John M. Koenig, Chargé d'Affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Berlin, welcomed guests early in the evening to kick off the event.  He was followed by a panel summarizing the candidates and the issues of the 2008 presidential race which was moderated by GMF Berlin office director Dr. Constanze Stelzenmueller.  Dr. William D. Chandler, Professor of Political Science at the University of California in San Diego; Dr. Parag Khanna, Senior Research Fellow of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation; Dr. Charles King Mallory IV, Executive Director of the Aspen Institute Berlin and Dr. Adam Posen, Deputy Director and Senior Fellow of the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, D.C. participated in the debate.  ZDF German television anchored their coverage from the event throughout the evening bringing in video signals from their correspondents all over the United States. 

As the evening carried on, guests were given hourly updates on various issues and stayed through to the morning to learn who would be the next President of the United States.  The crowd cheered in the wee hours of the morning as Barack Obama was declared winner by broadcaster ZDF. 

The event wrapped up with a breakfast and a panel discussion hosted jointly by GMF, the U.S. Embassy and DGAP (German Council on Foreign Relations) on the results of the election.  Stelzenmueller again moderated the debate featuring the panelists from the previous evening's discussion as well as Dr. Eberhard Sandschneider, Otto-Wolff-Director of the Research Institute, Dr. Josef Braml, Editor in Chief of Jahrbuch Internationale Politik , and Jan Techau, Head of Program Alfred von Oppenheim Center for European Policy Studies, all at the DGAP.