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Fiasco Fiesta: Entrepreneurial Mindset Morning

2–3 Jul 2026
German Cancer Research Center / Communication Center
Europe/Berlin timezone

Career Service & Alumni Relations

JOIN the Fiasco Fiesta, Fri 3 July, 9am - 2pm &

Navigating Uncertainty Game, Thu 2 July, 2pm - 6pm 

Rejection is part of academia - gain CONFIDENCE and make it fun! 

Get a glimpse of last year’s Fiasco Fiesta:

Find a short recap, participant feedback, and impressions from the 2025 event in our recap document!

 

The Fiasco Fiesta is the place where career misfortunes in academia are shared, snacks and drinks are served, laughs are had, and we celebrate each other as the excellent researchers we are, resiliently moving towards our best professional selves.

Navigating Uncertainty – an Entrepreneurship Game

“ESHIP Navigating uncertainty” is an award-winning Board Game that simulates real-world uncertainty in entrepreneurship and is based on solid research of leading entrepreneurship scholars and practitioners. Players test their team-based decision-making abilities within the safe environment of a game. You will role-play, discuss, narrate, and make strategic decisions under uncertain conditions simulated by characters, traits, unforeseen events, team-communication, and time pressure.

 

The Fiasco Fiesta Workshop 
If you attend the Fiasco Fiesta, you will...

  • Experience what it’s like to talk about challenges in a space where kindness and encouragement are the norm. You’ll discover the relief and connection that come from sharing stories in a non-judgmental, supportive environment.
  • Get to know your own strengths and inner resources. You’ll gain insights into how you personally cope with challenges - and how to tap into those strategies more intentionally when the next Fiasco hits.
  • Learn how to look at setbacks with a clearer, more constructive perspective. Instead of feeling stuck or discouraged, you’ll explore new ways to respond and grow from difficult moments.
  • Connect with others and build your own network of peer support. Whether it’s a new conversation partner, a listening ear, or an accountability buddy - you might just walk away with a community that lasts beyond the event.

We look forward to seeing you there!

 

Stand-Up Comedy: Oops! Failure – an unpaid Life Coach
A short stand-up about setbacks, uncertainty, and why failure keeps teaching lessons nobody signed up for.

What the hell is stand-up comedy doing in science?  Good question.
Because failure does not care about your title, your research, your CV, your publications, your intelligence, or how confidently you labeled that spreadsheet. Failure is democratic. It comes for the scientist in the lab, the project manager in a video call, the founder in the pitch, the admin at the office, the speaker on stage, or when you're simply trying to prepare dinner for fifteen for the first time.

In this high-octane, interactive 15-minute stand-up session, BeeBaumann takes on the glorious mess of setbacks, uncertainty, and public-oops, by showing you how using humor as a tool for recovery, regulation, and resilience is a great strategy!

This is not a lecture about failure. Come ready to laugh, participate, and rethink failure as less of a personal disaster and more of a secret weapon with terrible timing.

Preliminary Programme

08:30 Badge Collection at Communication Center
09:00 Welcome & Oops! Failure - Short Stand-Up Comedy
09:45 Fiasco Fiesta Workshop
12:00 Walk to TP BBQ-Area
12:15 Burning Fiascos & BBQ
14:00 End

Speakers

Annabelle “Bee” Baumann

Comedian, communication coach, author, and creator of the Stand-Up Communication Method™

Venue

The Navigating Uncertainty Board Game on 2 July will take place in the DKFZ Main Building, 8th Floor in the "Glaskasten".

The Fiasco Fiesta event on 3 July will take place in the DKFZ Communication Center. Please come to the reception from 8:30am to collect your badge. We will walk together for the BBQ to the TP-Area (TP 585).

Directions can be found under the "How to find us" section in the upper left menu.

We are grateful for Johanna Stadlbauer and Arqus European University Alliance for sharing the playbook with us.

Organizer:

Host: 

DKFZ Career Service & Alumni Relations 

 

Starts
Ends
Europe/Berlin
German Cancer Research Center / Communication Center
Lecture Hall
Im Neuenheimer Feld 280 69120 Heidelberg Germany
csar keevee.png
Fiasco Fiesta Posters.pdf
Recap 2025 1st Fiasco Fiesta at DKFZ.pdf
Registration
Registration for this event is currently open.