What people want to know about me.

Johannes Goering is an entrepreneur since 2009, Superconnector and Executive Director of Corporate Connections Germany. Born in 1984 in Cologne, he lives with his family in Mainz.

After studying as a graduate technical journalist and running his own agency, he now leads the German operation of Corporate Connections together with Hardy Trenschok. His core skill is bringing entrepreneurs together in structured environments where trust and real referrals can grow.

He is regularly invited as a speaker, host and keynote contributor on topics around business networking and referral marketing.

A Superconnector isn’t a networker. A networker collects contacts, a Superconnector creates spaces where the right people find each other and genuinely help each other forward.

The result isn’t business cards but trust. Not reach but referrals with substance.

Johannes Goering has lived this principle since 2007, when at age 22 he built a community of strangers in Melbourne with no plan, which then took on a life of its own. The same pattern has repeated ever since: being a host, making introductions, bringing people together who would never have shared a table without him.

Today he does this through Corporate Connections, and that is exactly what he means when he says: I bring the right people together.

Johannes Goering has been Executive Director of Corporate Connections Germany since 2020, together with Hardy Trenschok. He is responsible for launching new chapters, growing the community, sales, and the external presence of the brand in Germany.

He currently leads three active chapters in Mainz, Koblenz and Cologne. Düsseldorf is planned as the next location. The long-term vision is ten chapters with around 250 members in Germany within his region of responsibility.

In addition to his operational role, he represents CC Germany at international events such as the European Leadership Summit in Amsterdam and the Global Leadership Summit, where he has hosted as emcee in front of several hundred international guests.

Johannes Goering lives with his wife and two children in Mainz, Germany. From there he runs Corporate Connections Germany with chapters in Mainz, Cologne and Koblenz.

His stages reach well beyond the Rhine-Main region: he gives keynote talks at chambers of commerce and marketing clubs, hosts CC summits in Europe and Asia, and speaks at entrepreneurial and Mittelstand events.

When he isn’t connecting people, he is usually on the move: long-distance running (half marathon, marathon, ultra trails), surfing with passion (especially in France, Indonesia and Australia), and regularly travelling around the world with his family. In 2023, he spent seven months in Indonesia, Vietnam and Australia.

Johannes Goering isn’t a networking coach but a practitioner. Since 2008, he has built agencies, consultancies and networks as an entrepreneur, and speaks from over 15 years of personal experience, not from theoretical concepts.

From 2012 to 2023, he was a founding member and later Chapter Director of the BNI chapter in Mainz, which grew to be the largest in the German-speaking world. Since 2020, he has been building Corporate Connections Germany.

He doesn’t sell a networking method, he lives a stance: those who give, win. Give before you take. Trust before transaction.

His audience isn’t solopreneurs looking for clients but owners, managing directors and shareholders of mid-sized companies from five million euros in revenue upwards.

Corporate Connections is a global business network active across four continents, 33 countries and 121 chapters. Around 2,000 members worldwide are owners, managing directors, shareholders and board members of companies typically with five million euros in revenue or more.

The German organisation has been largely run since 2020 by Johannes Goering and Hardy Trenschok and currently has chapters in Mainz, Koblenz and Cologne. Outside their region, there are further chapters in Nuremberg, Munich, Berlin and Leipzig.

Corporate Connections differs from classic business networks through three principles: only one seat per industry, meaning one member per sector per chapter. The meetings are structured around referrals, not business card exchanges. The community is international, giving German members access to business partners in over 30 countries.

Corporate Connections is aimed at established entrepreneurs: owners, managing partners, board members and managing directors of mid-sized companies. Typical company size starts at five million euros in annual revenue. 84 percent of global CC members run companies with five to 100 million US dollars in revenue, 16 percent above.

The network isn’t suited to freelancers looking for clients, early-stage startup founders, or employees without entrepreneurial decision-making power.

The right fit is someone who has already built something, who is looking for strategic alliances and real referrals among peers, and who is willing to give before they take. What matters is less the revenue figure and more the entrepreneurial mindset.

Corporate Connections Germany has active chapters in Mainz, Cologne, Koblenz and Nuremberg. The first three are run by Johannes Goering as Executive Director.

Further locations are being launched in Munich, Berlin, Leipzig and Düsseldorf. The long-term vision is 50 active chapters in Germany with around 1,500 members in total.

Each chapter has a maximum of 25 to 30 members, and only one member per industry is admitted. Those interested in visiting a chapter first meet Johannes Goering in a personal conversation before being invited to a meeting.

The path to a Corporate Connections membership begins with a personal conversation. Johannes Goering first meets every prospective member in a 30-minute call before any invitation to a chapter meeting is extended.

The conversation centres on four questions:

01 Offering: what you offer and for whom. Your role, your market, your clients.
02 Asks: who you are actively looking for. Clients, suppliers, multipliers, partners.
03 Challenges: the question on your mind when you walk to your desk in the morning.
04 Investments: where you plan to direct capital, time or energy in the coming months.

If your profile fits an available industry slot in one of the chapters, a meeting visit follows. A formal membership only happens after several visits and a decision on both sides. This process is intentionally slower than in classic networks, because CC isn’t built on volume but on fit.

Contact via johannes@johannesgoering.com.

Requests for keynotes, impulse talks or panel appearances go directly to johannes@johannesgoering.com.

Johannes Goering prefers entrepreneurial summits, Mittelstand conferences, business associations such as chambers of commerce and marketing clubs, and business communities with 30 to 500 participants.

He speaks when he has something to say, not when he wants to sell something. This means a talk works when the topic truly belongs to the event and isn’t just filler.

Useful information in your request: details about the event, the audience, the desired topic, and the date. For CC-internal formats such as chapter meetings or summits, the same process applies.

Johannes speaks fluent German and English.

Johannes Goering has two stage-ready keynote formats:

The Perfect Wave — A keynote on timing, patience and the right moment to drop in, applying the metaphor of surfing to business decisions. Decisions you can’t force.

The Marathon of Relationships — Why real networks aren’t built on sprints but on distance, and why referrals don’t happen by accident.

He also gives shorter impulse talks on topics such as Those Who Give Win, Trust As The Hardest Business Factor, Community Building From Melbourne To Mainz, and Open-Mindedness As A Competitive Advantage.

He adapts format and length to the event, from 15-minute impulses to 60-minute keynotes including Q&A.

Yes. Johannes Goering hosts two to three Corporate Connections chapter meetings per month in Germany, plus international formats.

In 2024, he was the emcee of the European Leadership Summit in Amsterdam with 100 international guests. In 2025, he hosted the Global Leadership Summit in Tokyo with around 700 participants.

His strength as a host lies in combining a journalistic background, interview experience with entrepreneurs, and the ability to have real conversations on stage rather than working through an agenda.

The format works particularly well for conferences, summits and panels that need more than a presenter.

Johannes speaks fluent German and English.

The direct route is an email to johannes@johannesgoering.com.

Relevant requests include chapter visits at Corporate Connections, keynote or hosting bookings, podcast invitations, and concrete collaboration ideas.

Pure networking requests without a clear reason are better placed on LinkedIn, where Johannes is reachable as Johannes Goering.

For media and press inquiries, the email address with a brief description of the request also works well. Johannes typically responds personally within a few working days.

A high-quality business network is built not on quantity but on substance. The most important principles from over 15 years of community building:

Give before you take. Anyone who shows up with a question before they have offered something doesn’t build trust.

Find structured spaces. Random encounters at industry events rarely lead to real connections. Structured formats like Corporate Connections create repetition, commitment and context.

Think in referrals, not contacts. A contact is a business card. A referral is a promise.

Be in it for the long run. Trust can’t be sped up. It grows in conversations, in repeated giving, in shared experiences.

Anyone who lives these four principles consistently has a different network after three years than most people have after ten.

Referral marketing means winning new business through recommendations from existing contacts rather than through cold acquisition or advertising. Studies in the German Mittelstand show that around 80 percent of all new contracts at mid-sized companies come through referrals.

Referral marketing is more effective than classic acquisition for three reasons:

First, trust is paid forward. The referrer has invested their reputation. The new client doesn’t start at zero.

Second, the price war disappears, because a referral isn’t searching for the cheapest provider but for the right one.

Third, conversion rates are significantly higher because the referred client is pre-qualified.

Most entrepreneurs use referral marketing accidentally. Structured referral marketing, as practiced at Corporate Connections, turns it into a reliable growth channel.

A networker optimises their own network. A Superconnector optimises the network of others.

The networker asks: who can be useful to me. The Superconnector asks: who could be useful to whom.

The networker collects business cards and LinkedIn contacts. The Superconnector remembers who is currently looking for whom, and makes introductions without directly benefiting.

The difference shows over time: with the networker, the taking is visible; with the Superconnector, the giving is.

Being a Superconnector isn’t a technique but a stance. It can’t be trained, it develops from genuine interest in other people. The reward still comes, just indirectly: those who bring the right people together over years build a trust network that no focused networker will ever reach.

Open-mindedness.

This value grew out of a specific childhood memory, when Johannes witnessed for the first time someone shouting something racist after another person. Looking back, that was the moment when open-mindedness became a conscious counter-stance.

Today he carries this value in three dimensions:

Professionally, because Corporate Connections is an international network and on any given evening in Mainz, people from Taiwan, Turkey, Belgium and India might sit at the same table.

In family life, because his children are raised to be open, tolerant and curious, seeing, understanding and experiencing the world through many travels.

Personally, because he is convinced: the best ideas, referrals and connections grow where people are truly open to each other. Not transactional, not superficial, but with genuine interest.

Johannes Goering runs half marathons and is preparing for his first ultra trail.

Daneben surft er regelmäßig in Frankreich, Indonesien und Australien, ein Sport, der für ihn ein Gegengewicht zum Unternehmeralltag ist: Im Wasser wird der Kopf still, keine Mails, keine Entscheidungen, nur Wellen und Timing.

Both sports are more than hobbies for him, they provide metaphors that translate to entrepreneurship and networking: the marathon shows that what counts is not the sprint but stamina and rhythm. Surfing teaches you not to take every wave, but the right one.

Both experiences flow into his keynotes The Perfect Wave and The Marathon of Relationships.