What ConFest is
ConFest is our flagship gathering: part conference, part festival, and the occasion for the General Assembly at which members decide the direction of the association. People come together for a weekend of talks, workshops and discussion, and spend the evenings simply getting to know one another. Wherever possible, sessions run in hybrid format so that members who cannot travel can still take part.
It is open to DAAD scholars and alumni from both countries. For most people who come, the conversations over dinner end up mattering as much as the programme itself.
ConFest 2027
The next ConFest will take place in 2027. Dates, venue and programme will be announced here and by email once the board has settled them.
If you would like to hear first, or you would like to help shape the programme, write to board@indialumni.org. We are always glad of members who want to get involved rather than just attend.
ConFest 2025: a look back
ConFest 2025 and the General Assembly were centred around the future of Indo-German DAAD alumni relations and the future perspectives of IndiAlumni itself with the motto “Fast Forward: The Next Steps of Indo-German Relations in a Changing World”. We followed up on the 2025 survey that shows that many senior members have moved on with their lives and openly ask the question if IndiAlumni is still needed and if yes, what shape it should take in the next years to be relevant and enrich people’s lives.
Sessions ran in hybrid format wherever possible to allow members from all kinds of places and situations in life to participate. It set the course we are now following.
If you are a DAAD scholar or alumnus/alumna and would like to take part in ConFest 2027, contact us at board@indialumni.org and we will get in touch with you!
From previous ConFests.
Three days in Cologne, 7 to 9 November 2025. This was the programme.
Friday 7 November
- 16:00 Arrival, registration and room assignment
- 18:00 Dinner
- 19:30 Informal get-together and ice-breakers
Saturday 8 November
- 07:30 Breakfast
- 09:00 Welcome from the president, and an introduction to the theme
- 09:00 Keynote, online: an Indo-German scientist on intercultural workplaces and what incoming students actually need
- 09:30 World Cafe, four tables: do we still need IndiAlumni? What can Indians and Germans learn from one another? What did you most need when you first arrived? What would you want to learn in one hour a month?
- 10:45 Group photograph
- 11:00 Tea
- 11:15 Panel: Reviving Alumni Networks, Strategies for Engagement and Career Growth, with Dr Bala Subramanian Ramani, followed by questions and discussion
- 12:00 Speed dating: your favourite IndiAlumni experience, and whether you would miss it
- 12:30 Lunch, hybrid, paid for by IndiAlumni
- 14:00 Workshop: visual traditions and design language across the centuries in Germany and India
- 15:30 Break
- 15:45 Gentle yoga
- 16:30 Team competition: if IndiAlumni were a company, what would you make of it? Grow it, or wind it up? Who would run it? What would you invest?
- 17:30 Presentations and awards
- 19:00 Dinner, with a cultural performance of Indo-German music and dance
- 21:00 Games and networking into the evening
Sunday 9 November
- 08:00 Breakfast
- 09:30 General Assembly opens: board reports, activity and financial audits
- 10:00 The association in a crisis, what next? The previous day findings, then an open debate on whether to continue or wind up the association, with a vote if needed
- 11:00 Break
- 11:15 Election of the new board
- 12:00 Other decisions, including removing the dual authorisation on bank transactions so the association cannot be left unable to act
- 13:30 Wrap-up, tea and closing remarks
- 14:00 Farewell
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