The Connected Society: It's all about people
Jochmann, Jakob
Möller, Beatrice
Lübbermann, Uwe
We believe that the human element is the key to understanding the digital age. Not everybody shares the same experience with technology, or just life for that matter. But we can build bridges to the future across different experiences. Empower ourselves. And we can equip the civil society with tools to emancipate itself from deterministic narratives and exploitative tendencies. We can have nice things. We just need to make them so. Together.
 We're here to tell you that it's all about the people. I'm just going to give it 20 seconds. All right. So, I'm standing here to tell you that you should forget about the web for a minute. So, I used to be a guy who told people about how to connect ideas and get the ideas to spread themselves. But now I'm here to tell you how these ideas should spread without the web. What we take from the web, however, what we want to take from the web is a lot of knowledge. So, what we learned from our experience with using the web, the internet, be it in an app form or in your browsers, is, well, first of all, there are people like you. There are people who like turtles. And you can actually see them elsewhere and you realize, okay, I'm not alone in this. And the other thing you may have come to learn is the concept of serendipity, even though you may not know the word. The concept should be quite familiar when you browse around and you find something that you didn't even know you were looking for. So, that's serendipity. There is actually this story. So, the origin of the word goes back to a Persian story about three princes and their wise father who gave them a great education and wanted to test if they were fit to be kings themselves. And it turned out they were because through happenstance, fortuitous happenstance, they always found things that were helpful to them, even though they weren't questing to find them. And that may be something you have experienced yourselves just by browsing the web, I think. And what we want to do is take this knowledge and apply it to our daily lives. Now, I remember Sasha Lobo told us of a barren wasteland of what we need to do. And I'm not going to lie. So, if you move out into the wild and in the desert, there will be a hardship. But if you move forward and if you are prepared and wait for Lady Luck to come to you, then she will. The thing is, waiting alone isn't enough. You need to know how to understand where she may appear and be ready for when she does. And unlike Sasha Lobo said, actually, it isn't a problem to have money because Lady Luck often times has money with her. So, what you did in browsing the web basically was you prepared yourself. You were training for this moment out in the wild where over time you have been equipped with the skills to grab the bull by the horns. And just like the princess in the original story, you are able to recognize the right circumstances. And that means that it's not always a barren wasteland going out there, but when you move into the wild, there may actually be quite nice sceneries. The thing is, very many people live out there in the wild and they don't live on the web. Which is why it's so important for us to go out there. So, I believe my life is very alien to the friends I grew up with in kindergarten. They really don't understand what I'm doing to make a living. Heck, I don't think my tax accountant understands what I'm doing to make a living. So, that's why it's all the more important that you actually move away from this alien space into the wild where nice people actually live. Do this and Lady Luck will reward you. I have with me today, if the slides ever move forward. So, I have with me today two people who can tell you a lot more about why it makes sense to believe. Why, even though your idea may be unfinished, you're already in the right place to overcome the gatekeepers. And wherever you may be, be prepared for luck to find you. And these two people build networks of their own outside of just, you know, the networking thing we call the Internet. And they're called Uwe Lebermann. Uwe Lebermann, I'm sorry. And Beatrice Möller, and they're here to tell you what it takes to believe and why it makes sense to do so. And also what steps you actually need to take to succeed in relying on your trust. So, to start us off, here's Beatrice Möller, and she's going to tell you all about how to succeed in funding a film. She's a professional filmmaker and went new routes in getting her film funded, and the results she'll tell herself. Bea. Hello, hello, hello. Okay. Thanks, Jakob, for inviting me to talk here, by the way. All the beautiful little animations and keynotes and stuff is Jakob's work. So, let's see what is still going to come with this nice little picture. So, let me see how this works. So, why I'm here, my film, Everything We Want, Alice, We Are Women, is about three women in their early 30s who might follow in their individual search for the right way to live their lives, and they all, all of them also meet their mothers in the process. Obviously, I'm part of this generation where things are not that clear anymore. I would say most of us are. So, and somehow I felt alone with these questions and all these doubts about job, family, life, children, et cetera. I think you guys know what I'm talking about. So, I felt this, or how I feel and what's going on at the moment, it's not really presented in reality. And I was wondering if I really feel all alone, or if there are not more people feeling the same way, and I think there are. So, I really strongly felt I wanted to do this film. So, I'm going to show you the trailer now of the finished movie, and then briefly inform you about this adventurous, exciting production process. So, let's see if that works. I always said, if I'm 30 years old, I want to have the children's care. The world is so open and what you get with it, the wealth in your life, I think that hasn't yet been generationally so much like you. I think that's what I'm saying. Hello. So, here in the house, some Hartz IV guests live, they deserve a lot of money. This sudden feeling that you are somehow becoming a grown-up person, that's kind of difficult for me. For example, if I ask someone, yes, and they work, and they celebrate, they have children, I always think, I'm still too young for all of this. And I think you always say that you should be 35 years old. He is expected to have something to prove, but I can't do that for myself. It's crazy, you tell us that it's a girl, but I don't know that. I know that something bad is coming, I don't know what it is anymore. There were changes in the numbers, it's not yet crepes, but it can be so crepes. You don't have to go into our business, or go into our business, otherwise, somehow in the social picture, it's not defined that you are a grown-up person, but who am I then, what remains to be done? Thank you. Thank you. So I'm not going to talk too much with you guys about the film and the content, but more the production process. Briefly, the film, it premiered last year in April at Dachthung Berlin, it was a great premiere. Then I distributed the film by myself, and through that process, I find a distributor who did like a German theatrical release then in March this year, like Right on Woman's Day, which was great for that film. So let me see how this... Ha ha, good. So in contrary to a TV production where things have to be planned because of budget and everything in the beginning, with this movie, things were not planned from the beginning at all. And so many things were taken step by step or when the problems hit, we looked for a new solution. So we dealt with all the problems and complications with not having money and stuff through the production. So the very first thing I had to do was, before the whole thing was to actually... I love this thing here, not to wait for the usual gatekeepers to finally like the project, because if you do that, you can wait for one, two or three years. I tried though, they didn't want to finance it, so I decided to walk the path alone and try different things without TV station and film funding. Today, when I look back, like the last five years on this journey, we're very exciting and many things happen, which I would have never seen, like I would not have been able to see before. Amazing, because it all started with... Hold on, it all started and changed once I spread my idea with many people, using for instance crowdfunding, which like three, four years ago was kind of really new in Germany. And I was looking for other methods, like crowdfunding. So putting the project up in the World Wide Web was part of... was a big part, but the bigger part was actually meeting people, talking to them, make personal contact. It was very important and also meeting the people at the right time, at the right place with the right money. So all the key people I met during the process, who actually gave me money, who financed the project, who helped me with developing the idea, were all in the end of the day people I met physically. So as we said, the first step is really to put your idea out there, although it might not be completely finished, and especially with a long-term movie like that, where I actually followed the woman for three years, like it's very hard to tell TV stations and stuff, I, I, the end, this and this is going to happen. Like this one will get pregnant, this one will get sick, this one will... So you can't. So I actually had to go out with an idea, which I by myself didn't know what's going to happen, what will happen. So that... this is courageous. And it's sometimes scary, but in the end it's really worth it. So sharing your idea, especially with like-minded people in the beginning, and please don't share the idea with critical, very critical people in the beginning, just share them with people who can, who share your vision, who see the opportunities, and then only later with the critical people, because otherwise they break you down before you even started in something. I have to follow up with these nice things here. Okay. So, um... So let me give you some examples which were, during the process, beside crowdfunding, which worked really great, what, what else happened? So, for example, so the movie was finished, and so we had the premiere in Berlin, and I still really needed money to finish the movie. That means making the DCP digital cinema package, the poster, the postcards, and everything to be able to have a premiere. So, and then I got scared, and I said, where do I get that money from? So I basically started to call around randomly. Just people, do you know somebody who can help me? You can help me, you can help me. People who might have an interest in the film, people who, um... who, um... who could help me further. So step by step, I landed at the Zenat Zawaltung for Woman Integration and Work, which is in Berlin. People are not from here, like a Zenat city kind of thing, who have money for these things. And they were straight away very fascinated with the topic, and like on the telephone, she said to me, okay, we're gonna finance the last part. Um... And then I went there to introduce myself, personal to these women, who obviously were a big multiplicator, who would, like, spread the news into their channels, and they obviously are well connected. And they told me, now there's a nice German word, to contact the Bundesgeschäftstelle der Gleichstellungsbeauftragten, which for the non-German speaking people is equal opportunity commissioner in the cities. I hope you know what that means. So I didn't know that something like that was existing and that they are that well connected. So what happened is, I contacted the head of them, and she was... Obviously this topic of the movie fits so well in their message, what they want to bring to the people. So she took it into their internal network and spread it, I think, to... I'm not really sure how many, but I think it's over 800 cities, because every city over, I think, 10,000 people has a Gleichstellungsbeauftragten. I didn't really know what that means, but one day I opened my email postbox, and every five minutes an email was dropping in, can we please see your film, can we please see your suit, can we please invite you, and I'm like, what is going on? And this is still happening today, because they also shared the theatrical release, and up till today, the Gleichstellungsbeauftragten, they call me, they cooperate with the cinemas in the city and then invite me and organize like special woman days and stuff. But additional to that, I must say, it's not necessarily only a woman film, because many men, I talk to say, we have exactly the same question, the same topics, it's just that I chose to focus on women, but I think you would agree it's not necessarily a woman film at all. So that was great, and this only came by really talking to the people, letting them know what's going on, and this was not able by just sending emails out and waiting for any replies. Another thing which was great is, I had the offer to talk at a conference in Seattle, but to actually finance that, I called the Goethe Institute in San Francisco and asked them if I can go to the conference. And then they were like, yeah, well, why don't you send us your film? So I sent them the film, and two weeks later, they called me back and said they really like the film so much, they want to invite me to show the film. In the meanwhile, the conference was cancelled, but they said, no, but we're going to invite you anyways. So in the end of the day, it ended up that in March, I travelled the US for three weeks, and the film was shown in Seattle. So we organised another six, seven screenings, so it was... Oh, hold on. So it was shown in Seattle, Victoria, San Francisco, and New York. So... Wow, here's the thunderstorm now. Anyways, what I realised is if I would have never called them, follow a path or ideas, like, I would have never ended up showing the film for three weeks and the US completely paid for. So where are we now? So I'm coming to an end. But I must say, it is lots of work anyways. Not that people come like, we give you 2,000 euros, show me your film there and there. So it is a lot of work. You have to always call the people back, make contact, but in the end of the day, it's really worth it, especially with this film. So the topic of this year's Republic is Into the Wild, and I really think making this film was, for me, a big jump into the wild, because it was really empowering. And I actually experienced myself that I don't actually have to wait for the gatekeepers. I can do it and still have a voice. And that was an amazing feeling, really empowering. And I think someone really knows a lot about how not only are you not alone in the world. If you want to see more, we have a Facebook website, follow us and see what's happening there. Thanks a lot. And here's Uwe. Okay, so I only have a very few minutes left, so I'm going to do this without slides. What I tried to bring to the table was, I'm a drinks producer, and I've been doing this since the last 12 years. I'm doing consensus democracy with nearly 1,000 stakeholders right now, so every stakeholder can veto every decision. And who of you thinks this is impossible to do? Well, I think so, too. And this is a running company. We deliver to 200 cities in three countries, so we've proven that it is possible, in fact. And by doing so, we found several solutions which are quite uncommon to the usual business. For example, we have no profits, we have no volume discounts, we have no advertising at all, not like other brands you might have seen here at the conference. And who of you needs advertising, by the way? Who of you likes advertising? Very few people. Some of you work there, okay? And we have one example I wanted to present to you which might sum up the way I'm trying to do business. We have a truck driver who has 30 years of experience, his name is Michael, and when he visits, like the wholesalers we deliver to, he kind of scans the area and the storage, and he kind of analyzes what products are stored there, how many of them, from which suppliers, and how do the trucks look like, and how do they... Thank you, how do the... What strategy this wholesaler might follow, and so on and so on, and then he calls me and tells me about that, and he also announces which wholesaler will be sold to which other wholesaler in like three months. And this actually happens, so he's sharing with me lots of experience, lots of knowledge, which I otherwise wouldn't be able to gather myself. And I think this is about building up trust between people, and this of course takes a little while, so usually it takes like two years for people working with us, from like knowing we are the good guys to actually feeling it, and hope this is also not working, I don't know why. And this is maybe the core idea I'd like to present to you here, if you kind of treat people on eye level, and 99% of people will be good and will be sharing with you, and then things get possible which are impossible elsewhere. Thank you. APPLAUSE So what Uwe was too humble to say is that he's actually trying to change the world, and that he's quite convincing actually to the people like Michael, when you talk to them, that he actually manages to do so by using a beverage to convince them of a new way to do business. And I guess that's all the time we have today, unless you have a couple of questions. One question. Actually, I'm going to put the question to you. So if anybody feels that serendipity and trusting each other is worth trying out, if you visit this website for the next three days, I'm going to gather email addresses there, and they won't be shared with anybody, but the people who signed up to this email address. I want to be open to lady luck, and not knowing who else in this room actually is going to sign up. Who knows? Perhaps you find someone who can help you with something you didn't even know you were looking for. Thank you. Thank you.
 We're here to tell you that it's all about the people.  I'm just going to give it 20 seconds.  All right.  So, I'm standing here to tell you that you should forget about the  web for a minute.  So, I used to be a guy who told people about how to connect  ideas and get the ideas to spread themselves.  But now I'm here to tell you how these ideas should spread  without the web.  What we take from the web, however, what we want to take from  the web is a lot of knowledge.  So, what we learned from our experience with using the web,  the internet, be it in an app form or in your browsers, is,  well, first of all, there are people like you.  There are people who like turtles.  And you can actually see them elsewhere and you realize,  okay, I'm not alone in this.  And the other thing you may have come to learn is the concept  of serendipity, even though you may not know the word.  The concept should be quite familiar when you browse around  and you find something that you didn't even know you were  looking for.  So, that's serendipity.  There is actually this story.  So, the origin of the word goes back to a Persian story about  three princes and their wise father who gave them a great  education and wanted to test if they were fit to be kings  themselves.  And it turned out they were because through happenstance,  fortuitous happenstance, they always found things that were  helpful to them, even though they weren't questing to find them.  And that may be something you have experienced yourselves just  by browsing the web, I think.  And what we want to do is take this knowledge and apply it to  our daily lives.  Now, I remember Sasha Lobo told us of a barren wasteland of  what we need to do.  And I'm not going to lie.  So, if you move out into the wild and in the desert, there will  be a hardship.  But if you move forward and if you are prepared and wait for  Lady Luck to come to you, then she will.  The thing is, waiting alone isn't enough.  You need to know how to understand where she may appear and  be ready for when she does.  And unlike Sasha Lobo said, actually, it isn't a problem to  have money because Lady Luck often times has money with her.  So, what you did in browsing the web basically was you prepared  yourself.  You were training for this moment out in the wild where over time  you have been equipped with the skills to grab the bull by the  horns.  And just like the princess in the original story, you are able to  recognize the right circumstances.  And that means that it's not always a barren wasteland going  out there, but when you move into the wild, there may actually be  quite nice sceneries.  The thing is, very many people live out there in the wild and  they don't live on the web.  Which is why it's so important for us to go out there.  So, I believe my life is very alien to the friends I grew up  with in kindergarten.  They really don't understand what I'm doing to make a living.  Heck, I don't think my tax accountant understands what I'm  doing to make a living.  So, that's why it's all the more important that you actually move  away from this alien space into the wild where nice people  actually live.  Do this and Lady Luck will reward you.  I have with me today, if the slides ever move forward.  So, I have with me today two people who can tell you a lot  more about why it makes sense to believe.  Why, even though your idea may be unfinished, you're already in  the right place to overcome the gatekeepers.  And wherever you may be, be prepared for luck to find you.  And these two people build networks of their own outside of just,  you know, the networking thing we call the Internet.  And they're called Uwe Lebermann.  Uwe Lebermann, I'm sorry.  And Beatrice Möller, and they're here to tell you what it takes  to believe and why it makes sense to do so.  And also what steps you actually need to take to succeed in relying  on your trust.  So, to start us off, here's Beatrice Möller, and she's going to  tell you all about how to succeed in funding a film.  She's a professional filmmaker and went new routes in getting her  film funded, and the results she'll tell herself.  Bea.  Hello, hello, hello.  Okay.  Thanks, Jakob, for inviting me to talk here, by the way.  All the beautiful little animations and keynotes and stuff is Jakob's  work.  So, let's see what is still going to come with this nice little picture.  So, let me see how this works.  So, why I'm here, my film, Everything We Want, Alice, We Are  Women, is about three women in their early 30s who might follow in  their individual search for the right way to live their lives, and  they all, all of them also meet their mothers in the process.  Obviously, I'm part of this generation where things are not that  clear anymore.  I would say most of us are.  So, and somehow I felt alone with these questions and all these  doubts about job, family, life, children, et cetera.  I think you guys know what I'm talking about.  So, I felt this, or how I feel and what's going on at the moment,  it's not really presented in reality.  And I was wondering if I really feel all alone, or if there are not  more people feeling the same way, and I think there are.  So, I really strongly felt I wanted to do this film.  So, I'm going to show you the trailer now of the finished movie,  and then briefly inform you about this adventurous, exciting  production process.  So, let's see if that works.  I always said, if I'm 30 years old, I want to have  the children's care.  The world is so open and what you get with it,  the wealth in your life, I think that hasn't yet  been generationally so much like you.  I think that's what I'm saying.  Hello.  So, here in the house, some Hartz IV guests live,  they deserve a lot of money.  This sudden feeling that you are somehow  becoming a grown-up person, that's kind of difficult for me.  For example, if I ask someone, yes, and they work,  and they celebrate, they have children, I always think,  I'm still too young for all of this.  And I think you always say that you should be 35 years old.  He is expected to have something to prove,  but I can't do that for myself.  It's crazy, you tell us that it's a girl,  but I don't know that.  I know that something bad is coming,  I don't know what it is anymore.  There were changes in the numbers,  it's not yet crepes, but it can be so crepes.  You don't have to go into our business,  or go into our business,  otherwise, somehow in the social picture,  it's not defined that you are a grown-up person,  but who am I then, what remains to be done?  Thank you.  Thank you.  So I'm not going to talk too much with you guys about the film  and the content, but more the production process.  Briefly, the film, it premiered last year in April  at Dachthung Berlin, it was a great premiere.  Then I distributed the film by myself,  and through that process,  I find a distributor who did like a German  theatrical release then in March this year,  like Right on Woman's Day, which was great for that film.  So let me see how this...  Ha ha, good.  So in contrary to a TV production where things have to be planned  because of budget and everything in the beginning,  with this movie, things were not planned from the beginning at all.  And so many things were taken step by step  or when the problems hit, we looked for a new solution.  So we dealt with all the problems and complications  with not having money and stuff through the production.  So the very first thing I had to do was,  before the whole thing was to actually...  I love this thing here,  not to wait for the usual gatekeepers to finally like the project,  because if you do that, you can wait for one, two or three years.  I tried though, they didn't want to finance it,  so I decided to walk the path alone  and try different things without TV station and film funding.  Today, when I look back, like the last five years on this journey,  we're very exciting and many things happen,  which I would have never seen, like I would not have been able to see before.  Amazing, because it all started with...  Hold on, it all started and changed  once I spread my idea with many people,  using for instance crowdfunding,  which like three, four years ago was kind of really new in Germany.  And I was looking for other methods, like crowdfunding.  So putting the project up in the World Wide Web was part of...  was a big part, but the bigger part was actually meeting people,  talking to them, make personal contact.  It was very important and also meeting the people  at the right time, at the right place with the right money.  So all the key people I met during the process,  who actually gave me money, who financed the project,  who helped me with developing the idea,  were all in the end of the day people I met physically.  So as we said, the first step is really to put your idea out there,  although it might not be completely finished,  and especially with a long-term movie like that,  where I actually followed the woman for three years,  like it's very hard to tell TV stations and stuff,  I, I, the end, this and this is going to happen.  Like this one will get pregnant, this one will get sick, this one will...  So you can't.  So I actually had to go out with an idea,  which I by myself didn't know what's going to happen, what will happen.  So that... this is courageous.  And it's sometimes scary, but in the end it's really worth it.  So sharing your idea, especially with like-minded people in the beginning,  and please don't share the idea with critical, very critical people in the beginning,  just share them with people who can, who share your vision,  who see the opportunities, and then only later with the critical people,  because otherwise they break you down before you even started in something.  I have to follow up with these nice things here.  Okay.  So, um...  So let me give you some examples which were,  during the process, beside crowdfunding, which worked really great,  what, what else happened?  So, for example, so the movie was finished,  and so we had the premiere in Berlin,  and I still really needed money to finish the movie.  That means making the DCP digital cinema package,  the poster, the postcards, and everything to be able to have a premiere.  So, and then I got scared, and I said,  where do I get that money from?  So I basically started to call around randomly.  Just people, do you know somebody who can help me?  You can help me, you can help me.  People who might have an interest in the film,  people who, um...  who, um...  who could help me further.  So step by step, I landed at the Zenat Zawaltung  for Woman Integration and Work,  which is in Berlin.  People are not from here, like a Zenat city kind of thing,  who have money for these things.  And they were straight away very fascinated with the topic,  and like on the telephone, she said to me,  okay, we're gonna finance the last part.  Um...  And then I went there to introduce myself,  personal to these women,  who obviously were a big multiplicator,  who would, like, spread the news into their channels,  and they obviously are well connected.  And they told me, now there's a nice German word,  to contact the Bundesgeschäftstelle der Gleichstellungsbeauftragten,  which for the non-German speaking people  is equal opportunity commissioner in the cities.  I hope you know what that means.  So I didn't know that something like that was existing  and that they are that well connected.  So what happened is, I contacted the head of them,  and she was...  Obviously this topic of the movie fits so well in their message,  what they want to bring to the people.  So she took it into their internal network and spread it, I think, to...  I'm not really sure how many, but I think it's over 800 cities,  because every city over, I think, 10,000 people  has a Gleichstellungsbeauftragten.  I didn't really know what that means,  but one day I opened my email postbox,  and every five minutes an email was dropping in,  can we please see your film, can we please see your suit,  can we please invite you, and I'm like, what is going on?  And this is still happening today,  because they also shared the theatrical release,  and up till today, the Gleichstellungsbeauftragten, they call me,  they cooperate with the cinemas in the city  and then invite me and organize like special woman days and stuff.  But additional to that, I must say, it's not necessarily only a woman film,  because many men, I talk to say, we have exactly the same question,  the same topics, it's just that I chose to focus on women,  but I think you would agree it's not necessarily a woman film at all.  So that was great, and this only came by really talking to the people,  letting them know what's going on,  and this was not able by just sending emails out and waiting for any replies.  Another thing which was great is,  I had the offer to talk at a conference in Seattle,  but to actually finance that, I called the Goethe Institute in San Francisco  and asked them if I can go to the conference.  And then they were like, yeah, well, why don't you send us your film?  So I sent them the film, and two weeks later, they called me back  and said they really like the film so much, they want to invite me to show the film.  In the meanwhile, the conference was cancelled,  but they said, no, but we're going to invite you anyways.  So in the end of the day, it ended up that in March,  I travelled the US for three weeks, and the film was shown in Seattle.  So we organised another six, seven screenings, so it was...  Oh, hold on.  So it was shown in Seattle, Victoria, San Francisco, and New York.  So...  Wow, here's the thunderstorm now.  Anyways, what I realised is if I would have never called them,  follow a path or ideas, like,  I would have never ended up showing the film for three weeks  and the US completely paid for.  So where are we now?  So I'm coming to an end.  But I must say, it is lots of work anyways.  Not that people come like, we give you 2,000 euros, show me your film there and there.  So it is a lot of work.  You have to always call the people back, make contact,  but in the end of the day, it's really worth it,  especially with this film.  So the topic of this year's Republic is Into the Wild,  and I really think making this film was, for me, a big jump into the wild,  because it was really empowering.  And I actually experienced myself that I don't actually have to wait for the gatekeepers.  I can do it and still have a voice.  And that was an amazing feeling, really empowering.  And I think someone really knows a lot about how not only are you not alone in the world.  If you want to see more, we have a Facebook website, follow us and see what's happening there.  Thanks a lot.  And here's Uwe.  Okay, so I only have a very few minutes left, so I'm going to do this without slides.  What I tried to bring to the table was, I'm a drinks producer,  and I've been doing this since the last 12 years.  I'm doing consensus democracy with nearly 1,000 stakeholders right now,  so every stakeholder can veto every decision.  And who of you thinks this is impossible to do?  Well, I think so, too.  And this is a running company.  We deliver to 200 cities in three countries,  so we've proven that it is possible, in fact.  And by doing so, we found several solutions which are quite uncommon to the usual business.  For example, we have no profits, we have no volume discounts,  we have no advertising at all, not like other brands you might have seen here at the conference.  And who of you needs advertising, by the way?  Who of you likes advertising?  Very few people.  Some of you work there, okay?  And we have one example I wanted to present to you which might sum up the way I'm trying to do business.  We have a truck driver who has 30 years of experience, his name is Michael,  and when he visits, like the wholesalers we deliver to,  he kind of scans the area and the storage,  and he kind of analyzes what products are stored there,  how many of them, from which suppliers,  and how do the trucks look like, and how do they...  Thank you, how do the...  What strategy this wholesaler might follow, and so on and so on,  and then he calls me and tells me about that,  and he also announces which wholesaler will be sold to which other wholesaler in like three months.  And this actually happens, so he's sharing with me lots of experience, lots of knowledge,  which I otherwise wouldn't be able to gather myself.  And I think this is about building up trust between people,  and this of course takes a little while,  so usually it takes like two years for people working with us,  from like knowing we are the good guys to actually feeling it,  and hope this is also not working, I don't know why.  And this is maybe the core idea I'd like to present to you here,  if you kind of treat people on eye level,  and 99% of people will be good and will be sharing with you,  and then things get possible which are impossible elsewhere.  Thank you.  APPLAUSE  So what Uwe was too humble to say is that he's actually trying to change the world,  and that he's quite convincing actually to the people like Michael,  when you talk to them, that he actually manages to do so by using a beverage  to convince them of a new way to do business.  And I guess that's all the time we have today,  unless you have a couple of questions.  One question.  Actually, I'm going to put the question to you.  So if anybody feels that serendipity and trusting each other is worth trying out,  if you visit this website for the next three days,  I'm going to gather email addresses there,  and they won't be shared with anybody,  but the people who signed up to this email address.  I want to be open to lady luck, and not knowing who else in this room  actually is going to sign up.  Who knows?  Perhaps you find someone who can help you with something you didn't even know  you were looking for.  Thank you.  Thank you.
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We're here to tell you that it's all about the people. I'm just going to give it 20 seconds. All right. So, I'm standing here to tell you that you should forget about the web for a minute. So, I used to be a guy who told people about how to connect ideas and get the ideas to spread themselves. But now I'm here to tell you how these ideas should spread without the web. What we take from the web, however, what we want to take from the web is a lot of knowledge. So, what we learned from our experience with using the web, the internet, be it in an app form or in your browsers, is, well, first of all, there are people like you. There are people who like turtles. And you can actually see them elsewhere and you realize, okay, I'm not alone in this. And the other thing you may have come to learn is the concept of serendipity, even though you may not know the word. The concept should be quite familiar when you browse around and you find something that you didn't even know you were looking for. So, that's serendipity. There is actually this story. So, the origin of the word goes back to a Persian story about three princes and their wise father who gave them a great education and wanted to test if they were fit to be kings themselves. And it turned out they were because through happenstance, fortuitous happenstance, they always found things that were helpful to them, even though they weren't questing to find them. And that may be something you have experienced yourselves just by browsing the web, I think. And what we want to do is take this knowledge and apply it to our daily lives. Now, I remember Sasha Lobo told us of a barren wasteland of what we need to do. And I'm not going to lie. So, if you move out into the wild and in the desert, there will be a hardship. But if you move forward and if you are prepared and wait for Lady Luck to come to you, then she will. The thing is, waiting alone isn't enough. You need to know how to understand where she may appear and be ready for when she does. And unlike Sasha Lobo said, actually, it isn't a problem to have money because Lady Luck often times has money with her. So, what you did in browsing the web basically was you prepared yourself. You were training for this moment out in the wild where over time you have been equipped with the skills to grab the bull by the horns. And just like the princess in the original story, you are able to recognize the right circumstances. And that means that it's not always a barren wasteland going out there, but when you move into the wild, there may actually be quite nice sceneries. The thing is, very many people live out there in the wild and they don't live on the web. Which is why it's so important for us to go out there. So, I believe my life is very alien to the friends I grew up with in kindergarten. They really don't understand what I'm doing to make a living. Heck, I don't think my tax accountant understands what I'm doing to make a living. So, that's why it's all the more important that you actually move away from this alien space into the wild where nice people actually live. Do this and Lady Luck will reward you. I have with me today, if the slides ever move forward. So, I have with me today two people who can tell you a lot more about why it makes sense to believe. Why, even though your idea may be unfinished, you're already in the right place to overcome the gatekeepers. And wherever you may be, be prepared for luck to find you. And these two people build networks of their own outside of just, you know, the networking thing we call the Internet. And they're called Uwe Lebermann. Uwe Lebermann, I'm sorry. And Beatrice Möller, and they're here to tell you what it takes to believe and why it makes sense to do so. And also what steps you actually need to take to succeed in relying on your trust. So, to start us off, here's Beatrice Möller, and she's going to tell you all about how to succeed in funding a film. She's a professional filmmaker and went new routes in getting her film funded, and the results she'll tell herself. Bea. Hello, hello, hello. Okay. Thanks, Jakob, for inviting me to talk here, by the way. All the beautiful little animations and keynotes and stuff is Jakob's work. So, let's see what is still going to come with this nice little picture. So, let me see how this works. So, why I'm here, my film, Everything We Want, Alice, We Are Women, is about three women in their early 30s who might follow in their individual search for the right way to live their lives, and they all, all of them also meet their mothers in the process. Obviously, I'm part of this generation where things are not that clear anymore. I would say most of us are. So, and somehow I felt alone with these questions and all these doubts about job, family, life, children, et cetera. I think you guys know what I'm talking about. So, I felt this, or how I feel and what's going on at the moment, it's not really presented in reality. And I was wondering if I really feel all alone, or if there are not more people feeling the same way, and I think there are. So, I really strongly felt I wanted to do this film. So, I'm going to show you the trailer now of the finished movie, and then briefly inform you about this adventurous, exciting production process. So, let's see if that works. I always said, if I'm 30 years old, I want to have the children's care. The world is so open and what you get with it, the wealth in your life, I think that hasn't yet been generationally so much like you. I think that's what I'm saying. Hello. So, here in the house, some Hartz IV guests live, they deserve a lot of money. This sudden feeling that you are somehow becoming a grown-up person, that's kind of difficult for me. For example, if I ask someone, yes, and they work, and they celebrate, they have children, I always think, I'm still too young for all of this. And I think you always say that you should be 35 years old. He is expected to have something to prove, but I can't do that for myself. It's crazy, you tell us that it's a girl, but I don't know that. I know that something bad is coming, I don't know what it is anymore. There were changes in the numbers, it's not yet crepes, but it can be so crepes. You don't have to go into our business, or go into our business, otherwise, somehow in the social picture, it's not defined that you are a grown-up person, but who am I then, what remains to be done? Thank you. Thank you. So I'm not going to talk too much with you guys about the film and the content, but more the production process. Briefly, the film, it premiered last year in April at Dachthung Berlin, it was a great premiere. Then I distributed the film by myself, and through that process, I find a distributor who did like a German theatrical release then in March this year, like Right on Woman's Day, which was great for that film. So let me see how this... Ha ha, good. So in contrary to a TV production where things have to be planned because of budget and everything in the beginning, with this movie, things were not planned from the beginning at all. And so many things were taken step by step or when the problems hit, we looked for a new solution. So we dealt with all the problems and complications with not having money and stuff through the production. So the very first thing I had to do was, before the whole thing was to actually... I love this thing here, not to wait for the usual gatekeepers to finally like the project, because if you do that, you can wait for one, two or three years. I tried though, they didn't want to finance it, so I decided to walk the path alone and try different things without TV station and film funding. Today, when I look back, like the last five years on this journey, we're very exciting and many things happen, which I would have never seen, like I would not have been able to see before. Amazing, because it all started with... Hold on, it all started and changed once I spread my idea with many people, using for instance crowdfunding, which like three, four years ago was kind of really new in Germany. And I was looking for other methods, like crowdfunding. So putting the project up in the World Wide Web was part of... was a big part, but the bigger part was actually meeting people, talking to them, make personal contact. It was very important and also meeting the people at the right time, at the right place with the right money. So all the key people I met during the process, who actually gave me money, who financed the project, who helped me with developing the idea, were all in the end of the day people I met physically. So as we said, the first step is really to put your idea out there, although it might not be completely finished, and especially with a long-term movie like that, where I actually followed the woman for three years, like it's very hard to tell TV stations and stuff, I, I, the end, this and this is going to happen. Like this one will get pregnant, this one will get sick, this one will... So you can't. So I actually had to go out with an idea, which I by myself didn't know what's going to happen, what will happen. So that... this is courageous. And it's sometimes scary, but in the end it's really worth it. So sharing your idea, especially with like-minded people in the beginning, and please don't share the idea with critical, very critical people in the beginning, just share them with people who can, who share your vision, who see the opportunities, and then only later with the critical people, because otherwise they break you down before you even started in something. I have to follow up with these nice things here. Okay. So, um... So let me give you some examples which were, during the process, beside crowdfunding, which worked really great, what, what else happened? So, for example, so the movie was finished, and so we had the premiere in Berlin, and I still really needed money to finish the movie. That means making the DCP digital cinema package, the poster, the postcards, and everything to be able to have a premiere. So, and then I got scared, and I said, where do I get that money from? So I basically started to call around randomly. Just people, do you know somebody who can help me? You can help me, you can help me. People who might have an interest in the film, people who, um... who, um... who could help me further. So step by step, I landed at the Zenat Zawaltung for Woman Integration and Work, which is in Berlin. People are not from here, like a Zenat city kind of thing, who have money for these things. And they were straight away very fascinated with the topic, and like on the telephone, she said to me, okay, we're gonna finance the last part. Um... And then I went there to introduce myself, personal to these women, who obviously were a big multiplicator, who would, like, spread the news into their channels, and they obviously are well connected. And they told me, now there's a nice German word, to contact the Bundesgeschäftstelle der Gleichstellungsbeauftragten, which for the non-German speaking people is equal opportunity commissioner in the cities. I hope you know what that means. So I didn't know that something like that was existing and that they are that well connected. So what happened is, I contacted the head of them, and she was... Obviously this topic of the movie fits so well in their message, what they want to bring to the people. So she took it into their internal network and spread it, I think, to... I'm not really sure how many, but I think it's over 800 cities, because every city over, I think, 10,000 people has a Gleichstellungsbeauftragten. I didn't really know what that means, but one day I opened my email postbox, and every five minutes an email was dropping in, can we please see your film, can we please see your suit, can we please invite you, and I'm like, what is going on? And this is still happening today, because they also shared the theatrical release, and up till today, the Gleichstellungsbeauftragten, they call me, they cooperate with the cinemas in the city and then invite me and organize like special woman days and stuff. But additional to that, I must say, it's not necessarily only a woman film, because many men, I talk to say, we have exactly the same question, the same topics, it's just that I chose to focus on women, but I think you would agree it's not necessarily a woman film at all. So that was great, and this only came by really talking to the people, letting them know what's going on, and this was not able by just sending emails out and waiting for any replies. Another thing which was great is, I had the offer to talk at a conference in Seattle, but to actually finance that, I called the Goethe Institute in San Francisco and asked them if I can go to the conference. And then they were like, yeah, well, why don't you send us your film? So I sent them the film, and two weeks later, they called me back and said they really like the film so much, they want to invite me to show the film. In the meanwhile, the conference was cancelled, but they said, no, but we're going to invite you anyways. So in the end of the day, it ended up that in March, I travelled the US for three weeks, and the film was shown in Seattle. So we organised another six, seven screenings, so it was... Oh, hold on. So it was shown in Seattle, Victoria, San Francisco, and New York. So... Wow, here's the thunderstorm now. Anyways, what I realised is if I would have never called them, follow a path or ideas, like, I would have never ended up showing the film for three weeks and the US completely paid for. So where are we now? So I'm coming to an end. But I must say, it is lots of work anyways. Not that people come like, we give you 2,000 euros, show me your film there and there. So it is a lot of work. You have to always call the people back, make contact, but in the end of the day, it's really worth it, especially with this film. So the topic of this year's Republic is Into the Wild, and I really think making this film was, for me, a big jump into the wild, because it was really empowering. And I actually experienced myself that I don't actually have to wait for the gatekeepers. I can do it and still have a voice. And that was an amazing feeling, really empowering. And I think someone really knows a lot about how not only are you not alone in the world. If you want to see more, we have a Facebook website, follow us and see what's happening there. Thanks a lot. And here's Uwe. Okay, so I only have a very few minutes left, so I'm going to do this without slides. What I tried to bring to the table was, I'm a drinks producer, and I've been doing this since the last 12 years. I'm doing consensus democracy with nearly 1,000 stakeholders right now, so every stakeholder can veto every decision. And who of you thinks this is impossible to do? Well, I think so, too. And this is a running company. We deliver to 200 cities in three countries, so we've proven that it is possible, in fact. And by doing so, we found several solutions which are quite uncommon to the usual business. For example, we have no profits, we have no volume discounts, we have no advertising at all, not like other brands you might have seen here at the conference. And who of you needs advertising, by the way? Who of you likes advertising? Very few people. Some of you work there, okay? And we have one example I wanted to present to you which might sum up the way I'm trying to do business. We have a truck driver who has 30 years of experience, his name is Michael, and when he visits, like the wholesalers we deliver to, he kind of scans the area and the storage, and he kind of analyzes what products are stored there, how many of them, from which suppliers, and how do the trucks look like, and how do they... Thank you, how do the... What strategy this wholesaler might follow, and so on and so on, and then he calls me and tells me about that, and he also announces which wholesaler will be sold to which other wholesaler in like three months. And this actually happens, so he's sharing with me lots of experience, lots of knowledge, which I otherwise wouldn't be able to gather myself. And I think this is about building up trust between people, and this of course takes a little while, so usually it takes like two years for people working with us, from like knowing we are the good guys to actually feeling it, and hope this is also not working, I don't know why. And this is maybe the core idea I'd like to present to you here, if you kind of treat people on eye level, and 99% of people will be good and will be sharing with you, and then things get possible which are impossible elsewhere. Thank you. APPLAUSE So what Uwe was too humble to say is that he's actually trying to change the world, and that he's quite convincing actually to the people like Michael, when you talk to them, that he actually manages to do so by using a beverage to convince them of a new way to do business. And I guess that's all the time we have today, unless you have a couple of questions. One question. Actually, I'm going to put the question to you. So if anybody feels that serendipity and trusting each other is worth trying out, if you visit this website for the next three days, I'm going to gather email addresses there, and they won't be shared with anybody, but the people who signed up to this email address. I want to be open to lady luck, and not knowing who else in this room actually is going to sign up. Who knows? Perhaps you find someone who can help you with something you didn't even know you were looking for. Thank you. Thank you.
we learned from our experience with using the wasteland of what we need to do. And I'm not my life is very alien to the friends I grew up understand what I'm doing to make a living. Heck, money. So all the key people I met during the to follow up with these nice things here. Okay. question, the same topics, it's just that I chose have to wait for the gatekeepers. I can do it and talk to them, that he actually manages to do so