To the point: heaven and hell

In the past week, I was at several events. I would like to highlight two of them in particular. Firstly, the traditional meeting of the Tages-Anzeiger in the Schiffbau in Zurich and then the joint event of the Zurich Press Association and the Zurich PR Society in the Audimax of the ETH Zurich, the ComSum14, which has also become a tradition.

Let me start with the Shipbuilding Meeting. A high-profile event with celebrities from business, politics, advertising and the media. As always, the focus was on a prominent speaker. This year it was the German philosopher and publicist (including "Who am I - and if so, how many?"; "The art of not being an egoist") Richard David Precht. At the beginning, a presentation by Pietro Supino, Chairman of the Tamedia Board of Directors. Among other things, it was about the importance of journalism and about the freedom of the press, which is increasingly endangered also in Switzerland. The presentation was concise and had the right length or brevity. I thought it was good.

Then came the appearance of Richard David Precht. In terms of appearance and styling, he belonged to the faction of fashionable salon intellectuals, and spoke about egoism and morality. Philosophy, a topic that - as Precht also said in his welcome address - makes very few listeners fall into ecstasy with enthusiasm. But what Precht made of it in his detailed lecture was, in my opinion, remarkable. He "lectured" on what is in itself a rather dull topic - and in a good sense - in such a way that he was sure of the audience's unrestricted attention. His trains of thought were clear and coherent, the examples impressive. And all this in free speech, without a manuscript and ready to print. Even in the subsequent discussion with TA editor-in-chief Res Strehle, Precht remained calm. Not even with questions on specifically Swiss topics. I liked it.

This week, ComSum14 took place under the theme "The Digital Challenge. Frank Schirrmacher, Pietro Supino, Christine Maier and Veit Dengler were announced. Miriam Meckel, who had originally been announced, sent her apologies in advance. Schirrmacher, who was to have given an introductory talk, dropped out due to illness. Supino thankfully stepped in and gave an interesting presentation. But that was it. A completely chaotic Lipp moderated a boring, sprawling talk far removed from the topic. Ironic a Twitterer: "Maier has nothing to say, Supino is attacked, Dengler doesn't care. Was a great evening." He's right. Sorry colleagues: I didn't like it.

Pierre C. Meier, Editor-in-Chief
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