The Mannheim Forum is an interdisciplinary congress organized exclusively by students of the University of Mannheim and, with more than 500 participants per year, is one of the largest universities conferences in Germany. During the Mannheim Forum, various events take place on the Mannheim main campus - the Mannheim Palace in Mannheim - giving participants the opportunity to discuss current topics with well-known personalities from politics, business and society. Besides the Mannheim forum offers different possibilities to develop faculty-spreading contacts and conduct Networking with different enterprises.
In 2012, the Mannheim Forum student initiative was founded by the three largest student initiatives on the Mannheim campus: Arbeitskreis Börse (AKB), MTP - The Marketing Initiative and PoliMotion - The Politics Initiative.[1] The idea and aim of the initiative was to establish an event that would enable participants and students from various disciplines to enter into a dynamic dialogue with representatives from diverse sectors of society on specific topics of future and current relevance. The first event organized by the initiative was the 2012 panel discussion between Mannheim professors from various disciplines and company representatives on the topic "EU - Economic Policy - Quo Vadis? The event was well received by both students and participants. The aim of the students from now on was to establish this event under the name "Mannheim Forum" as a permanent annual event at the University of Mannheim on a larger scale. In 2013 the first "Mannheim Forum" took place under the topic "Resources".[2][3] Since then, the event has been held annually in spring and the eighth congress is scheduled under the Motto "VerAntwortung" (Responsibility - answers) for March 2020.[4][5]
The Mannheim Forum is managed by the Mannheim Forum e.V. and is exclusively organized by students who study mainly at the University of Mannheim or at the Mannheim University of Applied Sciences. The majority of the members study in the second or fourth semester (at the time of the congress).
Annually, the Mannheim Forum has a motto which is expressed in different perspectives. For example, the 2019 Congress addressed the theme of "reorientation" from the seven perspectives of business, politics, society, sport, IT, sustainability and entrepreneurship.
From these perspectives, main events with invited guests typically take place on Fridays and Saturdays, which are thematically specific. Also on these days, various workshops with experts and companies will be held.
The congress typically begins on a Thursday evening with the opening event. In recent years, the opening event has been held outside the university in the Congress Centre Rosengarten or in the National Theatre of Mannheim.
Furthermore, the congresses of the past years consisted of a gala evening with dance on Friday and an after party in the city center of Mannheim on Saturday.
