Post by Meike Neitz

𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧, 𝐢𝐟 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐧𝐨𝐰? 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞, 𝐢𝐟 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞? 𝐇𝐨𝐰, 𝐢𝐟 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞? 𝐖𝐡𝐨, 𝐢𝐟 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐮𝐬? Rolf Stahlhofen singing this Rio Reiser song from 1987 (more relevant than ever today!) at Day 1 of IMPACT FESTIVAL by TechQuartier - what a moment to remember. These words really stayed with me throughout the conference — I will be honest that I sometimes felt unable to consume any more news in the past months. Bad news all over the place, and what was even worse, the feeling that momentum for social and ecological change had faded.... Yet then, hosting the Impact stage with Leonhard, we witnessed this: people from every corner of business, finance, tech, activism and policy stepping into the same room with urgency and humaneness, with borth pragmatism and vision. And with the willingness to question, rethink, rebuild — together. ✨My personal highlights ⛵ Andreas Ernst on how to navigate complex futures: Clarity of purpose, adaptation, solidarity, resilience and the discussion with Kai Lentering and Tina Zapf-Rodríguez on how we are not acting even though we know it better! 🌍 Prof. Mojib Latif's keynote on climate urgency and the discussion with Dietmar von Blücher that followed 🌱 The keynote by Katharina Reuter of Bundesverband Nachhaltige Wirtschaft (BNW) 🔥 Michael Fritz - make change simple, sexy, approachable 💡 Discussing Impact Investment with Svenja Lassen, Tom Josczok and Daniel Valenzuela 💚 The teamspirit behind the scenes - Alice, Rick, Luca, Loredana, Leonhard, Anne and of course Timo! Being part of this festival gave me hope: Living with a positive impact on this planet and for everyone who lives on it, be it individually or collectively, is a mindset, an active decision and a practice that we choose — again and again. Ayomide Olusola, Jakob Frank, Johanna Broell, Toni Willkommen, Jonas Tonhäuser, Björn Pietsch, Antje Rosin, Paul Thiel, Tobias März, Stephan Grabmeier, Manuel Born, Kaweh Mansoori, Josa Gräber, Michael Schwienbacher, Peter Brock and many more!