As chairman and secretary of the international industry association pro:campaigning it is my duty to organize monthly skillshare meetings (ERFA-Abende) in Zurich, where most of our members are based. During these skillshares we either develop further the concept and understanding of campaigning or we work on a problem that one of our members presents or we listen to a presentation that teaches us new things. However, due to a still small number, those meetings cannot take place every month.
As the owner of business campaigning Switzerland, a campaigning agency without employees that works exclusively with independent partners, it is my challenge to keep the partner network alive and make sure they share the same spirit and the same understanding of the agency’s identity as well as the concept of campaigning.
It is obvious that both groups can profit from each other if they come together for joint skillshares and informal get-togethers.
Currywurst (German pronunciation: [ˈkœʁiˌvʊʁst]) is a fast-food dish of German origin consisting of sausage (German: Wurst) cut into slices and seasoned with curry sauce (regularly consisting of ketchup or tomato paste blended with Worcester sauce and various other spices) and generous amounts of curry powder. In several regions of Germany Currywurst is cult. As such it has a community of loyal fans. It is hot and sweet at the same time. Currywurst polarizes. All these features make it a wonderful object for campaigning studies and a great symbol for Strategic Campaigning Guideline No.1
Based on these facts I got the idea to bring the above mentioned groups together and also invite another group of Currywurst fans for a joint skillshare and social event. It took place for the first time last night. The sausages I had imported from my homeland, Saarland. The sauce was produced by Zurich’s first Currywurst booth “Curry One” at Goldbrunnenplatz. The subject of our skillshare was the positioning and naming of a new organic, healthy and refreshing lifestyle drink, produced by a start-up company that I had helped to launch. We also learned a few things about a new method to approach business plans. This knowledge will be deepened during the next meeting on 31st May. Almost everybody said he/she had a good time and asked me to continue with this kind of events. In the future we will have pro:campaigning skillshares first and then Currywurst get-togethers with an extended groups immediately after the skillshare.
