From Paraguay Back to the Lecture Hall: International Dialog Marketing Expert Visits Her Former University

A woman is standing in a lecture hall in front of seated students and speaking to them — The students listened with interest to Sonja Slottke's guest lectures.

Unfortunately, she couldn’t make it to the alumni gathering during Open Campus this past June, but now Sonja Slottke was back at her old University. The international dialogue marketing expert, who has been living in Paraguay with her husband since late 2021, had three guest lectures in store for current students.

Now 57 years old, she studied technical business administration with a focus on marketing from 1988 to 1993 at the School of Business at what was then the Offenburg University of Applied Sciences in Gengenbach. She then moved into international sales at various companies, and at the same time trained to become a certified instructor for the Prof. Vögele Dialogue Method. From 1999 to 2021, Sonja Slottke held various positions in different departments at Deutsche Post in Germany and Europe, while simultaneously building her own consulting firm specializing in marketing and sales. From 2019 to 2021, she also returned to Hochschule Offenburg as a lecturer. After all, she had never completely lost touch with the university.

“At some point, my husband and I asked ourselves quite honestly: Do we really want to keep running on the hamster wheel until retirement?” Sonja Slottke recounts over lunch together in the sun outside the university cafeteria. She speaks openly about how much energy this path to success has cost her. “The answer was a resounding no. And that’s how the idea of emigrating to Paraguay was born.” In December 2021, that idea became a reality. Today, Sonja Slottke lives in the greater Asunción area. She works as a solutions specialist for startups in Paraguay and co-founded Pakajo World, an AI-powered comparison and shipping portal for online retailers that makes international shipping simple, reliable, and affordable.

She doesn’t keep her knowledge to herself. From 2021 to 2023, she co-hosted the podcast “Conversations Between East and West: The Slightly Different Business Talk” with Dr. Edeltraut Herzberg. She also runs a blog for expats and those hoping to become expats under her nickname “Sonjapedia,” a moniker she earned thanks to her broad knowledge. A personal and professional trip through Europe has now brought her back to Hochschule Offenburg. There, she spoke with students in the bachelor’s programs in Betriebswirtschaft and Wirtschaftsinformatik, as well as in the master’s degree program in Dialogmarketing und E-Commerce, about international direct marketing, campaign management, and media planning.

“In Paraguay, this is done almost exclusively via Instagram and WhatsApp, because post offices and mailboxes are about as rare there as snow in the Chaco,” explained Sonja Slottke. The students listened intently. Yet the 57-year-old had arrived with mixed feelings. Despite her excitement at reuniting with old acquaintances, she wondered whether today’s students would even recognize the examples and company names from her lectures.

Her concern was unfounded, and a little surprise even awaited her. “I wanted to know what young people associate with dialogue marketing on paper. And what did I find out? Appreciation! There’s just something about a letter you hold in your hand that no post in a feed can replace,” says Sonja Slottke happily. What’s tried and true isn’t automatically old-fashioned. And so this certainly wasn’t her last visit to Hochschule Offenburg, even though she’ll be heading back to Paraguay in a few weeks.

Alumni Wanted

Are you a graduate of Hochschule Offenburg and would like to share your experiences from after graduation with today’s students? Then simply contact the alumni coordinator, Carola Lasch, at carola.lasch@hs-offenburg.de.