Communications and Marketing
Caroline Jahn: "My job: creating memories and making people happy"
Because, of course, there were organising hands behind and during this major event, and the decisive ones belong to Caroline Jahn, who is responsible for event management in the Communications and Marketing department. The big graduation ceremony is something of a masterpiece in the university's event calendar, but one that - unlike in the trades - is organised anew every year. "One cog must mesh with the other," is her experience and at the same time her credo for events of this size
When she arrived at the university in April 2013, it was a different story when it came to the big graduation ceremony: there weren't really any. "Nobody could tell me exactly how to do it," Caroline Jahn looks back. There was no event management at the time and the staff unit was in the process of being reorganised under new management. So the newly hired employee had to quickly learn how to organise the graduation ceremony, how the university works and how to act pragmatically. After all, she didn't have much time to prepare for the big event, which at the time already had more than 1,000 guests.
She was helped by her professional experience in an industry that is very different, but in which things were very fast-paced. Before coming to university, Caroline Jahn was Reiner "Calli" Calmund's personal assistant. She coordinated events for the football legend, such as television appearances, readings and lectures. Through this turbulent management job, she not only got to know all the stadiums in the country and countless hotels, but also the world of celebrities. "It was exciting to meet all these people," she says today, "but also a totally crazy time."
The fact that she was able to learn a lot from the event managers she worked with during her years on tour with Reiner Calmund proved to be very useful for the time afterwards. She also took away from the three years the confidence to "be able to face any challenge".
The children's university has grown close to her heart
In her first year at the university, the graduation ceremony was not the only project; other events and new formats were quickly added, such as the children's university and the "Day of Research". The children's university still exists today and is a very successful programme where demand is always greater than the number of places available. In the first few years, H-BRS organised the children's university together with Alanus University and later also with the Steyler Missionaries; since 2020, H-BRS has been doing it alone. The format has become particularly dear to her heart, and not just because she is a mother herself, says Caroline Jahn. Because of the children, who are so enthusiastic, but also because of the lecturers. "It's fun to see them in this different role. It's as if they've never done anything else."
Nothing works without planning
It goes without saying that the Children's University programme for 2026 has already been planned. Planning is something without which Caroline Jahn's work would be unthinkable. She prepares everything within her sphere of influence in as much detail as possible. This applies to the individual lectures of the children's university with 20 participants as well as the big graduation ceremony in the Telekom Dome with 2,800 guests (or almost 4,000 in 2022) and many people involved on stage and behind the scenes.
For the graduation ceremony, she starts the organisational work a year in advance and has her to-dos right up to the day of the event. She is convinced that she has to do her job 100 per cent, because "you can tell when something isn't working." Hence the image of the cogs that have to mesh. And that can go so far that she quickly rearranges the floral decorations on stage before the show starts so that the more beautiful flowers are in front. She is aware that not everything can be planned and that unexpected things can happen. But her detailed schedules and procedures give her the peace of mind that she hasn't forgotten anything, so that she can say on the morning of the event: "It's going to be good." And that, she says, is what makes her work fun: "Making people happy."
Text: Martin J. Schulz
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