Andreas Gelf never imagined that, as an electrical engineer, he would one day become a project manager. The 25-year-old is in the second semester of his master’s program with a focus on energy engineering – and invests much of his own energy in his involvement with VDE. He serves on the board of the student group at RPTU and in the Kurpfalz regional association, where he primarily supports university groups and their networking.
Last year, Andreas Gelf took the lead in organizing the VDE Energy Forum for the first time. “I had a lot of respect for it because I had never done anything of that kind or scale before.” However, he did not have to jump into the deep end alone. Dr. Kevin Rick, Head of the VDE Southwest Region, served as his mentor and handled the basics such as booking the venue and catering. “That was invaluable,” Gelf says, while he himself coordinated the overall content planning – recruiting experts for technical presentations, preparing the location, and promoting the event. To ensure that “The Kurpfalz path in the energy transition,” the successor to the established Hydrogen Forum, would be a success, Gelf was not only busy with preparations beforehand but also served as the main contact and moderator on the evening itself. “I had serious stage fright,” he admits. “In hindsight, it wasn’t really necessary – I put all that pressure on myself.” At the same time, he felt responsible for making the evening successful for everyone. “That’s probably the passion everyone talks about.”
VDE Energy Forum 2025: discussing the energy transition together.
| Tobias Dorstert
