Study Abroad - Berlin, Germany

01-15-09 (Thursday)

Today we made another corporate visit, this time to Deutsche Telekom’s (T-Mobile in the USA) T-Labs. T-Labs is basically the experimental technology lab for Deutsche Telekom and was probably the best of our corporate visits. Our guide was great and he showed around the very technologically advanced office and also showed us some of the projects that were being developed. One project worth noting is the “Kitchen of the Future” (that’s my name for it, I can’t remember the actual name). The “Kitchen of the Future” is a high tech kitchen where all of the appliances are networked together (they are also networked with TVs throughout the house) and everything is voice activated. It was pretty cool to see.

After visiting the T-Labs, we went back to the university to take a test. Note: If you are a prospective student or a current student considering going to Berlin for Study Abroad next year make sure you prepare for the test! It is not easy and requires more than a quick glance over of the materials from class (I wasn’t the only one who figured it would be easy).

Following the test we had a class about the German economic system and then had a guest speaker. The guest speaker was an Illinois MBA alumnus named Robert Hein. Mr. Hein is from the USA, but lives and owns his own business in Germany. He spoke to us for about an hour and a half and talked about how he got started with his business in Germany. He also discussed the differences between doing business in the USA and in Germany. It is also interesting to note that he has recently employed a handful of current Illinois MBA students and they are helping him to possibly bring his business stateside. He seemed excited to continue to have a strong relationship with the Illinois MBA program and is just one example of some of the great alumni the program has produced. A link to his company’s website can be found below.

http://www.004gmbh.de/en/

Later on we met up with some master’s students from the Freie Universitat at the Gaffel Kolsch for dinner and then went with them to Trompete Discotheque. It was an interesting experience as the discotheque was crowded with patrons dancing to American hits circa 1980. I had Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” playing in my head for the rest of the night.