Following Dr. Stephan Petersen's teaching of intercultural communication at RWTH Aachen, as well as at the University of St. Gallen, the Center for Social Skills and Management Trainings  of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the Technische Universität München invited him to him teach a workshop on the subject. The 2-day workshop took place in July 2011 in Garching near Munich and due to the very positive feedback will already be repeated in the winter semester 2011/2012.

Both dates for our "Workshops on Intercultural Communication" (winter semester) for students at RWTH Aachen University have been set:

• October 28-29, 2011 (Friday-Saturday)
• March 30-31, 2012 (Friday-Saturday)

Details on the workshops are, as always, available on our workshop pages.

On October 8, 2011, Mensa in Germany  organizes the Tag der Intelligenz 2011  in Cologne. Under the patronage of Cologne's mayor, visitors are invited to a whole day of extensive and engaging activities at the University of Cologne.

One of the activities is a series of talks and presentations that take place in three lecture halls. The organizers have invited Dr.-Ing. Stephan Petersen to contribute a talk on the often underestimated influence of intercultural knowledge and skills in the area of technology-focussed developmental cooperation projects.

From the program (in German):

"Wenn wir alle so schlau sind, warum hungert dann die Welt?"

Dr.-Ing. Stephan Petersen, Dozent für interkulturelle Kommunikation, Mitglied Ingenieure ohne Grenzen e.V.

An der Armut in den Entwicklungsländern beißen wir uns die Zähne aus. Nie scheint das Geld zu reichen, die Technik zu passen, und traditionelle Entwicklungshilfe vergrößert oft noch die Abhängigkeit. Kann es sein, dass die Lösung eines technischen Problems, so intelligent sie auch sein mag, viel kulturabhängiger ist als wir denken? Stephan Petersen zeigt, wie das Verständnis interkultureller Kommunikation den nachhaltigen Erfolg von ingenieurwissenschaftlichen Projekten entscheidend verbessern kann. Auch auf diesem Gebiet müssen hard und soft skills zusammenpassen.

In addition to his profession as an engineer and his freelance teaching activities in the area of intercultural communication, Dr. Stephan Petersen is an active member of Ingenieure ohne Grenzen  (Engineers without Borders - Germany) and its coordinator for international relations, as well as the representative of the Aachen local chapter. Upon the initial introduction of the topic of intercultural communication at the annual meeting 2009 in Marburg, interest in further exploring the topic was immediately expressed.

Due to the highly positive feedback to this introduction, a first full-length workshop on intercultural communication was held for members at the end of February 2010 in Hamburg, followed by a second workshop November 2010 in Munich. In July 2011, a third workshop was held in Dresden, all workshops were organized by the local chapters of "Ingenieure ohne Grenzen". The primary target group were student and professional members of all German local chapters who would spend time abroad within the framework of their development aid projects.

The technical nature of many humanitarian aid projects often misleadingly suggests that engineering and logistics issues are the predominant issues with which projects teams are faced during the planning and implementing stages. Reality shows that many projects are at risk or fail not for technical reasons, but due to the underestimation of the impact of cultural differences.

In contrast to many international commercial and academic projects, development aid projects almost always involve the crossing of an enormous cultural gap. Project staff from Northern Europe and North America, for instance, are required to cross the largest possible cultural divide, when dealing with countries from regions such as Africa, South America, or South East Asia.

The two-day practise- and applications-oriented workshop on intercultural communication aims to develop the necessary skills to handle typical culture-related problems - such as in leadership, team coordination and motivation, planning and implementation and problem-solving - and to help understand why such problems occurs in the first place.

Due to the significance of this and related non-technical key skills for the target group, Stephan Petersen co-founded an expert group on intercultural communication and ethnography ( Kompetenzgruppe Interkulturelle Kommunikation und Ethnographie ) in 2010 under the auspices of the Hamburg local chapter, which is responsible for training and consulting on intercultural and ethnological topics within "Ingenieure ohne Grenzen".

"Ingenieure ohne Grenzen" is a humanitarian organisation run almost exclusively by volunteers. It receives funding for its projects in developing countries primarily through donations, membership fees, as well as commercial sponsors. If you're interested in helping us carry out our projects, please contact us.

UROP , the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, offers students the possibility to conduct their own research project while still being engaged in their studies. UROP is being offered at RWTH Aachen University since the beginning of 2008 and is funded as a part of the Excellence Initiative.

UROP International  provides access to research projects at RWTH Aachen University for US-American and Canadian students in their second and third academic years. This summer 32 young students from the USA and Canada spent eight weeks working under academic supervision of RWTH Aachen University researchers on research projects within the framework of the UROP program.

For this group of North-American UROP students, the International Office at RWTH Aachen University invited Dr. Stephan Petersen to give a seminar on intercultural communication, which was given at the end of June 2011.

The seminar prepared the students for differences between the German and the North-American communication culture, both with respect to the general social as well as the academic environment. It also introduced how both communication styles fit into the global spectrum, and which risks and potentials might result in communicating with other cultures.

Both dates for our "Workshops on Intercultural Communication" (summer semester) for students at RWTH Aachen University have been set:

• May 27-28, 2011 (Friday-Saturday)
• July 22-23, 2011 (Friday-Saturday)

Details on the workshops are, as always, available on our workshop pages.

Alexia and Stephan Petersen were interviewed for a short article on international business etiquette, which appeared in the July 2010 issue of The Slovenia Times . The article "A village with variations" describes different business etiquette around the world.

We are often told we live in the age of the global village. The recent ascendance of the internet has, in particular, reinforced the notion that we are all neighbours, united regardless of the geographic distance between us. But as any travelling businessman quickly learns, this is a village with as many differences as e-mail addresses.

Alexia Petersen was invited in February 2010 by the the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ  in Leipzig, Germany, to conduct a workshop for participants of its international graduate school HIGRADE . Due to the positive feedback to the workshop, it will be repeated in February 2011.

About HIGRADE:

The "Helmholtz Interdisciplinary GRADuate School for Environmental Research" (HIGRADE) provides a coherent framework at UFZ and the participating universities for qualifying a new generation of internationally competitive doctoral candidates in the field of environmental research. The intention of HIGRADE ist to prepare the doctoral candidates for careers in a range of environmental fields, i.e. for taking over leading positions in research, management and policy, technology development, or consulting and education. Graduate education in HIGRADE is structured, systematic and adapted to the individual needs of the doctoral candidates.

About the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ:

The Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ was established in 1991 and has about 900 employees in Leipzig, Halle/S. and Magdeburg. They study the complex interactions between humans and the environment in cultivated and damaged landscapes. The scientists develop concepts and processes to help secure the natural foundations of human life for future generations.

At the beginning of December 2010 Dr. Stephan Petersen was invited by the University of St. Gallen to give a seminar on intercultural communication in sales management. The seminar is part of the "Executive Diploma HSG in Sales Management" program. In the course of 10 months and 9 modules, each 5 days long, managers and young high potentials from the areas of sales and customer management learn to manage sales and distribution by applying the latest insights and implementing factors of success. Current concepts, methods, and tools are taught interactively in a practice-oriented fashion, while case studies and workshops help to transfer them to one’s own work. Upon successful completion the participants obtain the accredited degree "Diplom Vertriebsmanager HSG".

The next course program kicks off on September 13, 2011. More information (in German) is available at www.vertriebsdiplom.com .

Alexia Petersen was interviewed for the May 2010 issue of "Wirtschaftliche Nachrichten" on the subject of intercultural communication and its impact on international management. Drawing on her over ten years of experience as a trainer, the interview, conducted in German, focused in particular on the achievable and sustainable potentials companies can attain through training intercultural communication as a key set of leadership skills.

Die Workshops, die Alexia Petersen für Firmen durchführt, dauern gewöhnlich zwei bis drei Tage. Sie sind sehr praxisorientiert und beschäftigen sich stark mit der Auswirkung der Kultur auf die internationale Verhandlung. Interkulturelles Management ist ein inzwischen häufig zitierter Begriff. Die Wirtschaftlichen Nachrichten (WN) fragten die Trainerin Petersen: Was verstehen Sie darunter und wovon grenzen Sie ihn ab?

"Wirtschaftliche Nachrichten" is the monthly official publication of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK) Aachen 

In addition to his profession as an engineer and his freelance teaching activities in the area of intercultural communication, Dr. Stephan Petersen is an active member of Ingenieure ohne Grenzen  (Engineers without Borders - Germany) and its coordinator for international relations, as well as the representative of the Aachen local chapter. Upon the initial introduction of the topic of intercultural communication at last year's annual meeting in Marburg, interest in further exploring the topic was immediately expressed.

Due to the highly positive feedback to this introduction, a first full-length workshop on intercultural communication was held for members at the end of February 2010 in Hamburg. The primary target group were student and professional members of all German local chapters who would spend time abroad within the framework of their development aid projects.

The technical nature of many humanitarian aid projects often misleadingly suggests that engineering and logistics issues are the predominant issues with which projects teams are faced during the planning and implementing stages. Reality shows that many projects are at risk or fail not for technical reasons, but due to the underestimation of the impact of cultural differences.

In contrast to many international commercial and academic projects, development aid projects almost always involve the crossing of an enormous cultural gap. Project staff from Northern Europe and North America, for instance, are required to cross the largest possible cultural divide, when dealing with countries from regions such as Africa, South America, or South East Asia.

The two-day practise- and applications-oriented workshop on intercultural communication aims to develop the necessary skills to handle typical culture-related problems - such as in leadership, team coordination and motivation, planning and implementation and problem-solving - and to help understand why such problems occurs in the first place.

The next two-day workshop on intercultural communication for Ingenieure ohne Grenzen is scheduled to take place in November in Munich.

Due to the significance of this and related non-technical key skills for the target group, Stephan Petersen recently co-founded an expert group on intercultural communication and ethnography ( Kompetenzgruppe Interkulturelle Kommunikation und Ethnographie ) under the auspices of the Hamburg local chapter, which will be responsible for training and consulting on intercultural and ethnological topics within Ingenieure ohne Grenzen.

Ingenieure ohne Grenzen is a humanitarian organisation run almost exclusively by volunteers. It receives funding for its projects in developing countries primarily through donations, membership fees, as well as commercial sponsors. If you're interested in helping us carry out our projects, please contact us.

In their biomedical projects the scientists of the Center for Molecular Medicine at the University of Cologne (CMMC) investigate at the molecular level the pathogenetic mechanisms of cardiovascular disorders, inflammatory and infectious diseases, cancer and neurological disorders.

Coordinaed by the CMMC is the Interdisciplinary MD-PhD Program in Molecular Medicine  (IPMM), open to graduates from the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences.

The organisers of the IPMM invited Alexia Petersen to contribute a workshop on intercultural communication for the participants of the program, which took place end of February 2010.

About the Interdisciplinary Program in Molecular Medicine:

The University of Cologne has a long-standing academic tradition and a world-wide reputation for top-level biomedical research. Since 2003, the Faculties of Medicine and of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the University of Cologne offer an Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Program in Molecular Medicine (IPMM). This IPMM is coordinated by the Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne (CMMC). The IPMM is member of the Organization for PhD Education in Biomedicine and Health Sciences in the European System.

Based on Anglo-American models, the IPMM is aimed at outstanding research-oriented medical and life science graduates. The three-year PhD program reflects the increasing importance of interdisciplinarity and provides comprehensive research training in an atmosphere of scientific excellence.

IPMM participants are enrolled in a 3-year experimental research project in the field of biomedicine. This research project is supplemented with an individually tailored study program of obligatory lectures and courses, guest seminars, progress reports, advanced method courses and workshops as well as scientific soft skills training.

In 2005-06 Spencer Szczesny spent a year at RWTH Aachen University as a Charlemagne Scholarship recipient and joined our workshop on intercultural communication. He has maintained a deep interest in the topic and stayed in contact ever since.

Over the years, we have been meeting up with him in various places. For instance, in Cambridge, Massachusetts he introduced us to the MIT Center for International Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where Alexia Petersen was invited to give a guest lecture on intercultural communication as part of the course "Working in the Global Economy". On his invitation, Dr. Stephan Petersen also gave an introductory talk on intercultural communication at Aesculap Implant Systems in Center Valley, Pennsylvania.

In October last year we met him again, this time at the University of Pennsylvania  in Philadelphia, where he is currently doing his PhD. In addition to his studies he has been active in the Intercultural Leadership Program at Penn and founded InterComm, a student group supporting intercultural communication competency and training. It was for this group that he invited Stephan Petersen to give a talk on intercultural communication and leadership.

Alexia Petersen was invited in November 2009 by the Graduate School "MAterials Science IN MainZ" (MAINZ) at the University of Mainz to conduct a one-day introductory workshop for participants in this international PhD programme.

Like many internationally oriented research school programmes, MAINZ  seeks to provide doctoral students with a wide range of professional skills training courses throughout the year. MAINZ has been selected as one of the few PhD programmes in the interdisciplinary area of Chemistry, Physics and Biology as part of the German Excellence Initiative.

About MAINZ Graduate School:

The Graduate School of Excellence "MAterials Science IN MainZ" (MAINZ) is an international PhD programme which focuses on graduate training through excellence in research in the combined fields of polymer science, colloids, supramolecular assemblies, magnetoelectronics and strongly correlated quantum systems, including ultracold quantum gases.

Scientists from the University of Mainz, the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPI-P) and the University of Kaiserslautern (TUKL) have joined to form MAINZ. MAINZ has been selected as one of the few PhD programmes in the interdisciplinary area of Chemistry, Physics and Biology as part of the Excellence Initiative.

Both dates for our "Workshops on Intercultural Communication" (winter semester) for students at RWTH Aachen University have been set:

• October 22-23, 2010 (Friday-Saturday)
• January 14-15, 2011 (Friday-Saturday)

Details on the workshops are, as always, available on our workshop pages.

In 2009, the RWTH Aachen University Alumni Team produced a short introductory video on our RWTH workshops on intercultural communication and published it on YouTube.

You can find the video, with commentary in German, on the RWTH workshop info web site.

After having contributed a talk to a seminar series organized by the ZIBI Graduate School Berlin  in December 2008, Alexia and Stephan Petersen were invited by the organizers of the graduate program to conduct a 2-day workshop on intercultural communication for its PhD students.

ZIBI Graduate School Berlin is the roof of two graduate programs, and is closely linked to the Interdisciplinary Center for Infection Biology and Immunity  of the Humboldt University and non-universitary research institutes in the field of infection biology and immunity in Berlin.

About the ZIBI Graduate School Berlin:

The ZIBI Graduate School Berlin is a joint doctoral program of the International Max Planck Research School for Infectious Diseases and Immunology (IMPRS-IDI) funded by the Max Planck Society starting 2006 and the GRK1121 "Genetic and Immunologic Determinants of Pathogen-Host-Interactions" funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) starting 2005. The ZIBI Graduate School Berlin is closely linked to the Interdisciplinary Center for Infection Biology and Immunity of Humboldt University (ZIBI) which is a collaboration network between scientists at the Humboldt University to Berlin, the Free University of Berlin, the Charité - University Medicine Berlin and at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, the German Rheumatism Research Center, the Leibniz-Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, and the Robert Koch Institute. Currently about 30 research groups are involved in the ZIBI Graduate School Berlin hosting about 70 doctoral students. The research projects aim to elucidate the genetic, biochemical and organismal basis of infections and immune reactions. They are in the areas of pathogenity mechanisms, pathogen-host interactions, pathogen-host coevolution, chronic inflammations, autoimmune diseases, neuroimmunology, development and differentiation of immune cells.

The ZIBI Graduate School Berlin is an international program. Currently almost half of the doctoral students come from abroad. English is the official language of the school. The Mission of the ZIBI Graduate School Berlin is to develop students into creative, responsible and self-confident young researchers. In a "tailor-made" course program students are introduced to modern science practice and to advanced methodology. Particular emphasis is put on an active participation of the students. Thus, students meet regularly to present and discuss their projects. They visit international conferences and spend time at other labs abroad. For their individual research projects students are supervised constantly by a thesis committee. As a result of these efforts, many papers have been published with faculty and students as co-authors.

The ZIBI Graduate School Berlin has an active and lively student community. The collegial atmosphere assures that everybody has a productive and memorable time in Berlin.

Both dates for our "Workshops on Intercultural Communication" (summer semester) for students at RWTH Aachen University have been set:

• June 10-11, 2010 (Thursday-Friday)
• July 16-17, 2010 (Friday-Saturday)

Details on the workshops are, as always, available on our workshop pages.

End of November 2009 Alexia Petersen was invited for the first time to teach a workshop on intercultural communication at the Research Academy Leipzig .

The very international group of participants - from countries including Russia, Italy, Brazil, and Tanzania - , consisted of doctoral students from an equally wide area of subjects such as cultural studies, natural sciences, engineering, liberal arts, and journalism. A second work shop has already been scheduled for later this year.

About the Research Academy Leipzig:

The Universität Leipzig, an internationally renowned research university, has a rich experience in postgraduate research training across all disciplines. The Research Academy Leipzig bundles efforts to foster the capacity of doctoral students for cutting-edge research at the frontiers of established fields of knowledge and for interdisciplinary exchange. Three Graduate Centres organise research training programmes in the following fields:

• Mathematics/Computer Science and Natural Sciences
• Life Sciences
• Humanities and Social Sciences

The Research Academy serves as a platform for a research community of established worldwide leading scholars and the best qualified doctoral students enrolled at research training programmes. In this respect the Research Academy Leipzig represents the classical ideas of academic education.

At the same time, the Research Academy develops into a meeting point between those researchers working at extra-university centres like Max Planck Institutes or Institutes of the Leibniz Society and faculty from the University's departments sharing the common objective of excellent postgraduates training.

From an earlier newsletter edition you might already know that we support Ingenieure ohne Grenzen e.V. , (Engineers without Borders - Germany).

The current issue of "keep in touch", the alumni magazine of RWTH Aachen University, also carries an article about the activities of the young Aachen chapter of the non-profit association.

Dr. Stephan Petersen is also providing seminars on intercultural communication for active members of the association. The primary target group are members from all German regional chapters who are preparing for project assignments abroad. Apart from that, he is also an active member of the Aachen regional chapter.

To help us with our first project that the Aachen regional chapter just started, the constructions of sanitary facilities at a school in Kenya, we are still looking for donors, sponsors and supporters. In addition to that, everybody who is interested in the project is invited to join the Aachen regional chapter as an active member.

More information is available on the web site of Ingenieure ohne Grenzen e.V. , or can be obtained directly from us.

Over the last years we were interviewed for a number of articles in newspapers, magazines, as well as for television programs. We have recently started to collect some of them in the new press area on our web site.

We will include copies of the original articles for download where possible. The press section is still under construction, more entries will follow.

RWTH Aachen University's Alumni-Team  has invited Alexia Petersen to host a 2-day workshop on intercultural communication for alumni of RWTH Aachen University.

Invited to this weekend workshop, which takes place on February 27 and 28, 2010, are all alumni of RWTH Aachen University, especially internationally-active managers, project leaders of international teams, engineers, and scientists.

For further information, please check our section events and dates.

In the run-up to the 1. Aachener Interkulturelles Kompetenzforum in October 2009, Aachener Zeitung  interviewed us about our work as trainers in the area of intercultural communication. The interview appeared in the issue of October 10, 2009.

A PDF version of the interview is available in the press section of our web site.

Alexia Petersen was interviewed for an article on Canada, which appeared in the October 2009 issue of working@office . The article "Multikulturelles Mosaik und milde Töne" (in German) describes the business etiquette and the communication culture in the Canadian professional environment.

Das Einwanderungsland Kanada beherbergt viele Nationen - doch alle fühlen sich einfach als Kanadier. Business-Partnern begegnen sie mit britischer Höflichkeit. Im geschäftlichen Miteinander setzen sie auf kurze Informationen - und sind im Entscheiden oft sehr schnell.

working@office is Germany's largest professional journal for secretaries, assistants, and office managers.

Alexia Petersen has been giving seminars and workshops for a number of international graduate programs all over Germany. In July 2009, the Konstanz Research School Chemical Biology  joined this list of graduate schools. The 2-day workshop introduced the key leadership skills of applied intercultural communication to Ph.D students of the research school, in preparation for their future professional life in the global workplace. Below, a few voices from the participants:

"Not abstract learning about facts about other countries but learning a structural model that helps to make up own plan of understanding situations. Great course, great benefit" (Ricarda M.)

"I liked in particular: materials, way of providing information, very useful exercises, task was taken from life situations" (Magda S.)

The increasingly multicultural demographics in the academic and scientific workplace mean that graduate students are faced with having to be more interculturally skilled and proactive when interacting in teams with other students, or with supervisors and professors, who can approach work and supervision in unexpectedly very different ways. As in many other graduate programs in Germany, the group of Ph.D students represents a very multicultural team that benefits from practical intercultural communication skills both with respect to their daily work, as well as with a future international career in mind. Furthermore, especially as they are positioned at a key communication interface between professors and younger students, Ph.d students find themselves already in situations of having at times to function as intermediaries or facilitators for other students who may encounter cross-cultural difficulties. Whether students are presently in leadership positions or simply often called upon to exercise leadership abilities, sensitivity and skill in handling the cultural context of teamwork is a key component to harnessing and synergising the multicultural work potential.

About the Konstanz Research School Chemical Biology:

Complex networks of molecular interactions regulate physiological processes at the cellular and systemic level. To understand them is of one of the greatest challenges of today's basic and applied research. Progress in this field depends on the refinement and development of cutting-edge interdisciplinary approaches. This is the mission of Konstanz Research School Chemical Biology. It provides a unique academic environment within the Departments of Biology, Chemistry, and Computer & Information Science that fosters top level interdisciplinary education and research. Hence, Konstanz Research School Chemical Biology is supported by the German Excellence Initiative.

The research portfolio of the Konstanz Research School Chemical Biology is built on strong research priorities at the University of Konstanz in Synthetic Chemistry, Cellular Biochemistry, Biomedicine, Biophysics, and Computational Biology. The research element unifying all groups participating in the Konstanz Research School Chemical Biology is the desire to elucidate and to understand complex biological processes at the molecular level. The implementation of such an ambitious task requires both the expertise in a broad range of state-of-the-art methodologies and techniques and the availability of biologically relevant model systems.

Konstanz Research School Chemical Biology provides its doctoral students with an interdisciplinary state-of-the-art training in chemical and biological concepts. The methods taught will prepare them for competitive research careers in both academia and industry. To account for the different academic backgrounds of the doctoral candidates, individual training programs are designed. The curriculum of the Konstanz Research School Chemical Biology consists of well conceived scientific courses as well as courses for the improvement of transferable and management skills. The training program is supported by several top-class research institutions and industrial partners known world-wide.

Dr. Stephan Petersen has been invited by AixSPACE  (Aachen Student Platform for Social Awareness and Leadership Competence) to give a talk at the "Social Business Administration School", which was established by AixSPACE.

He will give his talk "Intercultural Communication: Key Skills for Global Collaboration and Leadership" as part of the 5th venue "Social Entrepreneurship" on Saturday, November 7, 2009 in the "Ford Saal" at RWTH's SuperC.

Fur further details and a flyer, please see the section events and dates.

About AixSPACE:

AixSPACE - is a new social platform started by RWTH Students with technical support from Professors of the Executive MBA Master of Business Administration Program from the RWTH Aachen University, international social Experts, and Governmental as well as Non-Governmental Organizations.

AixSPACE realizes RWTH students of today as the elite of leaders and decision-makers from tomorrow. Therefore, our core activities focus on enabling the promotion of sustainable social development, looking forward to support the mastering of research challenges with high social and global relevance, as stated in the Excellence Initiative RWTH 2020 - "Meeting Global Challenges". As a new social-oriented organization inside the RWTH Aachen University, AixSPACE pursues three major goals:

1. Enabling social engagement: towards the encouragement of social awareness in the student communities through leadership activities promoting their more proactive participation in social issues around sustainable development.
2. Handling as intermediaries: to bring sustainability promoters and socially disadvantage people together, in order to take advantage of available human and technical resources in developing world, through feasible solutions made in RWTH Aachen.
3. Contributing to sustainable development: even as students, through the design and development of business strategies leading to the successful implementation of international social projects, tailor-made for developing world needs.

Based on the establishment of a Social Business Administration (SBA) School and the implementation of an International Social Project, AixSPACE looks forward to encourage social awareness and leadership competence inside the student community, towards a more proactive engagement of the RWTH Aachen University in the social issues challenging the achievement of Millennium Development Goals nowadays.

Venues of the Social Business Administration School will take place at the "Ford-Saal" at RWTH's SuperC, in 5 sessions on Saturdays from August until November.

Since 2007, Haus der Technik  in Essen, Germany, which is affiliated with RWTH Aachen University, has offered a new Master’s Programme in Energy Economics. This part-time program is a co-operation between Haus der Technik, University of Münster, and RWTH Aachen University, and is supported by a number of relevant professional organizations.

After the positive feedback to the two-day workshop on intercultural communication that Alexia Petersen and Dr. Stephan Petersen gave last year for this program, they were invited back this year to teach the workshop for the current group of participants. The workshop took place end of July / beginning of August 2009 at "Haus der Technik" in Essen.

The Master’s Programme in Energy Economics provides participants with the necessary management qualifications from the areas of power generation, distribution, and consumption. Technology, economics, and law modules are blended into a practice-oriented program. At the same time, it aims to provide the students with substantial knowledge on general management.

The main target groups are engineers and natural scientists from fields related to the energy industry. Due to its multi-disciplinary approach this program is also suited for business administration and law professionals, as well as economists.

Alexia and Stephan Petersen have been invited to present a talk at 1. Aachener Interkulturelles Kompetenzforum - Unbekannter Nachbar Frankreich , which will take place at RWTH Aachen University on October 14, 2009, in Aachen, Germany.

Their presentation "Die Erfahrungen und Empfehlungen zweier Trainer für angewandte interkulturelle Kommunikation" (please note that the conference language is German) will highlight the experiences and recommendation of 10 years of intercultural teaching and training.

A flyer with the event's program can be found in the section events and dates.

We would be happy to meet you during the event!

About "Aachener Interkulturelle Kompetenzforen":

In dieser neuartigen Veranstaltungsreihe der RWTH Aachen werden mit hochkarätigen Partnern aus Wissenschaft, Wirtschaft und Beratung Fragenkomplexe, Problemkreise und nachhaltige Lösungsmöglichkeiten rund um das Thema Interkulturelle Kompetenz in Wirtschaft, Technik und Wissenschaft diskutiert.

Wir wollen mit den Aachener interkulturellen Kompetenzforen, die jährlich zu einem jeweils anderen internationalen Schwerpunkt stattfinden, ein bislang in Aachen so noch nicht dagewesenes Kommunikationsdreieck aus Wissenschaft, Wirtschaft und Beratung schaffen.

Wir wollen allen Vertretern aus Industrie/Technik und Wirtschaft die RWTH als zuverlässigen und kompetenten Partner und Vermittler in allen Fragen interkultureller Kompetenz präsentieren und sie unkompliziert mit kompetenten Lösungsanbietern aus Wissenschaft und Beratung zusammenbringen.

Wir wollen alle Hochschulmitglieder und Studierenden der RWTH Aachen für die Entwicklung interkultureller Kompetenz im Rahmen ihrer Leitziele "Internationalität und Interdisziplinarität" sensibilisieren, um nachhaltige Strukturen für eine permanente internationale Austauschplattform zwischen RWTH, Industrie/Technik, Wirtschaft und Beratung zu Fragen des interkulturellen Know-How-Transfers aus den Kulturwissenschaften in Industrie/Technik und Wirtschaft zu schaffen.

Zum Schwerpunkt-Thema "Unbekannter Nachbar Frankreich? Interkulturelle Kompetenz im bilateralen Austausch" werden Vertreter aus Technik/Industrie, Wirtschaft, Wissenschaft und Beratung relevante Fragestellungen, Problemkreise und Lösungsansätze im Hinblick auf "Interkulturelle Kompetenz im deutsch-französischen Kontext" erschließen und diskutieren. Die Präsentation der Ergebnisse einer groß angelegten Umfrage verdeutlicht, welche Reibungsverluste infolge mangelnder interkultureller Kompetenz in deutsch-französischen (Geschäfts-) Beziehungen entstehen und wir werden aufzeigen, welche Strategien zur Vermeidung und Lösung solcher Probleme existieren.