At various times during 2023, Mr. Andreas Fischer supported us both with his generous donation and with an intense and inspiring conversation, and ultimately with his facilitation of the contact to the Württemberger Gesellschaft. At a meeting in November 2023 onsite at the Inverve Studios in Heilbronn (www.inverve.io,) we were invited to present our activities to Mr. Strunz from the Württemberger Gesellschaft and Mr. Nill from the Inverve Studios and get them excited about our common cause. They gave us an initial introduction to the possibilities of Inverve’s virtual studio, and we planned a hybrid event for January 25, 2024 with the title “Hand in Hand – Freedom for Ukraine – Freedom for Europe“ – with about 70 invited guests onsite, a live stream and a live link with Kyiv. The preparation took place in several stages, and finally “the big day” arrived. Again very excited, we arrived at the Inverve Studios in Heilbronn in the early afternoon to acquaint ourselves with studio setting and go over our last questions. After this introduction, we took a break and got some fresh air, sunshine and a snack to sort out our thoughts.
The event started at around 7pm. We sat in the green-screen studio of Inverve Studios together with Mr. Nill, who moderated the evening. In the background there was a picture of Maidan Nezalezhnosti in Kyiv. Mr. Nill guided us through the various topics, while the experts of the technical team alternately displayed images of our transports and impressions gathered in Ukraine as well as our discussion on a second screen, and streamed them live to the online participants. The audience on site could see us in the “green-screen room” and simultaneously in the montage on the big screen.
It was very moving to to speak live with Nadia Denysiuk and Mariia Zivert from the charity organization Dead Lawyers Society in Kyiv. They told the audience about their current situation with full-time jobs as lawyers and their volunteer work that takes up virtually all of their free time. They described this not as work-life balance, but rather as a “war-life balance” in view of the constant threat of air raids that interrupt everyday life and the immediate presence of the war through colleagues, friends, and family members directly on the front line or in cities near the front. We invite you to see the recording for yourself (in German). It is published on YouTube (the actual recording of the session starts around 00:16:00).
After the moderated talk, there was an opportunity to chat over delicious finger food and drinks – organized by the Württemberger Gesellschaft. We made new contacts and had the opportunity to answer questions about our work and our motivation. Many local participants offered us various forms of support, which we gladly accepted.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Andreas Fischer, Mr. Christian Strunz, Mr. Daniel Nill, the www.inverve.io Studios team, and the Württemberger Gesellschaft for their support.
Photographer Silvio Kempf also approached us at the event and offered to auction off one of his pictures for pickup4ukraine at his vernissage on the following weekend. His wonderful art is published on Instagram. Michael and Beatrice were at the event on Sunday, and we are very grateful for the generous donation of the auction proceeds.
On February 22, 2024, we will embed the recording of the livestream again in a Q&A session. We will distribute the dial-in details shortly beforehand.
