Jasmin Wölke moderates panel discussions in Essen, in German and English. She prepares every panel like an interview and leads it so that rehearsed statements turn into an actual conversation.
Panels in the Ruhr area: boardroom, clinic and lecture hall on one stage
Panels in Essen mix worlds: the executive of an energy group next to a professor from the University of Duisburg-Essen, a senior physician from the university hospital next to a mid-sized entrepreneur, plus associations and public administration. Each of these guests speaks their own language and has their own audience in the room. Jasmin takes that seriously: she reads into positions, holds preliminary calls and builds a question arc that looks for the fault lines between the guests rather than the common ground. Where two guests disagree for good reasons, the part of the evening begins that people still talk about afterwards.
Venues that shape the format
For large evenings Essen offers the Philharmonie with the Alfried Krupp Saal, for congress formats the Congress Center at the fairground, for distinctive settings the Grand Hall or the Erich Brost Pavilion at Zollverein. The room dictates the direction: in a concert hall every word carries, so the panel needs calm and precise questions; on an industrial floor with open acoustics Jasmin keeps rounds shorter and transitions clearer. She aligns microphones, walking routes and cues with the technical crew and plans audience questions as a structured programme item with rules, not as an endless open microphone.
Fair to the guests, committed to the audience
Good panel moderation protects both sides: guests get room for their argument, the audience gets answers instead of commercials. Jasmin interrupts politely when an answer turns into a speech, distributes speaking time visibly and fairly, and summarises interim results so that listeners without a specialist background can follow. At the International Business Summit, a corporate reference with more than 400 participants and 15 sessions across two days, she led discussion rounds with very different guests and learned when to let a panel run and when to step in.
Enquire about your panel in Essen
Share the topic, the planned line-up and the setting through the contact form; even with an unfinished guest list, early contact pays off, because good questions need lead time. How to get the audience involved is covered in activating the audience. The format overview sits in the hub panel discussion moderator, all pages for the city on the Essen city page.