, three passports
In Basel the language question is not a matter of style, it is daily routine. The workforces of the life sciences companies and of the logistics operators at the Rhine ports are trinational: whoever walks into the lab or the office in the morning may have had breakfast in Baden or in Alsace. In research and development English is the working language and often the bridge where German and French native speakers meet. Production, trade and administration, on the other hand, largely work in German. An event meant to reach everyone can therefore run neither entirely in English nor entirely in German. It needs a conscious decision for every single item on the programme.
The language plan comes out of the briefing
Before the event Jasmin defines which part runs in which language, based on the guest list and the occasion. Scientific talks stay in English, the welcome address of the site management stays in German, and the Q&A runs mixed: everyone asks in their own language, and Jasmin condenses briefly for the other half of the room instead of translating sentence by sentence. Nobody hears their programme twice, and the pace stays high. That she can hold large international audiences shows the Bosch Global Sales Summit, a corporate reference with more than 500 participants from 40 countries, whose programme she led largely in English.
Right behind the border
Basel sits directly on the German border, the Badischer Bahnhof is on city territory, and the train from Stuttgart takes around three hours. For German companies with a Swiss site, or for a DACH event series, the city is the closest Swiss venue, and the same moderator can lead every stop of the series in both languages, with the same briefing process. Business events in Basel run in German or English anyway. How the switch between two languages works in practice is explained in how bilingual moderation works. The profile is covered by the hub bilingual moderation, all engagements in the city by the Basel city page.
Enquiry for your event in Basel
Name the occasion, the date, the audience and the expected share of English through the contact form. You receive an honest assessment and, after the briefing, a written offer with a fixed fee and the travel costs to Basel as a separate item.