Vienna: Lawyers too are increasingly required to earn their legal fees through competitive presentations. Regina Maria Jankowitsch set up a business based on this discovery: she offers lawyers appropriate training courses. The idea came to her a year ago when her usual turnover was rather disappointing.“ Now the crisis has reached me as well”, she thought, says Jankowitsch today. And then she developed a new line of business. That kind of innovative thinking makes her a winner. Jankowitsch won the Walter-Nettig-Award 2002 für Wiener Jungentrepreneure (Walter Nettig Award 2002 for Young Entrepreneurs), worth EUR 7,500.
This is the eighth time that the Vienna Chamber (of Commerce) President awarded this prize. The prize money- along with the main prize there are 10 Education Cheques worth EUR 750 each- is financed out of his own pocket. Nettig seeks to reward those brave enough to be independent. Jankowitsch collected her prize on Thursday evening at the Vienna Chamber of Commerce. She has been working as a self-employed communication trainer and event moderator since 1999, and she now has top managers and leading politicians amongst her clients in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and English-speaking countries. Somehow she still had enough time left for lectures and writing books: “Im Rampenlicht der Börse- mit Charisma zum Erfolg” (In the stock exchange spotlight-charisma leads to success) is the somewhat programmatic sounding title. Other prize winners show that one can escape unemployment aged 56 by founding an hotel. Or that there always is something to discover: management services for associations which can’t afford their own offices, or which don’t want their officials to cope with the work alone any more.