The former First Lady of the USA will appear at the Bits & Pretzels start-up fair in Munich.
(Photo: AP)
Dusseldorf Michelle Obama will perform at Bits & Pretzels in Munich in September. The organizers announced this on Monday. At the start-up fair, which will take place from September 24th to 26th, the former first lady will report on her career and the work of her production company Higher Ground in a moderated conversation.
For years, visitors to Bits & Pretzels have wished that Obama would come to the event, according to a statement from the organizers Andy Bruckschlögl, Bernd Storm van’s Gravesande and Felix Haas. Obama tops the list of most suggested speakers year after year. “The top reasons our audience consistently cites is her impressive and engaging public speaking style, leadership experience and commitment to diversity, inclusion and social justice,” share the Bits & Pretzels founders.
Michelle Obama is an attorney, bestselling author, and wife of Barack Obama, who was President of the United States from 2009 to 2017. According to the polling institute Gallup, the 59-year-old was the most admired woman in the world by Americans in the three years since. And now she is also a founder.
After the Obamas left the White House, the couple founded the production company Higher Ground in 2018. The company had a podcast collaboration with Spotify for several years and is now collaborating with Audible on audio formats. Higher Ground’s first film, American Factory, won the 2020 Oscar for Best Documentary.
Obama said the company should tell entertaining and informative stories through podcasts, documentaries and feature films. Her goal is to bring new and diverse personalities into the public eye.
Michelle Obama is co-founder of Plezi Nutrition startup
The German start-up scene is still not very diverse and is dominated by men. Some visitors to Bits & Pretzels last year also criticized the majority of male speakers. At that time, the start-up festival was opened by the US Hollywood star Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Bits & Pretzels co-founder Haas says he hopes Michelle Obama will provide some positive inspiration this year. “The reality is that most start-up founders go through a tough time.” Obama, who once worked her way up from a working-class household to the management department at the University Hospital of Chicago, “could be a role model for overcoming obstacles”.
In May, Michelle Obama announced that she is a co-founder and strategic partner of start-up Plezi Nutrition. The company aims to produce healthy food. Obama was already committed to the healthy nutrition of children during her time as First Lady.
Plezi’s first product is a fruit juice in four different flavors that contains less natural sugar and no added sugar. The juices are sold in Target supermarkets and on Walmart.com. In addition to drinks, snacks for children will soon be added to the range.
Her husband Barack Obama was already the top speaker at Bits & Pretzels in 2019. Just a few weeks ago, the ex-president was again in major European cities, including Berlin, for several lectures. During the visit to the capital, he also met Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his predecessor, Angela Merkel.
More: Ex-President on a trip to Europe: Obama meets Merkel and Scholz