VIENNA 2008 :: Wolfgang Blau
Wolfgang Blau, Master of ceremony
Wolfgang
Blau (a.k.a. Wolfgang Harrer) is a foreign correspondent from Germany, based in
San Francisco, California. His newspaper and magazine articles, radio and
television productions appeared on zdf.de, heute.de, Deutsche Welle Online, ORF-Television,
3-Sat, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Inforadio Berlin, DIE WELT, VDI-Nachrichten,
Media&Marketing, Technology Review and others.
Together with journalist Alysa Selene, he is currently completing the book
"German Dream - Visions for Germany," based on their 30-part international
interview series with world-leading scientists, artists and visionaries. The
series includes conversations with Paulo Coelho, Garri Kasparov, Wangari Maathai,
Jeremy Rifkin, Mary Robinson, Wei Jing Sheng, Craig Venter and Muhammad Yunus
about the importance of inspiring societal dreams and their own most innovative
dreams for Germany’s future. The book will be released in October 2007 by
Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, dtv-premium, Munich.
For most of 2008, Wolfgang Blau will be covering the U.S. Presidential Elections
from Washington D.C.
Before moving to the U.S., in 1999, Wolfgang was Managing Editor of
BLR-Radiodienst Munich, Europe's biggest radio news syndication network. While
attending university, he worked as a radio news-anchor for Germany’s National
Public Broadcasting Corporation, ARD, and as a station voice for ARD-TV.
In 1999, he developed and produced AudioWELT, the first audio portal of a
European newspaper with a daily audio summary of DIE WELT's most relevant
articles and editorials. In 2003, he developed the concept for the new
online-audio department of DIE ZEIT, Germany's most-read weekly newspaper. He
also initiated the development of the online audiobook platform Audible-Germany,
a joint venture of Bertelsmann, Holtzbrinck and Audible USA.
Wolfgang’s blog and podcast about the 2004 U.S. Presidential Elections for ZDF
and Deutsche Welle was the first podcast of a German media company and the first
blog of ZDF (one of Europe’s largest National Public Broadcasting Corporations).
His blog and podcast about the Tsunami catastrophe in Southeast Asia for ZDF,
was nominated for the Grimme Online Award, Germany’s most prestigous award for
online journalism.
Wolfgang Blau frequently gives speeches and chairs public events that address
issues of innovation, new media and democracy, such as the Prix Ars Electronica
Award Gala, the Holtzbrinck Internet Summit, the Cable Europe Conference or the
EU-Conference “Content for Competitiveness” by Austria’s Federal Chancellory.
Book Contributions:
Essay: "Gibt es einen German Dream?", in "Aufwärts Bitte!",
Europäische Verlagsanstalt Hamburg, 2004
Essay: "Longing for Simplicity", in "Simplicity - The Art of Complexity. Ars
Electronica 2006",
Hantje-Cantz, 2006
