Networking in Berlin

While Christine and I left for Berlin by train from Anklam this morning the remainder of the crew returned to Marburg with the 'friendly' bus driver. We will return to NZ with very fond memories of our 3 days on the island of Usedom hosted by Regine at her rural 'farm' house. We are now in Berlin to attend the Annual meeting of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Everyone went by bus shuttle to the Freie Universitat Berlin for the welcome from the President of the Foundation, Prof Dr Helmut Schwarz, and to hear keynote speech from the Minister of Foreign Affairs, which was a very good speech that touched on many countries of the world and the role the Foundation has in building networks and helping people around the world fulfil their leadership potential. The Minister was late as he had been involved in facilitating dialogue between the various political factions in Libya - this is indeed an important European issue and once again Germany is the country that is stepping up to the mark. I don't see much leadership from most of the other countries. Christine and I were staggered by the number of awardees at this meeting - around 580 Fellows and 70 Research awardees, plus their families. All up around 1400 people all staying at Hotel Berlin.