by editorial office, mas
Dieter Ahrendt is retiring from active business participation at Intergerma and passes his post on to Markus Schmidt
After more than 25 years as founding member and managing director of Intergerma, Dieter Ahrendt is now retiring from active participation in business. In early 2009, he passed his post on to his successor Markus Schmidt and appointed Silke Offermann, his colleague of many years, to management.
With the Westphalian salutation of „Gutt goan“, meaning something along the lines of „take care“, Dieter Ahrendt bade farewell to his colleagues, business partners and customers in his usual geniality. He is retiring in order to enjoy more free time and to devote himself to his family and his hobbies. The Intergerma team and the industry will not lose him entirely, however: Following his parting from active management, Ahrendt will be taking over project-related activities as co-partner. He will also remain a member of the board of directors of hotel.de AG, alongside his associate of many years and managing partner Peter Hoffmann.
Dieter Ahrendt, born in 1946, established „Intergerma Marketing GmbH & Co. KG“ in 1983, together with Peter Hoffmann. Having performed in managing positions at trading corporation Coop in Hamburg and at Brillux, the business economist thus realized his dream of running an own enterprise. He put his heart into building up Intergerma, a company specializing in conventions, and has been considered a pioneer in on-line hotel marketing since the implementation of its hotel platform hotel.de in 1998. As founding member, Dieter Ahrendt is known at Intergerma and hotel.de for his straightfoward and honest nature and has made a lasting contribution to the development of the company with his experience, his untiring dedication, his creative ideas and his openness for innovations.
Markus Schmidt was appointed Dieter Ahrendt’s successor in the management of Intergerma in early 2009. 36 years old and hailing from Hamburg, he has been in management since May 1, 2008 and from the beginning has been prepared for assuming the position of Dieter Ahrendt. With Markus Schmidt, Intergerma has gained an experienced expert in the convention industry with know-how in event organization, hotel purchases, sales and marketing. His occupational career drew the tradesman to Hapag-Lloyd Geschäftsreise GmbH in 1999, where he established the hotel purchases for the company’s „Groups and Conventions“ bracket. Following employment with the companies of FCI and Maritz, his last occupation before transferring to Intergerma saw him responsible for strategic hotel purchases, leading the „Smartmeetings“ team at event agency Smart and More GmbH in Hamburg. As director, Schmidt is now responsible for managing sales, marketing, personnel, hotel purchases and the strategic development of convention services at Intergerma. In addition, the new director will follow the example of his predecessor, seeing to the development of new and supplemental marketing strategies and services for the hotel industry and new business areas.
There is another new member of the active managing team at Intergerma, namely Silke Offermann, whose many years of service for the convention specialist make her a symbol of continuity. She started out as trading clerk and is now an authorized representative and member of business management. Her range of responsibilities spans the entire coordination and quality control in creating the manual „Hotels and Conference Venues“, now in its 25th edition. Offermann further plays the role of main contact for hotels and hotel centrals and is closely working together with the field team. She is known in the industry for her reliability and friendly attitude towards convention and hotel clients. With her many years of market competence, she has established excellent contacts to service providers and, with the exception of Dieter Ahrendt, has always been the most recognized individual at Intergerma in external dealings.
Background information:
As editor of the most widely read convention hotel guide „Hotels und Tagungsstätten in Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz“ (Hotels and Convention Venues in Germany, Austria and Switzerland) and the publication „Eventlocations“, Intergerma has, since its foundation 25 years ago, established its position in the convention market as an accomplished service provider. In addition to the printed publications, Intergerma developed an on-line system for convention hotels in 2003, serving as transparent and neutral information and booking platform for companies and convention organizers. In 2007, the on-line reservation system was transferred to Hotel.de AG. Intergerma is shareholder of Hotel.de AG and has two representatives at the board of directors. Ever since, Intergerma has been concentrating on its core trade of printed media and is building more consulting and client services for the hotel industry and convention clients.
