Venture leaders seize the US Ambassador’s residence in Bern
Posted in Events, Startups on September 4th, 2010 by Herbert –For the 10th anniversary of the Swiss Venture Leaders program on Sept 3rd 2010, about a hundred Swiss entrepreneurs met to party in the Residence of the US Ambassador Donald S. Beyer Jr. in Bern. The event was perfectly organized by Venture Lab and the Gebert Rüf Foundation. It was like a family reunion in a warm and welcoming environment. Companies such as Amazee, Doodle, Poken, Routerank, etc. were present.
Some of the Venture leaders 2007, from left to right, Christian Broennimann, Dieter Naeher, me, Jochen Mundinger, Silvia Santini, Giovanna Davatz.
The event started at 4PM with a networking Apéro. At 5PM, the US Ambassador Donald S. Beyer welcomed the invitees with a charming speech, followed by some words of Rudolf Marty, president of Gebert Rüf Stiftung, and a short speech of Walter Steinlin, president of Innovation Promotion Agency CTI.
At 5:15PM, the entrepreneurs were leaving their footprint with a short pitch and overview about their respective state-of-the-art.
Poken Founder Stephane Doutriaux
After the pitches, everybody was invited to take place at the dinner tables. Before the dinner was served, there were two extraordinary keynotes. The first one was given by Robert Hemphill, president and CEO of AES Solar Power Ltd. His presentation was both educative and very funny. He was speaking about his do’s and dont’s as an entrepreneur. The audience applauded when he said that business plans are useless 
. The second keynote was held by Xavier Comtesse, director Romandie Avenir Suisse. He announced that he is planning to establish a creative think tank for Swiss entrepreneurs.
US Ambassador Donald S. Beyer Jr. and me.
The food was delicious, I never saw such a vast choice of tomatoes of all colors, red, green, yellow, violet, etc.
While talking to Mr. Ambassador, we figured out that we both read Yvon Chouinard’s “Let my people go surfing“, he also recommended the movie “180 south“, which I will certainly watch soon. By the way, Yvon Chouinard is a highly productive manager. He practices what he calls MBA, Management By Absence. There is no more productive. 0 effort, 100% outcome .
At 9PM, Donald S. Beyer was presenting some closing words and a great event was over. Back to family 
.