This year, Interchange attended its first Rotary Convention in Hamburg. This annual event brings together thousands of passionate Rotarians, Rotaractors and Interactors to share their progress, exchange ideas and discuss future projects. The environment and general atmosphere were truly inspiring! No matter where you went in the beautiful city of Hamburg, you would always be amongst other Rotarians; helpful and interested people from all over the world. One Interchange representative said:
“I have never enjoyed my journey to a destination more. I met so many incredible people when I first arrived in Hamburg that my excitement for the actual convention kept building up; and I was not disappointed! It kept getting better and better!”
Five of our Interchange team members Anna, Mario, Marlene, Maximilian und Paul, travelled to northern Germany to represent our initiative throughout the convention. The booth we shared with our friends from Intarconnect in the “House of Friendship” allowed us to spread our message among the rest of the Rotarian world. Throughout the week we had hundreds of visitors from all across the globe, all eager to connect us with the Interact Clubs from their districts. We cannot wait to welcome all those incredible young minds to our network. Listening to other people’s projects and growth sparked our interest and creativity; We feel inspired and you might even see a few changes within Interchange in the near future.
Amongst hundreds of visitors at our booth, Interchange had the chance to meet with Rotary World President Barry Rassin and President-elect Holger Knaack, who expressed their support and admiration for Rotary’s Youth taking action.
Furthermore, Interchange members from all across the world were able to connect personally at our third Get-Together organised as an official event at the convention. It was our pleasure to also welcome our friends and cooperation partners from UNICEF USA and Germany as well as one of Interchange’s biggest supporters and mentors, Past-Governor of District 1910 Arno Kronhofer, accompanied by his wife.
Supporting their districts of origin, on Sunday, Interchange attended a so-called “Standing Reception” hosted by District 1920 and 1910 from Austria as well as District 9211 from Tanzania and Uganda, a celebration in occasion of their long-term friendship. All in all, for Interchange the Rotary Convention turned out to be not only a great success, as well as an inspirational and fully rewarding experience overall! The event reminded us to work hard in an effort to reach our goal and we certainly will!
Interchange looks forward to further connect with the world!