State of Affairs

- setting up new wordpress blog
- started series of portraits about selfHUB members
- blogging about mobile services in Africa
- here´s how to save the world in the next ten crucial years
- save the last dance: Humanglobaler Zufall IV in stores now!
- that makes 42 things to go

About this page

All there is to know about author, activist and entrepreneur Daniel Kruse. And non-smoker.

I currently live in Berlins cozy district Prenzlauer Berg. Once in a while I swing back to Cologne, the town where I started my professional career as an editor. My hometown´s Minden, there´s family, green fields and neighbours that know each other (scary!).

I hardly believe in Astrology, but a good book told me what I should actually do with my life: "Have fun, cheer up others and go for my dreams" (my zodiac sign is aquarius).

Thus, I work on a book about "heros" and a charity trip through Latin America. I freelance as author and consultant for media and agencies.

Contact

Daniel Kruse

daniel[at]dkomm.org

+49 (0)179 661 76 44

Video: dropping knowledge

This is dropping knowledge
Uploaded by dropping_knowledge

dropping knowledge collected thousands of questions from people worldwide. 100 were chosen to be answered at The Table of Free Voices. 112 inspiring individuals gathered around this "largest table ever built" (Guiness World Record) to answer these questions over the course of nine hours. All answers were recorded, transcribed into English and served as the seed content for the most comprehensive database of social topics ever compiled. All material generated by the "event of the year" (Art Directors Club) is protected by a copyleft license and thus free to use, remodel and distribute.

After a severe financial and strategic crisis, dropping knowledge hit back with its "summercamp", a media community with 100 volunteers covering the G8 Summit in Heiligendamm, Germany. For two weeks, we set camp in an art school in Rostock to feed a website with movies, photos and text to capture the unfiltered images of this massive political event. The many short films of several volunteer directors have been melted to the movie TROUBLE, which received the acclaimed Cinema for Peace Award as "Most Valuable Documentary of the Year". I recruited the staff, organized logistics and co-managed the camp in Rostock - so far my toughest and most rewarding job.

TROUBLE Trailer
Uploaded by dropping_knowledge

Career Highlights

The Table of Free Voices in Berlin recorded more than 11.000 answers and 700 hours of video footage (click image to enlarge)

• Director Marketing: dropping knowledge, international NGO inspiring social transformation through innovative projects and multimedia
  
• Event Manager: dropping knowledge summercamp, scouted and led a team of 100 volunteers producing multimedia coverage of the German G8 Summit
• Chief Editor of Public Relations: Table of Free Voices, the largest table ever built (Guiness World Record) with 112 participants from more than 50 countries answering 100 pressing questions from users worldwide
• Chief Editor: the drop, weblog about social issues like globalization, environment, technology. Guided a team of ten editors, tripled readership and pushed costs to zero
• Director Communications: 10th World Business Dialogue, the largest known business convention organized by volunteer students. Obtained ARD Tagesthemen, Welt am Sonntag, Wirtschaftswoche, Reuters and other major media. Ghost-writer for international business executives and scientists
• Trainee & Editor: S+L Partners Public Relations, organized international employee magazine momentum, scouted six European journalists and led communication with client proofreaders
• Student: University of Cologne, studied Politics, Anthropology, Theater, Film and TV. Exemplified term papers: The TV in Us and a comparison of Stanley Kubrick´s Clockwork Orange and Eyes Wide Shut

Special Accomplishments

The cast of the theater experiment 7theplay, director Daniel Kramer very left in navy trousers (click image to enlarge)

• Top-Ten Finalist 1. Cicero-Essay Wettbewerb (about the course of the 21st century)

• Winner Journalist Competition Zeitkapsel (fiction story about medical nano-technology)

• Theater performance after workshop 7theplay, trained by renowned London director Daniel Kramer

• Cinema for Peace: “Most Valuable Documentary of the Year” for Trouble, a film shot by a media community during the G8 Summit in Germany (with dropping knowledge)

• Art Directors Club: “Eventagentur des Jahres” for organizing The Table of Free Voices (with dropping knowledge)

• Survived a 10-day workshop of Vipassana meditation in complete silence and social isolation
  

• National champion 2005 in a sport known as beach-handball...

Video: 10th World Business Dialogue

The 10th World Business Dialogue gathered leading international executives at the University of Cologne. It is the largest known business convention solely organized by volunteer students. Prof W. Chan Kim (Insead Business School), Adrian Slywotzky (Oliver Wyman Consulting), Romanus Otte (Welt am Sonntag), Andrew Robertson (BBDO Worldwide) and John Naisbitt (Author Megatrends) ran the final panel "Designing the Future Company". As Director PR my team and I were able to get coverage from major national media (see list). But the definite highlight was a report in the ARD Tagesthemen with anchorwoman Anne Will...

CV: Professional Experience

May 2006 – March 2008

Director Marketing
dropping knowledge e.V.

An initiative to inspire social transformation through innovative projects and multimedia. Organizers of the award-winning Table of Free Voices with 112 participants answering 100 questions of global significance.

• Influencing all strategic decisions as member of management

• Set up partnerships with media, NGOs and universities

• Scouted and led 100 volunteers of a media camp during the G8 Summit

• Advertising, PR and ticketing for film premiere “Schatten auf Berlin”

• Wrote all press copy and helped film the event “Table of Free Voices”

• Weblog “the drop”: Led international editors team, tripled readership and pushed costs to zero

October 2005 - Present:
Author, Entrepreneur, Activist
dkomm

Writing on issues like globalization, society, mobility, future, media and the web. Consultant for marketing, editing und conception.

• Humanglobaler Zufall: reportage magazine connecting six people and their stories around the world

• Utopia: Articles about green entrepreneurs, activists and products for the web community of the year 2008 (Lead Awards)

• Electronic Arts: Report from the 1. International Game Conference for client magazine of the world´s leading video game producer

• armed angels: Online and press copy for the "Social Fashion Company" that received the Gründerpreis from german business magazine Wirtschaftswoche
• social initiatives: book about "heroes" and charity trip through Latin America (concept stage)
  

February 2004 – April 2005:
Director Public Relations
Organisationsforum Wirtschaftskongress, OFW
10^th World Business Dialogue

Every second year the OFW organizes the largest known business convention done by volunteer students. Among the guests of the 10^th edition were John Naisbitt (Author “Megatrends”), Mark Fields (Ford America), Josef Ackermann (Deutsche Bank) and René Obermann (Deutsche Telekom).

• Obtained event coverage from ARD Tagesthemen, Welt am Sonntag, Deutsche Welle, Wirtschaftswoche, taz, Reuters, dpa etc.

• Ghost-writed speeches and statements for Peter Drucker, John Naisbitt, the OFW Board of Directors etc.

• Wrote press releases, newsletters, online articles, and slogans

• Drafted invitations to international executives

• Documented conference in panel abstracts

• Coordinated a ten-student press team

A PR-team you can´t resist: Miss JK (smiling) and me (trying to smile) looking forward to a well-positioned 10th World Business Dialogue

Editor-in-Chief
Organisationsforum Wirtschaftskongress, OFW
key_ Magazin für Wirtschaft und Wissen

• Chose all topics and photos

• Planned and managed production timeline

• Recruited, motivated, and organized volunteer authors

• Wrote several articles, editorial, headlines, subheads, and captions

• Interviewed: Peter Schwartz (former scenario planner Royal Dutch/Shell), Howard Rheingold (Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution), Axel Schmiegelow (VP Bundesverband Digitale Wirtschaft)

August 2003 – October 2005:
Working Student
SprongCom GmbH

Agency for personal branding that specializes in writing speeches for DAX-CEO’s and in conducting seminars on creativity, teamwork and writing.

• Conducted research for speeches e.g. on hydrogen, China, mobility

• Wrote and proofread excerpts of speeches

• Assisted in conducting seminars

January 2001 – July 2003:
Trainee and Editor
S+L Partners — Agentur für Public Relations

Key clients included: Ford, Opel, TÜV Rheinland Group, Aral AG, and ThyssenKrupp.

• International employee magazine “momentum”: scouted six European journalists and led communication with client’s proofreaders

• Wrote for employee and customer magazines, annual reports and brochures, produced press releases, newsletters and concepts

• Adapted English press releases into German

• Improved processes to structure meetings and implement a feedback culture

August – November 2000:
Internship at Mindener Tageblatt and Radio Westfalica

July 1999 – July 2000:
Civil Service Weserlandklinik Bad Hopfenberg

CV: Education & Workshops

Giving a workshop at conference Inspired Lisbon in early 2008

Education

October 2003 – October 2005:
Student
University of Cologne

Politics, Anthropology, Theater, Film, and TV

• Presentations: Low Intensity Warfare, Anthropologist Max Gluckman and Soap: Fight Club and the Psychology of TV-Commercials

• Term papers: The TV in Us (Grade 1.7 / B+) and a comparison of Stanley Kubrick’s Clockwork Orange and Eyes Wide Shut (Grade 1.3 /A-)

• Volunteer SchreibArt program: Print-, TV-, creative and screen writing

Professional Workshops

• 360 Grad Outdoor Education Team: “Executives Training“ (weekend)
• Toussaint Language Services: Negotiations & Presentations in English (50 hours)
• ModerationsAkademie für Wirtschaft und Medien: “Creative Teamwork“ (weekend)
• Akademie der Bayerischen Presse: “Journalistic Fundamentals” (2 x 2 weeks)
• Special Accomplishments
  

German CV (download)

How to use this page

This is a weblog, or shorter: blog. Blogs are characterized by a chronological order of posts (articles that may contain embedded photos and videos). Usually, blogs are often updated and thus used as an actual online journal.

This blog though is rather static, it offers no news, but an interactive overview of my professional career. I use it as a file server and to display my skills to potential clients and employers.

The right column helps you to find your way through: Click the headlines in the NAVIGATION bar and the post (article) will appear top left in the main section.

Below those links in the right column, you find a "tag cloud". Tags are keywords connected to certain bookmarks. If you click on one of those, you will be directed to my del.icio.us bookmarks related to that tag. Del.icio.us is great to store your personal web hotspots online.



Further down you find a drawing like this from Hugh MacLeod, a guy that doodles cartoons on the back of business cards. He´s a well-known blogwriter and a personal hero of mine, mostly because of his widely read manifesto "How to be creative". Whenever Hugh uploads a new cartoon, it automatically feeds into my blog. These interactive tools are called "widgets".

Further down the right column I add widgets here and then - go play and get involved!

All those blue words getting underlined when you move the cursor on them are "hyperlinks". They lead you to a webpage connected to that word. It´s common in blogs to hyperlink keywords without further commenting. Taking the example above, a click leads you to the explanation of "hyperlink" on Wikipedia. I often use this nifty technique here, so make sure to click to watch real cool stuff...