Event Industry in Germany

Does anyone know what the Event Industry is like in Germany?

I'm currently studying a Diploma in Event Management in Sydney and was hoping to head back over to Germany when I graduate, and this time not have to Aupair or work in Admin.

Any ideas for contacts/companies to start with would be equally awesome.

No one in the industry? Even info from someone working in businesses that know if conferences/ incentives are organised in-house or outsourced to an organiser would be useful. I'm mainly curious if the structure is similar to here or if Germans go about this differently.

In my company, it is organised in-house. But we are talking about a smaller company here. I should assume that the bigger companies, might be outsourcing, or may have their own Event-Management Department.

From what I hear at the moment, the buisness side is pretty quiet at the moment. In a recession one of the first things cut back is the events. Hopefully they will all slowly resume soon..

The trade fair industry in Germany is pretty big (I have never been to a place where there wasa a greater density of huge halls for such events). Would that be something you could work for? Just google for companies with the name Messe in it and contact them. They will definetly also need english native speakers, as most of the fairs are international or at least european.

There are a couple of things going on in the industry. The first is centered around hotels such as the Event Hotelgruppe. There is also a German tourism one, but I forget the name of it. I can find it out at work if you really want it. The other is centered around businesses such as INTERPLAN Congress, Meeting & Event Management AG. These are the places to look to get started. The bigger event locations usually have an in-house team whether it be 5 star hotels or messe's. The rest you can google using appropriate search terms both German and English.

Like Eventmanagement ...

Thanks that's brilliant help. The industry is pretty slow over here at the moment too. I'm hoping things will pick up again before I come back to germany next July.

In regards to event management positions, does anyone know if they are normally just the event planners or if they are often mixed with another role, ie marketing?

I come across this field quite often with clients / associates. My anecdotal experience is also (as per posts here) that it's a complete mix. As an earlier reply said, some do it in-house, others usual specialist firms. Similarly, as you say, some people in company roles arrange several events a year but spend their other time on work, which from what I see is often PR or the more direct-public facing stuff. Also, bear in mind that, as a federal republic, there's not just one or two dominant "hubs" where most things happens (like London in the UK, also perhaps in Oz)....events run all over the country.

As often, a quick read of wikipedia.de is helpful when gathering basic info about a career structure and path in Germany.
Also bear in mind that people working in the business may work internationally, either neighbouring countries or worldwide (indeed, do a tiny bit myself in other EU nations, so I use mainly English but German also helps, and any other European language you have).

Finally, the usual caveat applies. Yes speaking English may help for some events in terms of client contact....but speaking German is usually a must too (ie. no advantage simply because of your language) and quite a lot of big companies here remain quite focussed on domestic / DACH markets anyway.