Jasmin Wölke moderates panel discussions in Bonn, from the panel inside a conference programme at the World Conference Center to the discussion round at the Universitätsclub. She hosts in English and German and holds rounds together in which politics, business, science and civil society meet on one stage.
Four worlds on one panel
A panel in Bonn is rarely a homogeneous line-up. As the federal city, Bonn brings guests from ministries and agencies onto the stage, associations send their executive directors, the university and the institutes their researchers, NGOs and international organisations their experts. The topics are the ones that move the city: climate and sustainability, digitalisation and networks, development cooperation, science policy. Each of these worlds speaks its own language. Politics answers in messages, business in figures, science in caveats, civil society in demands. A moderator who commands only one of these languages loses the other three, and with them the audience.
Sharpening the debate without taking sides
Jasmin leads such rounds in a visibly non-partisan way: with guests from government, administration and interest groups, any tilt is registered immediately. But neutral does not mean toothless. In the one-on-one calls before the panel she looks for the points where the guests genuinely disagree, and she builds the dramaturgy so that this difference becomes visible on stage. When practised speakers elegantly drive around a question, she asks the same question again in more concrete form, friendly and persistent. The room gets a conversation instead of four prepared statements.
English for an international audience
As a United Nations city, Bonn has an audience that expects English panels and brings them along. Jasmin moderates rounds entirely in English or alternating, depending on how stage and room are composed. She has led on-stage conversations with senior executives in English at the SAP Tech Leadership Forum, among others, a company reference from her corporate career.
Planning your panel
The Bonn season runs in spring and autumn and follows political calendars too; in autumn the Beethovenfest adds to the mix. Preliminary calls with the guests run via video; for morning slots Jasmin travels from Ludwigsburg the day before. Send topic, date and the planned line-up through the contact form. How a panel is prepared is covered in preparing a panel discussion, the panel discussion moderator page describes the format, and the city page collects all Bonn pages.