This year’s Executive Club focused on the global issues and concerns in the first part. The group discussed the economic and personal impacts of the Coronavirus as well as the conflict between Iran and the USA always raising the question what this means for Europe. Analysis and predictions were made on how the next decade could and would develop.

Rehago is the winner of the Diplomatic Council Startup Leadership Award 2020. This startup has found a way to employ virtual reality to help partially paralysed patients to manage their daily life after e.g. a stroke. The training in rehabilitation is often demotivating and boring - especially when it is done alone and at home. Therapists suffer from a constant lack of time and patients are often undersupplied. Rehago is a VR application for independent training that can support the rehabilitation process.

Right after the check-in, members and guests of the Diplomatic Council Gala 2020 seized the opportunity to be professionally photographed with dignitaries of the Diplomatic Council. Printouts of the pictures could be taken home at the end of the event.

For those who prefer digital pictures, the Diplomatic Council picture gallery is now available at: http://photos.diplomatic-council.org. The gallery also includes pictures from former galas and summer festivals.

The Diplomatic Council has presented a microcosm of the world at the Gala 2020. Ambassador Dr. Heinrich Kreft, member of the Diplomatic Council Board of Presidents, enthused the audience with his impressive keynote address on world and European politics. In particular, Dr. Heinrich Kreft proposed valuable ideas on the role of the European Union in the world of tomorrow after the painful exit of Great Britain.

The Diplomatic Council Startup Leadership Award to be launched in 2020, enjoys great popularity: the stream of new applications doesn’t stop. The deadline for applications ends on January 20; the festive award ceremony will take place at the Diplomatic Council on February 7 in Frankfurt.

The objective of this Diplomatic Council Startup 2020 Award is to encourage innovative culture, promote the startups regardless of the phase they are in, and offer them an investor and mentoring platform.

For more than three years now the Diplomatic Council, with the help of its dedicated members, has been supporting Little Smile, a children’s aid project based in Sri Lanka. Michael Kreitmeir, a television journalist, whose son Manual Kreitmeir is a long-time member of the Diplomatic Council, visited Sri Lanka in his function as a journalist more than 20 years ago and witnessed the misery of orphanage children which was a result of the Sri Lankan Civil War.

In good tradition, Dr. Heinrich Kreft, German Ambassador to Luxembourg and Member of the Diplomatic Council Board of Presidents, will deliver the keynote speech at the upcoming Diplomatic Council Gala on February 7.

In his speech he will address the global political situation from the European perspective. We are not only starting a new year but also a new decade. One thing is certain: there are many challenges ahead of us.

GALA REGISTRATION