Jasmin Wölke moderates events in Zurich in English, in standard German or in a planned alternation. After more than ten years of international corporate work, the conference moderator keeps mixed audiences engaged in both languages until the very end.
The question is not whether, but how much
In many Zurich companies English has long been the working language: at globally organised banks and insurers, at the large Google engineering site, in spin-offs from the ETH ecosystem, across the fintech scene. So the question for the moderation is rarely whether English works. It is how much German should remain. Client advisory thinks in German, engineering thinks in English, and the executive board works in either, depending on the house. Doubling every announcement loses pace and audience at the same time. A programme that takes both groups seriously needs a conscious decision for every single agenda item.
Fully English or a planned alternation
Jasmin fixes the language plan in the briefing, based on the guest list and the occasion. For a purely international audience the programme runs entirely in English, while the welcome address may still be German. In a mixed room she alternates. She asks in English, lets each person answer in their own language and condenses for the other half instead of translating word by word. The pace stays high, and nobody hears their programme twice. The Bosch Global Sales Summit shows how robust this is: a corporate reference with more than 500 participants from 40 countries, which she hosted largely in English without losing the German-speaking part of the room.
For German companies with a Swiss base
Many Zurich enquiries come from Germany: the group with a Swiss subsidiary, the consultancy with an office in the financial district, the DACH event series rotating between Frankfurt, Vienna and Zurich. For these companies it matters that the same moderator delivers the same quality at every location, in both languages and with the same briefing process. Zurich business events run in standard German or English anyway, and the train from Stuttgart reaches Zurich without changing. When a programme is better off running fully in English is sorted out in the article moderation in English. The profile is shown on the bilingual moderation hub, all engagements in the city on the Zurich city page.
Enquiry for your bilingual event in Zurich
State the occasion, date, audience and the expected share of English via the contact form. You will receive an honest assessment and, after the briefing, a written offer with a fixed fee, with travel to Zurich listed as a separate item.