Geneva, July 9, 2014. [CD-EUDNews. C.Cozzi]. The Second Global Conference on Health and Lifestyle started Tuesday, July 8 and continued till Saturday, July 12.
Attracted by the topics of “Non-Contagious Diseases”, “Lifelong Lifestyle & Prevention” and “Accessible to All”, more than 1,100 people came to the Geneva (Switzerland) University UNI MAIL facilities.
This is the second time the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists (GC) Health Department has organized such a Congress at this University. Encouraged by the success of the first Health and Lifestyle Conference held in 2009 and the excellent results obtained at the Congress on Healing Health organized by the Inter-European Region (EUD) May 1-4, 2013 (see article: http://www.european-health-conference.org/) this Conference in Geneva had an unexpected large crowd of participants.
The people who organized the conference were happy about the good turnout, the bigger the audience the bigger the commitment to promote the Congress. But this all required a significant change in technique structure and logistics. Let me explain. All technical support and recordings were guaranteed by 'Stimme der Hoffnung', the EUD Media Center.
“We had to adapt the university facilities and make three different studios, spread throughout the building, and use our high-tech to connect them to one another” said Matthias Mueller, Director of Stimme der Hoffnung.
Originally it was planned to have the meetings in one room. As more and more people registered we had to book a second room. We realized that people were coming from far away and paying a lot of money to travel to Geneva and would not want to sit in an overflow room. Therefore, Stimme der Hoffnung decided to interconnect the two stages, and have the presentation in both rooms, visible to each other. They could also ask questions from one room to the other. Registration kept increasing and two rooms were not enough, a third one had to be booked.
All three rooms got connected by fiber optic lines which had to be installed in a very short time. "What made the situation even more difficult, was that the rooms were separated by a huge foyer and there were very strict safety regulations by the local authorities for any additional installations," said Stephan Fraunberger. It was not easy, but Stimme der Hoffnung made things possible because "it is an honor for us to provide technical services for this congress," said Matthias Mueller, "we are gladly involved since things promoted here match our wholistic point of view on life".
The overall impact, however, reports an agreement on the part of the audience, saying that they did not miss any of the program, even though they were not seated in the main hall.
"It was certainly not difficult to follow the program," said Telma Costa, psycologist "even if we didn't sit in the main conference room." The program was well reproduced on the screen, and as psycologist, Geneviève Aurouse affirmed: "it was flawless."
"The work done by the staff of Stimme der Hoffnung was undoubtedly professional," said Corrado Cozzi, EUD Communication Director, "but what touched me the most was the joyful team-spirit of the youth everytime they go on mission, this is the spirit we should have when we work for God."
The whole Congress has been recorded and will soon be available on the web. Part of it is also on livestream (http://conference.healthministries.com/live).
pictures: 1. Stefan Frauenberger: Technical Director of the 'Stimme' Team; 2. Viriato Ferreira, GC Associate Director of the Health Department with Matthias Mueller, Director of Stimme der Hoffnung; 3. Anja Lehman, Editor HOPE Channel Television, interviewing Viriato Ferreira; 4. One of the Meeting Rooms at the Geneva University UNI MAIL facilities (credits: C. Cozzi)