OUR HISTORY
Since 1984
The “Organisationsforum Wirtschaftskongress” (OfW) was founded in 1984 to build a bridge between academic theory and business practice. Since then, an annually changing team of Cologne students has organized an international business conference as its main product here in Cologne. The intention was to connect entrepreneurs, scientists and ambitious students through an intensive, intergenerational exchange.
Initially, the “German Business Conference” took place every two years with a focus on Germany, until it attracted more and more foreign participants and was renamed the World Business Dialogue in 1999. Since 2009, the conference has been organized annually instead of every two years with participants from over 70 nations.
At the end of 2019, the organization decided to realign itself and find a new approach of engaging and contributing to a better future.
Now, we want to create an ongoing dialogue about relevant topics that affect businesses, environment and the society: all of us. We will combine old strengths of the World Business Dialogue with new opportunities. Our history will develop!
Our long-time partners
In 35 years of organizing the world’s largest student-run business conference we worked together with many different companies, with some of them over many years. We are proud of our large network and the intensive collaboration regarding various formats and topics.
Inspiring Discussions
Every conference had its own outstanding speaker lineup with representatives from different industries. In thrilling discussions and stimulating keynotes they gave us input to think about and incentives to shape the future. Topics that were discussed at our conferences are now more important than ever and we have already collected various solutions and ideas.
We want to take these discussions to the next level with our Podcast “The Dialogue”.