KICKOFF FOR #DCHH20
WE'RE DOING IT ANYWAY!
Great. Fantastic. Unique. Commendable. Encouraging. And “an absolute model during the COVID-19 pandemic”: The feedback from tourism professionals, hoteliers, service providers, consultants, and researchers at the start of the 10th DestinationCamp couldn’t have been more positive. “Thank you to netzvitamine for having the courage to go ahead with the event.”
Despite the coronavirus and the extensive safety requirements, nearly 200 participants made their way to Hamburg on Tuesday.
As late as Monday afternoon, the program still had to be adapted to the new safety requirements issued by the Hanseatic City’s health department; the revised booklets for the participants’ lanyards didn’t arrive until 45 minutes before doors opened. Printing company director Christine Schöler personally brought them to Hamburg on the ICE: “We’ve had to reprint them four times now!”
The biggest change: On the night from Friday to Saturday, the DestinationCamp concept had to be “sacrificed” to comply with the latest COVID-19 regulations . Participants can no longer freely switch between the 18 topics led by the 6 pairs of facilitators. Once they select their first session, they are committed to the room and group in which they will lead three two-hour topic blocks on Wednesday and the creative workshop on Thursday. Switching between rooms is not possible.
A PACKAGE TOUR INSTEAD OF A CUSTOMIZED ITINERARY
About 40 percent of the participants were attending DestinationCamp for the first time, while others were returning; about 10 percent had even attended more than five times. The customary individual travel experience of previous years—in which everyone could put together their own itinerary—was transformed at the last minute this year into a “package tour” due to COVID-19 regulations: one booking, a set program. Some participants actually found this a relief:
I'll pick one or two topics that are important to me and take in whatever else is on offer.
It was also due to the coronavirus that the DCHH was unable to celebrate its 10th anniversary in April at the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce as planned, but instead held the event from September 29 to October 1 at the Bahrenfeld Trotting Track in western Hamburg. The spaciousness of the facility, the size of the grandstand areas, the betting offices, and the press center enabled the organizer, netzvitamine, to comply with the city’s strict COVID-19 regulations.
FIRST MEASURE THE TEMPERATURE, THEN OPEN THE INLET
At noon, the trotters were still training in their sulkies for the next derby. Things looked chaotic in the betting center, the grandstands, and the lounges. Social distancing was being checked, tables were being rearranged, chairs were being numbered—and starting at 4:30 p.m., temperatures were being taken: The first participants picked up their lanyards and hygiene kits—including masks and personal hand sanitizer —at the entrance to the trotting track. Under the warm late-summer sun, many were still engaged in lively conversation and joyful reunions in the outdoor area of the long grandstand building when, shortly before 6:00 p.m., Vargo’s DestinationCamp jingle rang out from the dome tent, signaling the opening.
"Challenge accepted" is the theme of DestinationCamp 2020. The theme is traditionally determined based on the results of the previous year's DestinationCamp.
None of us could have imagined just how true this motto is to the current situation,
said talk show host Bernhard Lingg, who hosted the evening. Photos and videos from previous yearsset the mood for the attendees under the dome of the Silberstern Arena. Safety guidelines were announced, social distancing rules were explained, and the chairs were spaced far apart. Nevertheless, the atmosphere was good, even if not as exuberantly euphoric as usual. But the track’s catering, the wines from Rhineland-Palatinate, the beers from Hamburg’s Block Brewery, and the tart and refreshing Focus brew from Inju, combined with Vargo’s stimulating emotional sound design, ensured a lively and cheerful conclusion to the evening.
KEYNOTE "WE'RE DOING IT ANYWAY!"
Unusual but fitting: This time, the keynote address effectively brought the “official” part of the opening night to a close. It was delivered by Peter Kowalsky, the master brewer from Ostheim vor der Rhön in Franconia, who founded Bionade GmbH in 1995 with his mother, stepfather, and brother. The theme of the keynote: “We’re doing it anyway!” Peter Kowalsky:
"Challenge accepted" is an equally fitting motto for DestinationCamp20: We have accepted the challenge.
In a process that took 10 years, they created Bionade to save the family-owned brewery, which was deep in debt. “In the end, we were actually surprised when we finally succeeded.” Over the next 5 years, however, they were unable to find any significant customers. Kowalsky:
We wanted to make a healthy kids' soda with as little sugar as possible—but nobody wanted it. We wanted to become as big as Fanta, but we didn't know just how big that was.
When, after 15 years, the Hamburg-based drugstore chain Budnikowsky—with its 80 stores—expressed interest and wanted to market the “Kinderlimo” to hipsters, students, and advertising professionals, the family resisted for many years. Peter Kowalsky: “Then we thought: Okay, we’ll sell the soda to hipsters. Sooner or later, they’ll have kids of their own, and then we’ll sell the soda to kids again. We continued to work with school classes, plant trees, and support schools—and the hipsters loved that.”
A BALANCED BUDGET FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 20 YEARS
Twenty years after Bionade GmbH was founded, the company was out of the red for the first time.
By then, I had met seven bailiffs, all of whom were nice people.
In 2005, about 2 million bottles of Bionade were sold; by 2007, that number had already reached 200 million. “We were actually as big as Fanta!” But then, in 2009, a major corporation—Kowalsky doesn’t name it—acquired the shares of a Bionade partner who had run into financial trouble. “We were now part of a corporate group, and for three years we couldn’t find common ground or reach an understanding.”
Instead of accepting the offer to buy back the Bionade shares, the company shut the family out in 2012 through a classic squeeze-out procedure. “Within three weeks, we were out—350 employees lost, no more company cars, no more lavish salaries, nothing left, just hostility.”
WHAT ACTUALLY MAKES ME WHO I AM?
With authenticity and dry humor, the keynote speaker reflects on what came next: personal crises, self-doubt, and the search for stability and motivation. “What is it that defines me?”
The result: INJU Natural Cell Tonics in Berlin—an alternative to conventional energy drinks, made with natural, organic ingredients and minimal sugar. A climate- and water-neutral beverage made from roots, designed for modern people seeking stability and a sense of grounding.
Today, we need fewer wings and more roots.
Kowalski’s lessons from the past 25 years may sound trivial, but as the concluding point of his sincere and authentic-sounding story, they resonated with the audience just as much as they served as inspiration for #DCHH20:
- It can take a while (25 years in our case)
- Things always turn out differently than you expect (and that's a good thing)
- Sometimes you have to let go of the “old” so that the “new” can emerge (We first had to part ways with the brewery)
- Listen to yourself and not so much to others (you know best what's right for you)
- You never know when the time is right (innovations need the right environment)
- There needs to be a growing awareness of an issue within society (People need to understand what they want and what you want)
- Mistakes make it bigger than you thought (they are unforeseen possibilities)
- You get out of it only as much as you put into it (always—in a relationship just as much as at work)
- The chemistry has to be right (only work with people who understand you—people you'd actually want to grab a beer with)
- When you think you can't go on, a little light will appear from somewhere....
- Whatever you can do, just start doing it!