The short road to here
Stefan Stacher, known as Steve Manera — owner of Steve Manera Productions e.U.
I started on the commercial side: an apprenticeship in pharmaceutical wholesale at Nycomed Austria, final examination passed with distinction, vocational school with excellent results. After that Boehringer Ingelheim Austria at the Vienna site — first in first-level support, from September 2002 as a project manager in the department for information and organization systems. What I led there did not stop at one team: an electronic logbook, the interface between warehouse management and procurement, and, together with an external contractor, the template system for the entire site — the document templates that are used at the production lines. A place with around 1,200 staff, in a field where no template may be used before it has been validated. It is exactly the work I do today — only for places that have no corporate IT department behind them.
Alongside that came the training as a quality officer and internal auditor (WIFI 2003) and the validation of computerised systems under GAMP (ISPE Frankfurt). I have run internal audits in a strictly regulated field. It still shapes how I look into a business today: where the work arises, where it gets lost along the way, and which single person is currently carrying too much. I bring that view to every free consultation — it costs you nothing and saves us both two meetings.
Then came the role of training officer for my department. I built the internal training process, kept the training database, drew up the training plans and taught myself — quality and systems training, regularly, for the roughly 1,200 staff at the site. What the participants said about me back then I still consider the best testimony to how I teach: funny and instructive at the same time. It is the reason why training with me is not an afterthought at the bottom of the invoice, but the part that decides whether something really holds in a business.
I took my school leaving certificate later, alongside work, in media informatics, passed in 2005. The second educational route means: I know how it feels to learn something new after a full working day. That is exactly where your team stands when a new tool arrives — and the reason why I do not put anyone in front of a finished system and wish them luck.
Since March 2009 I have been self-employed without a break. First with Salsa4you, importing dance shoes and running the shop in Vienna-Margareten. From 2014 as a partner in the Mi Manera dance studio in Gußhausstraße — more than ten instructors, around 148 class hours a month, plus the shoe shop in the same building. From 2015 also as a partner in the event agency Agentur². Rotas, till, class bookings, suppliers, staff: the paperwork I abolish today I ran myself for years. I know which list you really need on a Sunday evening and which one only looks good.
In 2018 the trade license examination for hospitality was added. Since then I talk to landlords and landladies not as a technology vendor but as someone who has sat the same exam. Since 2021 I have been at home in Vienna's hospitality scene with Steve Manera Productions — first with music and event technology, today mostly with the tools that have to run in the background so that the evening works out front.
What you get out of it
Four things I bring along — and what they mean for your business.
Reading processes
Trained quality officer and internal auditor (WIFI 2003), system validation under GAMP 4 (ISPE). I look at your business like an auditor: not at what someone ought to do, but at what actually happens.
Finishing projects
Project manager at Boehringer Ingelheim: an electronic logbook, the interface between warehouse management and procurement, the template system for the whole Vienna site and its production lines. Each of them from the concept into daily use, in a place with around 1,200 staff — not just up to the presentation.
Teaching instead of handing over
Training officer of the department: built the training process, kept the training database, drew up the plans, taught myself — regularly, for around 1,200 staff at the site. The feedback back then: funny and instructive at the same time. A tool nobody can operate is not a help.
The business from the inside
Trade license examination for hospitality in 2018. Four businesses of my own since 2009, two of them with staff, opening hours and a till. I have written rotas myself that still had to hold at six in the morning.
The whole road
Years, commercial register numbers and examinations — folded away, because everything essential is already above.
The whole road, year by year — open upOPENCLOSE
All register data comes from the commercial register of the Vienna Commercial Court, all examinations and qualifications from the original certificates.
The years on big stages
From 2015 to 2024 I was a partner in Agentur² – Die Event und Promotion Profis OG. Years full of build-ups, team lists, logistics and night shifts for clients where nothing may go wrong.
That is the school the calm comes from that I bring into a running business today: if a fair opens at eight, everything is ready at eight — the discussion about it comes afterwards.
Art & Antique Salzburg 2016 · Porsche at the Red Bull Ring 2016 · BAT Winterdrive 2017 · Siemens 2018 · MuseumsQuartier and Federal Chancellery 2018 · Vievinum at the Hofburg 2018 · Regenbogenball 2019.
These brands were clients and project partners of Agentur² OG in the years 2015 to 2024. They are not customers of KI:Atelier.
What you have read here is backstory. What counts is your Monday morning.
Which list you are looking for, which call interrupts you, which task hangs on a single person. Tell me about it — in the free consultation I look at that as a process, not as a sale. If it turns out that you do not need anything from me, I will tell you so.
Let's talk about your business
Write to me about what slows you down most in day-to-day work — I will come back with a suggested date for a first conversation.