Business Brief: Expolingua Berlin 2012 - a fair for linguistic diversity

Since 1987 the company behind the German capital's linguistic fair has been celebrating the diversity of language and culture.

Company name: ICWE GmbH, Expolingua Berlin

Interviewee: Silke Lieber

What is the background to Expolingua? The actual idea for Expolingua was conceived over 25 years ago. We were fascinated by the idea of Europe and its multilingualism. We wanted to create a space for a German event, which features a large marketplace for linguistic diversity, language and cultural professionals. People with language skills were open to the world that we wanted to promote. Therefore, we started a linguistic fair in 1987, first in Frankfurt and later in Berlin, after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

What's the nicest thing a customer has ever said about your fair? Can I please come and work for you?

If your company was a colour what would it be and why? All the colours of a rainbow, as they reflect the variety of languages we cover and the cultural bridges we build.

If I contact your company's office will your staff be able to speak English with me? Each and every one of them – some of them are native speakers while others have nice accents from various countries, such as Brazil, the Czech Republic, France, Italy, Slovakia and yes, Germany.

What's the strangest request you have ever had? Whether we can offer multicultural, multilingual dating

What is your biggest-selling product? Diversity! A highlight of this year's cultural program tis going to be Gayle Tufts, who is not a product, of course, but a great example to demonstrate language versatility.

What is your coolest product? The coolest “thing” I’ve ever produced is my daughter. She watches videos in Spanish and wants me to read her children books in English. Otherwise I think we pretty much rock anything, so it depends what you’re interested in. But if I had to pick something it would be the mini-language courses.

Article sponsored by Expolingua Berlin

Expolingua Berlin 2012 runs from October 26-28