Archive for July, 2008

Barack Obama in Berlin

Friday, July 25th, 2008
Audience on Straße des 17. Juni

Audience watching Obama via video screen - as he is too far way

Sina and Jens Begemann

Sina and Jens in the crowd

Sina and I attended the speech from Barack Obama yesterday. It was a very spontaneous decision – we mainly went, because we didn’t want to miss the event. – And a lot of Berliners apparently thought the same: Obamania in Berlin!

Barack Obama spoke in front of an audience of ca. 200,000 people on the “Straße des 17. Juni” (17th June street) – and it felt even bigger as everything was full of people. We only saw audience and video screen – no chance to see Barack directly.

The atmosphere was very positive and people listened carefully to what he said – only a few viewers left as they felt uncomfortable with the English language.

15 minutes after the speech ended: Thousands of people leave

15 minutes after the speech ended: Thousands of people leave

On our way back to our car we saw Obama’s convoy (at least a dozen cars + police motorcycles) driving by fast.

Obamas convoy: The white SUVs were brought in from the US

Obama's convoy: The white SUVs were brought in from the US

Jamba goodbye party on Friday

Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008

On Friday (July 25th) I will celebrate my farewell from Jamba. All Jamba employees from the last 7 years are welcome to join.

Where:Carambar“, at the S-/U-Bahnhof Alexanderplatz in Berlin, next to the Cubix cinema (Map)
Wann: Friday, 18:30

Beginning my start-up brainstorming

Wednesday, July 9th, 2008

Effective July 1st I handed over my team and my responsibilities to my successors at Jamba. I will spend the next couple of weeks handing over my knowledge.

I go on holiday for a little bit more than a week and today I start generating ideas for my start-up.

A lot of people ask me questions regarding my start-up idea. I did not decide on an idea, yet – even though some do not seem to believe that.
If you have a German mobile phone, just text JENS to 48000 and I will inform you as soon the idea is public (price of a standard SMS). [Update: Keyword is not active any more. Subscribe to my RSS to get updates on my start-up idea]