Founder’s Diary: Cologne & Duesseldorf Events, July 2011

Here’s another Founder’s Diary, which we haven’t had in a while! InterNations co-founder Malte Zeeck went to the Cologne and Duesseldorf Communities last week to take part in their July Events and mix and mingle with members whilst keeping his ear open to praise and suggestions! Read on to see how it was!

On Thursday the InterNations Cologne Community hosted their July Event at Hotel Barceló in downtown Cologne. Lucky for us, the director of the hotel, a Spaniard, offered to rent us the bar for the evening.

Around 100 people, from 37 nationalities toasted to a good time with their refreshing welcome drink, a glass of sangria, at Hotel Barceló in Cologne. Much kölsch, the local beer brewed in Cologne, was consumed, as well as a variety of fine wines and tasty cocktails. The members chatted about work, friends, living in Cologne, exchanged experiences amongst each other and gave tips on restaurants and leisure activities in and around Cologne.

InterNations Ambassadors Stephan and Sandra, both originally from Germany, did a really fantastic job organizing everything and making the attendees feel at home, which can be seen by the fact that the event went on until 1 o’clock!

Cologne is a beautiful city and it is always a pleasure to come back and visit. The Kölner Dom, the Rhine and the beautiful old town are definitely sights to see! I took in these sights on Friday, as I went for a walk with Sandra to check out some of the up and coming locations where we may be able to host future InterNations Events. The New Yorker Hotel seems like a good option for our Cologne August Event, we’ll keep you posted!

Friday evening I jetted over to Duesseldorf, to attend the InterNations Duesseldorf Community’s July Event. Hosted at Monkey’s East, a new and very trendy club, we had the large outdoor terrace all to ourselves! Around 150 guests from around 35 different countries showed up, which was an excellent mix and we really lucked out on the weather!

It was a first-time occasion for our two new InterNations Duesseldorf Ambassadors: Mat from the Netherlands and Sandra from Switzerland. They did an absolutely amazing job! The atmosphere was great, there was much laughter, clinking of glasses, talking and some dancing. Members stayed outside on the terrace until 2 in the morning and then a select few moved on to O’Reilly’s Karaoke Bar.

Take a look at the photos from the July Event and you will see how it went! A big thank you to our professional photographer, Ben Ouattara, for taking some great shots! In fact, Ben even shot a video of the InterNations Duesseldorf Event at Monkey’ East, watch it here.

Thanks again to everyone with whom I was able to chat and who made those two evenings so much fun!

Photos courtesy of InterNations