le_redacteur   |    Friday, der 25. June 2010

The conference slogan was THE HEAT IS ON – CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE MEDIA. We presented the documentary NO IMPACT MAN (directed by Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein). This is an excellent film about a family who have arranged their daily lives so as to create as little envirnomental impact as possible. The film will soon enjoy a wide release on realeyz.tv.

In a 90 min. workshop Natalie Gravenor from EYZ Media and Johannes Küstner from “Brot für die Welt” discussed film partnerships on realeyz.tv. They showed how organizations and NGO’s can use a documentary film on our video on demand platform to promote their topics. After the workshop, Johannes Küstner spoke about the study “Sustainable Germany”.

We were very happy about the feedback we received from conference participants. There was a lot of enthusiasm for our platform and the film partnerships opportunities.

We met a lot of interesting people. The conference goal of bringing together media makers with media users who are interested in or actively involved  climate change issues was a success. The conference was also very well organized. We were however surprised at the non-sustainable use of materials and resources. Enormous screens and monitors were everywhere. The obligatory conference giveaways were in an environmentally friendly recycled plastic bag, but who really needs all the little doodads inside? It would have been great if more thought had been put in to sustainability at the organizational level as well. It is clear that we are still a fair ways away from integrating sustainability into our every day lives…

For the next climate conference I would  suggest that all conference goers have a chance to calculate the ecological footprint they create by  part in the conference right at the entrance, before they even go in.

Julia Tiernan