Archive for March, 2008
“Last Dance” of TUSOVODITEL
Tuesday, March 18th, 2008 | Humour & Stuff | 1 Comment
The legendary russian party community “Tusovoditel” says good-bye to their friends giving the very last party “Last Dance”. During the last four years Tusovoditel joined many young Russian people (most of them students) in Hamburg and vicinity and built up a new and unique kind of communication network. Starting in 2004 with the Online Forum at tusovoditel.de there followed parties at the student hall Berliner Tor, Omega Lounge, Red Bar, Madhouse, Open Air and finally Ice Peak Lounge. The popularity and the community grew from year to year. Now 2008 Tusovoditel is among the most loved and incorporated trend-setter in terms of organisation from grill parties in the summer to cinema visits in the winter time. Now the time has come and many of us finished university, start up their business carrier married and started families already. Time is getting shorter to organize and cultivate the community network. That`s really sad! Last but not least Tusovoditel gives a Good-Buy Party at that place, where many of our friends started to go out when we were 17 or 18 years old – the first Russian discotheque Kosmos. That will be definitely a great Good-bye to a very intensive and eventful part of our lifes but it doesn`t meen that it`s over now, No, it`s just a new Start!!!
Russian “Teddy Bears”
Wednesday, March 12th, 2008 | Humour & Stuff | 2 Comments
The popular symbol for Russia is the “Russian Bear”, and at the same time it`s the symbol of the ruling party in Russia “Edinaja Rossija” which won with an “overwhelming majority” at the last presidential elections. President Putin`s successor is Zarewich (the Zar`s son) Dimitrij Medwedew (engl. : bear).
Change of scenery:
Some years ago in the west-Siberian city Omsk a political movement for children “Medwezhata Rossii” (Russians teddy-bears), initiated by Putin`s “Edinaja Rossija”, was born. Children from the age of 7 can join this political organisation (and they really do)!!! The ceremony takes place right after the school enrollment in a couple of elementary schools in Omsk and vicinity. First the older “Teddy Bears” (who are in the 4th already) make a speech about their party, then the little ones perform a dance with party flags, accompanied by the song “In the knowledge is the power-as the “Edinaja Rossija” says! ” (rhymes in Russian : Ведь в знании — наша сила, как говорит «Единая Россия»). Closing the ceremony the hymn of the Russian Federation is played. The number of party members steadily increased in the last two years.
Is it destiny that about three years after the formation of the children organisation “Medwezhata Rossii” the next president`s name is Medwedew?!!! It`s crazy, isn`t it?? Did they actually know it? Anyway, the party office “Edinaja Rossija” in Omsk calls it a GAME! Although any types of political GAMES are forbidden by law since 1991, no official monitoring authority makes sure that no rebirth of “Pioneers” or “Comsomol” takes place.
Retail in Eastern Europe
Friday, March 7th, 2008 | University | No Comments
The transitional countries of Eastern Europe experienced a Big Bang with the transition from plan to the free market economy in the 90ies. The retail was one of the most important industries which responded to those changes very quickly. The two most important impulses out of this restructuring process have been the Modernisation and New Types of Business. The last named relates to large-area retail and a decreasing number of employees per business unit. Large shopping areas in the Greenfield Side on the periphery of metropolitan areas predominated the new retail areas. In parallel the modernisation of business flows and sales area design took place.
Since the 90ies a lot of shopping centers have been build in the Greenfield side. 15 years later, local authorities are confronted with problems like desolation of cities, unoccupied sales areas and therefore sinking tax incomes especially in smaller townships. Now the regulation from the city authorities has become stronger and more target-oriented than it was in the beginning of the 90ies. The integrated areas in the city are gaining in importance. Large scaled areas for retail in the city are accounted from the authorities. Shopping centers as well as high price galleries in best location are built directly in the city.
Exemplary for this development is the new opened shopping mall “Palladium” in Prague. Centrally located the “Palladium” is now part of the inner city commercial district which starts at VaclavskeVaclavskeNamesti Namesti, cPrikopes in Na Prikope and leads directly to the Palladium. The accessibility afoot is about 10min in the Old Town. The very modern inner design contrasts the historic outside facade (19th century).
This new shopping magnet for tourists and people with above-average income working in the City are the main target groups. Besides the most purchased goods like fashion, accessories and gifts a whole Gourmet Paradise is located in the upper floor. The strategy contains no entertainment as cinema or bowling (on the contrary to the Greenfield side) and no bulk buying, but fashion dining and meeting spots for business people working in the offices, which are also integrated in this complex.
This rapid development in the retail industry has already caught up and overtaken the one in the West. The generations of shopping centers in Eastern Europe are changing very fast and soon will reach the US standard certainly.
Study Trip to Prague 2008
Monday, March 3rd, 2008 | Journey | No Comments
This Prague trip has been something special! This time I went to Prague not to make some sightseeing with the usual tourist attractions like the Karlsbrücke, Prague Castle, Apostel`s Clock and the Jew Quarter. This time it was completely different!
Our group of 10 students ( all prospective Dipl. Geographers) plus our supervisor Mr. Dr. Waibel went to Prague to make some scientific research about the effects and structural changes the transitional process, which started with the Velvet Revolution in 1989, had caused in tourism, retail and industry.
The first weekend we were running through the city and the Metro stations with an average speed of 9km/h (our Navi proved it!). For Mr. Waibel didn`t look back very often to check if everybody is still on board, some of us who couldn’t`t or wouldn`t run, walked through the old City of Prague and admired the historism and art nouveau fassades of the old buildings or just enjoyed the great weather! Our “city guide” Veronika emerged as a former hotel executive who made guidance in the “Top Hotel” but not in the city…Does`t matter! 
In the evening on Sunday we had our first meetings in our “conference room” at Pension “Lucie”. It was now we noticed how much work it would be the next week!!! The tourism-group had to change their concept completely and worked now on the business tourism in Prague. The retail-group was also a little bit rattled by the unexpected criticism of Mr. Waibel. Only the IT-group had already its first two interviews on Monday. The next days we decided to meet in the evening and talk about the results of the day. Already on Thursday some of us got ill. The hypothermia while running in and out into hotels and shops doing surveys was the one of the reasons for illness. Nevertheless, our timetables were getting full. We ran from one interview appointment to another, just the IT-group had a temporary shortage and wrote about 200 emails to get some appointments. They hit all records, sitting about two days and half nights in their room in the same position with their laptops, typing and googling! On Friday evening we went to “Pravek”, a restaurant at the Metro station “Andel” which we noticed already on Saturday. The interior decoration of “Pravec” looked like the a stone-age cave with mammoth tusks and old paintings at the walls. The dishes` names like Jurrasic Globe, Mammoth or Pangeasteak are also quite funny, cause you don`t really know what you get , but it was really tasty!! After dinner some of us, Mr. Waibel (or by now just Michael) inclusive, walked over the Karlsbrücke to Stare Mesto to a night club named “Bombay”. It was OK, but nothing spectacular besides high prices and the dancing part on top the podest. Just the Taxi afterwords exceeded our budget! Next time no taxi!
On our second weekend at Prague we planned to go to Pilsen on Saturday and to visit the Jew Quartal on Sunday. Of course we went almost directly to the famous Plsen brewery. Before we could taste the beer we had to endure a exergerated media show about beer and then an incompetent guidance for about an hour. We looked forward to sit down in the brewery pub to drink more Pilsen beer but it wasn`t our day. Two wedding parties have been celebrating in both of the brewery Pubs! The toughest of us, this was Michael, walked in and sat down in the vestibule. We drank our beer but soon the staff noticed the uninvited guests and we were booted out:) In the evening nobody of us had the power to go out in the City neither fancied to to sit in the “Lucie” Bar with the unfriendly barmen, who was badly tempered because “the Germans” didn`t get wrecked every evening at “Lucie”. So everybody went to bed. On sunday all groups should finish their final presentaions and to report to the other groups. Especially the tourism-group which contained five persons had to struggle for an agreement. The conclusion of their work was, that tourism plays an important role for Prague but there are many difficulties at different levels. Here are some (incomplete) results of our group-workes:
Tourism (Jonas,Klaus, Margit,Gunnar,Dagmara)
First, there is no visible superior strategy for tourism development on the part of the state authorities. Second, the categorization of hotels in Prague has no common basement, that means every hotel tenant acts on his own discretion e.g. the stars-categories differ enourmously. Third, the trend for the future indicates the growing importance of family tourism and not as estimated of congress tourism. And there is no noticable crowding out in the backpacker sector.
Retail (Betty, Paulina, Martin)
The market for shopping center is full. There is a strong tendancy for building shopping malls in the City and not like in the end-90ies at the periphery. The location decision is dominated by the location and not by landprice. The choice of the right marketing strategy learning from the competitor is predominant. There is no direct competition between the shopping malls on the greenfield side, neither between the greenfield and the city. The new build city shopping mall “Palladium” has generated positive effects on the retail in the near vicinity. The role of the city authorities is marginal and constrained.
IT-Sector (Sakura, Simon)
The IT-sector in Prague is not developed very much yet. There exist no networkes between the IT-companies.
(I hope you`ll complete my short summary
All in all we did a good job, I think. Everybody of us learned a lot for the future and especially for the work on our diplomas.
Sunday evening most of us left the Pension “Lucie” to spend a pleasant evening in the famous Cafe “Slavia” at the Moldau opposite the Opera house. This cafe is famous for its Absinth (this is the green high proofed stuff). The interior design is art deco, elegant but strict. Famous is also the Viktor Olivia painting we called “The Absinth Woman” (actually it calls “The Absinthe drinker”), it shows a drunken old man with his Absinth glass on the table and a young, naked, green and transparent woman sitting on the table. Maybe some of us would have seen green, naked women after drinking some more glasses but it was already 11p.m. and the cafe closed. We decided to go somewhere else but had to leave also the next bar at 2 p.m. Now nothing was left besides the “Bombay”. The night ended after a couple of Bloody Marie`s, beers, Absinth`s and dancing at 5 o`clock in the morning. The right time to take the metro and not the taxi.
This was our somehow different Prague trip! I hope you enjoyed to read!
I`m waiting for your comments and for some good photos for I don`t have any!