A few thoughts, and later Vladimir or somebody else will help me in prayer. Today I want to speak on a really serious topic, fullness of restoration. F fullness of restoration. These two words, brother and sisters, they have deep meaning. What is fullness? How do we know that's fullness? What the degree? What level of fullness? And where we can find our fullness for our self? And what is our fullness? How high we value and put our degree for our self? And second word, restoration. Restoration, when we hear, when we listen, that's word restoration. It looks like care, and it's some kind of shame. And reproach, reproach, yes. That means it looks like who is going to something restore, restoration, that means in the past something happened. He did not endure something, was not faithful. He fell, we fell, something happened. And falling, it's happened almost everywhere on a daily basis. And falling has a purpose. Falling not just for just happening, but falling, pursuing. It's purpose. And it's purpose that you fell, fall, and never rise again. F fullness of restoration. It's so important in our life to have our own measure, type, degree, our level, our goal, our purpose. What we want to do, accomplish in our life? From what situation, from what outcome, usually we do our purpose, our goal. And what base we usually accept or make the mark for our self of our height, our goal. It's so important in our life, brother and sisters, to have such a maximum, such a mega purpose goal in our life that we don't miss that's maximum. Because that's really easy to make much lower our purpose in life, as God wants to have for us. Shortly, I want to explain to you and repeat maybe one more time my story when I came to America. I was a missionary in Russia, eight and a half years with my family. I'm Ukrainian. And after all, I came to Tri-City here. And over here, already was two good, good size of Slavic churches that these churches already have almost like 10, even more years and good accomplished. And when I came, I met with the pastors. Usually, they knew of my coming. And even some of them prayed for me, because I have plenty, plenty relatives in their churches, my brothers and sisters and a lot of friends. And I was looked like a little bit scary person, known as a charismatic person. And when I came, I met with the pastors. As a missionary, my goal was not just live free life, but live for purpose, for goal. And highest goal in my life, that was when I can serve to people and save them for everlasting punishment, that the highest purpose. And when I met with a few pastors in one church and in another one, during the conversation, main cornerstone was in my conversation. Are you going to lead church in such a way where our people, our kids, families, will serve the purpose of God, commission of God? And save people. Are we going to lead in such a direction church when in our churches, people where we're living together will find place for them? Safety place, salvation, redemption. And in the few conversation, that's even serious conversation. These pastors, which I really love until today, and these churches, I visit monthly. And they denounce my vision. They disagreed with me. And they came out with their purpose in their life, in their ministry, differently as I do. And they tried to explain me really even serious, seriously. And they said, it's impossible over here. You, from different culture, you don't know any English. You cannot say nothing. And over here in America, church people and secular people the same. And we don't know even, is it possible over here, churches in every corner? That's for our perspective from Russia, from the Soviet Union. And their purpose was outcome of situation, of time, of condition. They made for themselves purpose in life, in the present outcome of present condition, situation, even, even mood. So important for us, each of us, to know our fullness. What my fullness? What my height, height, is it right? What my, who I am in reality? I am in reality the person who people are talking, circumstances, circumstances, is it right, dictate me? Or present situation? Or I am somebody who are unequal, unequal is with the situation. Who I am? Is I am what circumstances, dictates me? People, common view of people about me? Who I am? How can I find my fullness? Brother and sisters. And shortly I back again with that conversation. After a few conversations with these precious people, I said to them, I cannot agree with you. Yes, I don't know any English. I don't know this culture. For me, absolutely all things new. Even I am as a refuge from Russia where there was so strong persecution and we pay so high price for our Christianity. But all these things cannot dictate my height, my purpose. My purpose supposed to be taken not from here. As a Christian, as a children of God, we have dearly book which called Bible where we can know exactly who we are and from where we can take our purpose, our goal. F fullness of restoration. What is my fullness, your fullness in your life? That cannot be taken from your generation because your generation can be robbed. Poor, sick, your generation can be without education, business and money, health, broken families.   You can be totally different because you are called by God. You are in different family.  It's right for you, consider yourself differently not out of your poverty, not out of your failure but it's right to find out your fullness in the church where pastors are preaching the Holy Bible, Holy Gospel. You can find here your maximum. It's right for you.  When I talk with these brothers and I told them, I cannot agree with us. Yes, I am stranger in America over here. But my Bible, I rely on my Bible. I am saved. Holy Spirit with me and I disagreed.  Because I preach in their churches a few times and they heard my message. Few people came to me and told me, hey, you're awesome guy. We agree with you. If you create, if you open your church, we will come to you. We will help and work together. And when I heard such, do you know good people? And that's my first plan. But inside somewhere I was doubting.  And I made second plan. If that first plan will fall, second will be I account all my friends and relatives from Ukraine who are going to come. And it came with the number around 100 people who will come. And I believe if I them call them through my name, many things need to sign, they will join me. But second plan was a fail too. Because many of them did not come. And some of them who came just passed me by. And they didn't stay in church. My third plan was, that's my family. I have, I just explain to you, fullness of restoration. I will finish. This was my family. I have six sons and one daughter and few relatives who agree with me. But in the process, we didn't know any English. Even to open for us or find rent for us, it was really difficult. Because when my relatives, the rest of them, knew that I going to anyway start church, they were opposite to me. In the time when I was needed translator, who will translate for fighting the church for rent, nobody wanted to translate me. I was just lost. And I asked one person whether was needed a resume. Nobody wants to give for me resume. Any pastor don't like to just see person and nobody can prove him. And American brother, Stefan's land renderer, he represent us to American pastor for rent and nobody to help me. During that process, we had brother and sister a lot of temptation. Even things were so hard and so bad that few of my relatives, Victor, Stefan, Konstantin, Maria, Leo, few of them were so shaken because for them my idea, preach gospel to walk in commission, in commission of God was not real. We consider ourselves so low because our language, our culture, many, many things. We cannot do nothing. We can easily to make our purpose so low. We can easily make our value, degree in our life, so low. And your purpose during the process so hard to change. It's so important in the beginning, not looking on your circumstances, but make right purpose and value and your goal in your life. It's better to have maximum with God and don't miss a lot of things when your life will go in the wrong direction. And in our church in the beginning, that was my message. People left on me. Whom you're going to save in America without English? Who will listen to you? Who will listen to you? When first my plan fell, nobody joined us from my family's big relatives, big my friends who promised me a lot will help you. Nobody helped. Even they became even more in opposite to me as those people who was disagree from the beginning. My second plan fell. And when my third plan came to in process, we had a lot of temptation, a lot of temptation. But from the beginning, I preach highest purpose in my life, fullness of restoration. OK, let's I leave you here for a while. And what the fullness on this earth? Secondly, let's talk about restoration. If we talk about restoration, that means in the past was failure. Somebody just did really bad. Something happened. Restoration is really that's maybe hardest things in our life to restore what already you tried before. That's fell. That's harder things. But brother and sister, first failure in the universe was God. First in the universe who fell, it's God. When he created Adam in Eve, when he created so beautiful everything for his purpose, for his goal, in the end, everything fell. And that failure was not depend from God because God created us as a free will creature people. And he could not dictate us. But anyway, his plan fell. That means if God can endure such a look like shame reproach and start again to restore in the fullness, that means our falling, that's not new in the human race, even in the heavenly realm. Falling, that's common things in our life. We have to accept it as a normal. Restoration, they make the result. Remember, restoration, it's possible. Restoration, it's possible. In many cases, when we elite our church, that just small group, you just look around, who are sitting here, just one youth. We have just 90% of our church, just youth.  Fullness of restoration of God in the prayer of Lord's Prayer, when Jesus asked us and told us how to pray. Pray like this, let your kingdom come and let your will be done on earth. That's earth which was looked like rubbed, dismissed. That's earth where failing happened before. And God lost this earth. But restoration, God entered in restoration process. And that process, as our last lasting, so long, is lasting, so long. And God still stay on his purpose, hundreds and thousands years. And God endure all these things which opposite. OK, when we speak about restoration, we understand restoration because of fallen. Fallen because of enemy. There is devil, there is demonic spirits, there is demonic empire. Empire, is it right?  When we speak about restoration, we have to know reality of spiritual realm. There is evil forces which pursuing us to rob us, to stop us, put on the stagnation our life and destroy. Restoration costs sacrifice. And in the Lord's prayer, when we pray, we have to deeply understand. That's not even our desire. Yes, it's right for us to live in good environment, where kingdom of God. It's good for us to live in America. Most of you maybe don't know third world how people are living today. And when you come to America, you can just compare. How much easier, how much comfortable you are here. Living in the kingdom of God, that's the purpose supposed to be of two personalities. First of all, that's the purpose of God. And secondly, this is our purpose. This is our good. When you live where poverty, disease, epidemic, where is hunger, where is losses, where is war, where is bloodshed, it's much different when you live where peace, love. It's so important for us, brother and sisters, to understand. Restoration, that's real process. We have to know if something fell. It's still recoverable. It's still possible to restore. OK, let your kingdom come and let your will be done on earth. That's the purpose of God, to turn back his planet, his people, his children, which created in his likeness and his image. And for this restoration, God pays a lot. Sacrifice in this purpose, in this restoration, a lot. And we as his people, brother and sisters, we have to know God's fullness, which God's fullness for God is fullness to save this world, to save people. God's purpose, fullness, that this kingdom of devil, of darkness, in the end will become kingdom of God. That is his purpose. And he will not withdraw him back. He pursued during the centuries and thousands of years. And he is so near to his purpose, to the end. And that will happen. When we as a church, as a people of God, we have to know highest purpose in our life, highest purpose, fullness in our life, where we are together with the purpose of God. When we share his purpose, when we share his purpose, our life will be established too. We will have best in our life. But God just allowed for us to have it. But we have to understand, brother and sisters, our goal in our life not just have richest home or more expensive car or something like that. That's how it plays too. But we have to understand our big house in the end of our life don't need it for us. Your expensive car in the end of your life, you don't need it.  In the end, you have to stand in the judgment of God and receive how you spent your life, what you did in your life. What's involved in his purpose is his duty, sacrifice your life for his purpose. If you look in the life of committed people to God, you will find satisfaction there.  God blessed these families. They have pleasure in life, maybe not much money, maybe not much things around. But if they are involved in the highest purpose of God for salvation people, because salvation makes a dramatic change in the life of people. If you watch around, you will find how people deeply are wounded and suffer in their classrooms, in their bedrooms without God. That's, I preach to you right now, fullness of restoration. There is fullness for your personal life. But highest fullness for your life, that's the fullness which God called you for his commission.    I want to convince, I won't convince you, salvation of people in three cities, it's possible. It's possible. It's possible. It's possible. It's possible. You have to know highest price of satisfaction, pleasure, and abundance in your life when you save people who are perishing forever and ever and ever. Your relatives, your coworkers, your friends, your colleagues, so important for you, deeply understand fullness of restoration, fullness of restoration. When you answer God for his commission, for his calling, in the end, he will deposit in your heart fullness for your personal life. You will value yourself rightly. You will find for yourself your maximum in your life, maximum of beauty, of abundance, of money, of progress, of success, of peace, of joy, of love. God will deposit in your life your maximum, because they'll always try to push people down. Down. They'll always want to prove you if you fell in the past. Next time, you cannot try to reach such a high. And after you've fallen, you'll try to maybe in the half, or maybe just quarter of your purpose. But when you discover for yourself purpose of God, fullness of his love, fullness, this kingdom of on this earth, let your will be done on this earth, not the will of government, on any evil loss, but let your will be done on this earth. And let kingdom, which is heaven, come in this earth. His kingdom, that's my kingdom. His kingdom, that's your kingdom. His kingdom, that's your peace.  His kingdom, that's your satisfaction. Hallelujah. Be involved in his restoration. God still in the process of restoration, and he is looking for people who will commit himself, yourself, brother and sister. I want to say, doesn't matter if somebody, just a few days ago, one brother called me and said, hey, how many people you saved already? How many members in your church? And it looks like they tried to push me down, push and shame me, but they already missed me. I'm knowing what I'm doing. I know what cast of these leaders, each of them take the mic and speak mighty things. And people listen them. We are responsible for this generation. And I believe God can trust, can be trusted in you and me too. We will accomplish highest calling in our life. We don't want push, make our, and keep us down. We won't accept this calling from God. Fullness of restoration. There is fullness of restoration in your life.  And that fullness may be even an unequal things from where you fall, fell. Maybe it can be even higher and higher. So important for us, brother and sister. So right now, if you see our leaders, Vladimir, Ilya, all girls, and we have two my sons in Africa, where in the ministry, as we consider that highest ministry in the spiritual realm, where God reveals Himself in science and wonders every day, that's my strategy. I believe God is able to save people here. Who said God cannot save people? We believe He is able to change people's life. In Jesus' name, hallelujah. We trust not in our circumstances, not in our outcome. Our purpose are taken for our Father, for a new family who said to us, you are able. You can do because of the Holy Spirit on our side. Hallelujah. Fullness of restoration for your life, for your personal life, God wants full restoration. Whatever devil stole from you, remember, there is still restoration. Do as Jesus did when He was on the cross, when He was on Earth. He with the loud voice and with the tears cried out to the Father and asked Him, Father, not my will be done, but yours will be done. Ask Father, ask God, Holy Spirit, I want to be involved in your highest purpose, calling. Because in your highest calling, there is my pleasure. There is my highest goal, and I can achieve. I can reach it in my personal life, for my family. From me and forward, in my home, in my family, things will change. I don't want to compare myself to previous generations. I want to compare myself to the calling of God. And I speak in my life, fullness of restoration. Fullness of restoration. I don't want to take lower. I disagree, even if I have to go against all the odds, but I still will pursue it, because God on my side, in Jesus' name, hallelujah, your passion, your compassion for people who are dying today, far away from God. Ask God, God, give me from your heart, give me that heavy burden to clearly realize, without you, there is no salvation. Without, people can be established temporarily. That the demonic goal to keep them is some kind of good environment, but without Jesus, without Holy Spirit, without forgiveness. In the end, He will take their life forever and ever. We have to clearly understand and appreciate our salvation. And understand when we speak with the people who are not saved yet, we have to first of all, pursue this goal. I will pray for you. Hey, do you know, for you need salvation, make friendship. Keep that in your prayer list. Believe for the full restoration. Hallelujah. We will see saved people. We will see revival. I speak to you, believe in it. You will see how people, how people's life will be changed, how healing, deliverance will happen on this place. We want to mega. We disagree on a mediocrity. We're looking for mega things, mega ministry, mega church, mega desire, mega sacrifice, mega cell groups, mega happiness, peace in our life. We disagree on a mediocrity. We are looking for best from our God because he is best for us. Hallelujah. I believe things which I speak into you. Right now, we'll practically come in prayer because we know what prayer means. Prayer moves the hand of God.  Where it's impossible for doctors, where it's impossible for counselors, where impossible things are totally broken, but with God, all things are possible when we are praying. Hallelujah.


Welcome to another ultimate charge test video. Now this one is truly special and very unscientific. I'm talking about wireless and reverse wireless charging on these devices. Now why I like this is also because the only three devices I know that can do this properly. I'm talking about the OnePlus 8 Pro, as well as the Galaxy S20 Ultra and the Huawei P40 Pro. Now take a look at each one. The OnePlus 8 Pro comes with a 4510 mAh battery, right? And it's wirelessly charges at 30 watts and that's using the WAP30T charger. You have to use that specific charger. It's a nice looking charger. It's got a built-in fan. It's also got a cable that's attached to it, not a detachable cable. So it's kind of hard to put in certain places, just letting you know right away. Design-wise, a little fail there. But when you move over to Galaxy S20 Ultra, it comes with a 5000 mAh battery, wirelessly charges at 15 watts with the fast charging. It's got a black charging stand from Samsung and it uses USB type-C, of course. Now the final one, of course, is the Huawei P40 Pro. Basically, wirelessly charges at 27 watts with its, of course, 4,200 mAh battery. Now I'm gonna talk about reverse wireless charging in this video and I'll also include the Galaxy S20 Plus in the wireless charging section. So without wasting any more time, let's start charging. So let's start it off with the Huawei on the left, the OnePlus in the middle, and the Galaxy on the far right. Now as you know, it's gonna power on. I'm gonna leave them in the regular state so Huawei will be on and the OnePlus in the Galaxy will actually be off and charging. Now some of you will argue about this, but hey, that's what the manufacturer decided to do so that's why I'm gonna stick with it. Now we're gonna check times at five minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 44, sorry about that. 50 and then we get closer towards the end there to see what happens and who actually charges faster. So 27 watt for Huawei, got a 30 watt for OnePlus and 15 watts for the Galaxy. So we're getting close to our very first checkpoint which is the five minute checkpoint and we've got 10% for Huawei and then for the OnePlus we've got 10% also and for the Galaxy we have 3%. So Galaxy's already behind. Now in our 10 minute check, where do the Huawei and OnePlus stand? So Huawei's at 20%, OnePlus is also at 20% and the Galaxy's at six, they've all doubled but as you can clearly see, Galaxy's still behind. Now we're going over to our 20 minute check and in 20 minutes we should see some interesting will the numbers, will they double again or will they actually stay the same way? So 20 minutes, the Huawei is at 35% and here the OnePlus pushes a little bit forward 39 and Galaxy's at 12, so we have that there and we go to our 30 minute mark where the Huawei's at 48%, the OnePlus is at 53 and the Galaxy is at 18 so OnePlus is slowly pushing faster and here's our 44 minute mark, Huawei's at 61, OnePlus is at 74 and the Galaxy's at 27%. Now at 50 minutes we've got the Huawei at 67, the OnePlus is at 83, now the OnePlus really pushes further and the Galaxy's at 31, it's much slower charging there for the Galaxy. Now we're going to do a check at 58 minutes where the OnePlus is at 92 and the Huawei's at 73, Galaxy is way behind here and you see what I mean in a few. You can clearly see how fast that charger is. Now we move over to about an hour and two minutes, here OnePlus is at 96% and the Huawei is at 77 and the Galaxy's 39, Galaxy's way behind OnePlus is charging faster, this should be done really soon and that shows you how fast this charger really is for this device, it makes a whole lot of sense. And now another check here to see when the OnePlus is going to end up, so the Huawei is not there yet and the OnePlus is at 100% at an hour and nine minutes or 69 minutes and the Galaxy's at 43%, that is really fast. Well, the Huawei finishes up at an hour and 39 minutes and again, still respectable, that's a really good time and the Galaxy finished at two hours and 46 minutes at 100% so those are some interesting charge speeds. Let's talk this out, let's hash out those numbers. Okay, that was impressive guys, I mean you gotta admit the OnePlus 8 Pro wirelessly charging in an hour and nine minutes is almost the same as the Galaxy S20 Ultra charging with a 25 watt charger, put that into perspective. That's how fast this thing charges, that was truly impressive, I mean that is outstanding and I wanna see more of that, we know there's a 40 watt charger coming from Huawei with the P40 Pro Plus but it's not here yet. Now speaking of the P40 Pro, it did a respectable job at an hour, about 39 minutes. I have done it, I've done a test where it ran and finished about an hour, 16 minutes so mileage may vary but that's the time I got in this test but still very, very respectable. While the Galaxy S20 Ultra are finished at two hours and about 45 minutes. Now this of course with this 5,000 milliamp battery and it's 15 watt wireless charger. Remember wireless charging, you lose some because of course you're doing that contact charging, it's not directly plugged in. Now what's more interesting is the Galaxy S20 Plus finished at two hours and yeah, two hours and guess what? 43 minutes, that was not too impressive, granted. It's a slightly smaller battery but I expected a little bit much better charge times overall. Now let's talk about reverse wireless charging. All three devices I mentioned earlier can do reverse wireless charging. I know the S20 Ultra can reverse wireless charge at 10 watts, I do not know the wattage for the OnePlus 8 Pro or the Huawei P40 Pro. But I do know they're less than 10 watts. I think the OnePlus is about three watts, the Huawei might be about five or so, maybe it's the same thing, I am not exactly sure but if you know, let me know in the comments. But the test results were quite surprising. So the test parameters are very simple, right? Three devices, right? And I am going to try and recharge my Galaxy S10e. The reason I picked the S10e is it's got a 3,100 milliamp battery and instead of using like, you know, Galaxy Buds or something like that, I wanted something that I could actually see how much I get in terms of charge time to these devices. So within 30 minutes, with the OnePlus 8 Pro from zero, what did I get for charge time into 30 minutes? Well, in 30 minutes, it gave me 7% in terms of charge time. So that was actually not bad, even though it was, that took quite a long time to get 7% while the Huawei P40 Pro also did 7% in 30 minutes. Now in 30 minutes, the S20 Ultra showed its prowess by doing 15% in 30 minutes. So that is just something to take note. Now, the one thing I did notice is that the OnePlus 8 Pro ran rather warm while reverse wireless charging up to about 91 degrees. The S20 Ultra on the other hand was out of 86 and the Huawei was still relatively cool. So in terms of reverse wireless charging, the S20 Ultra does a much better dub faster added to and gives you more. So if you're conversating with a friend and you need to quickly charge in 30 minutes, you can get 15% and they can go by or don't ever go home, that kind of thing. I think overall, this is showing us something pretty interesting with wireless charging. For the longest time, a lot of people say wireless charging is no big deal, it's nonsense, this and that. Reverse wireless charging is this and that, no. We've got a wireless charger from OnePlus that does an hour and nine minutes. That is faster than any iPhone would ever charge and that is even faster than what Samsung does with its Galaxy depending on what charger you're using the method to as well. So put that into perspective. And then we've got reverse wireless charging that literally will charge a 3,100 milliamp device in 30 minutes to give you 15%. That is still better than some phones out there and some chargers out there. Remember, some iPhones get a five watt charging block which is less than that. iPhones don't even, I don't think iPhones wirelessly charge at that speed either. So this is impressive and you guys have to take a look at it. Anyway, if you have any questions or any comments, let me know. If you're looking for any of these devices, whether it's the OnePlus, the Galaxy, the Huawei, the wireless chargers, check out our link down below. Otherwise, don't forget to like, share, subscribe and always enjoy your entertainment.


Steal back into action. We've got FaZe linked up to Chimera. It looks like Chimera leaps into the The jungle minion. The jungle minion hits him out of spite. That was I mean that was good The a good way to get out of that fight, but it didn't work out for him Now we got Countess trying to take out the FaZe Not the FaZe, but she gets beat down by steel That's a double kill for him with the big old fist and now he's just gonna go ahead and take the red buff That's his red buff now. That's not the enemy's red buff Oh here comes Narbash to see what he could do. I don't think Narbash knew that there was an entire team waiting for him right there He blinks out smart man. Oh, not so smart for this. Uh, you just saw what happened doc Why are you going in? He gets charged through and then the ultimate. That's enough Murdoch. That is enough


Two suspects have been arrested by the Choir of State Police Command over the alleged abduction of a traditional ruler, Abdul Rahman Ifabi Onirah of Owa Onirah, in Iveladu Local Government Area of Lagos State. The suspects were alleged to have kidnapped not just the traditional ruler, but also his wife and driver on Saturday. Spokesman of the police command, Okasa Mirjai, said the suspects are helping the police with information which has aided the rescue of the wife of the traditional ruler. He said efforts were ongoing to rescue the traditional ruler and his driver.


So my watch switched to 15.18. Welcome back to the second part of Perform Europe of our launch event.  Welcome also those on the live stream that are following us until we break out in little groups in about 45 minutes. Please feel invited to follow our session and keep using the Q&A part for big parts of this meeting. Just some technical information for those in our Zoom space. Please, as you all know, don't forget to mute and unmute yourself, mute yourself for now. Could you also, if you can, even if you drink your coffee and have your cookie in your hand and have some crumbles on your cheek, prefer a piece switch on your camera so that we can see each other, we know each other, we are family, aren't we? Use the chat in the Zoom space for comments, for questions, for thoughts, and last but not least, we record this meeting for research purposes in cleanery but also later on in the different little breakout groups. Without further ado, let's start with me in this cleanery space and I would love to have her right to me or left to me on this fantastic Zoom space. It's Elena from ITM, you know her all. I couldn't feel safer to have Elena next to me. So Elena, can you help me to introduce further this part of our lounge event? Thank you, Catherine. I hope I can meet your expectations about safety. I will do my best. Hello, everyone. Indeed, you have seen my face already today. So this part of the event, we are going to have a series of conversations in order to map and understand better some of the key issues, factors and elements which come to our mind when we are thinking about future schemes for distribution and touring in Europe. And I'm very happy to start straight away with our five speakers. Each of them is an expert in a specific topic which is relevant for our thematic of sustainable and inclusive touring. And I would like to start our conversation with Anita Dobare. Anita is Director of Pearl, Performing Arts Employers Association League Europe, European Federation of Music and Life Performance Organizations. Hello, Anita. Welcome. Hello. Hello, Elena. How are you? Left mind. Hello, everyone. Very nice to see your face here. So, Anita, let's jump to the content straight away. Could you please help us to depict and understand what are the current economic and social legal conditions in which touring is happening today in Europe? Before I start answering that question, first of all, congratulations with the launch. I mean, it was a beautiful launch. Unfortunately, I had a breakdown of the internet in the middle of the speech of Eleanor Bauer and I was a bit panicking for now. So, let's hope everything works well. But that's what you get with digital. So, hopefully, with digital performances that doesn't happen. So, thanks for the question. I know we don't have much time to cover a complex set of topics and questions. The current socioeconomic and legal conditions, well, we know in what status we are. To first start with the pandemic that is happening. We have limitations to traveling. We have limitations to performing. If at all performing on stage is possible. If we have opportunities, we are put often in a quarantine. We need to do tests. But I think that is not particularly what you were looking for as an answer. But nevertheless, I mean, we are living in this current set of time and one way or the other, we have to deal with it. And it's also impacting a lot of people who work with third country nationals. Where it is very difficult to find nowadays flights, just that already physically and to deal with visa if they are coming. So, that on a practical note in the current context. Now, if we talk about current economic or in general on the socioeconomic and legal conditions in which touring happens in the European Union, well, we have the principles on which the European Union is based. It's the free movement of people, of goods and services. And we have what is called a European internal market in which we can move around. So, that already said means that we are somewhat in a position where there are in one way, you could say there are no obstacles. And we have also a Europe which has and the current commission has a very strong aims on further developing the social Europe. It develops lots of rules and conditions to make sure that everybody, well, the governments first of all, but then of course everybody who is working and touring, not particularly for us, but for everybody that it applies that you obey by those rules. And the number of rules are growing. So, the goods they protect, they're there to ensure that workers, people who are working in different countries that they are protected rightfully. But with that also comes quite a lot of administrative burdens. Everybody who has organized a tour knows that it is complex. There are many things to take into consideration, whether it is obtaining a portable document, the so-called A1 document for Social Security or whether it is you have to deal with tax being able to reclaim taxes, other things. So, we have to deal with many, many aspects, but all for the good. I mean, that's what Europe stands behind. So, at the same time, when you think of digital touring, you would think it's easy, but at the same time, we know one of the big laws that was discussed two years ago, the copyright law, is also about how you deal with the protection of the rights of the artists, the performers, the creators. So, there are many things you need to take into consideration once you are getting into an environment which is international and that we have to adhere to. I mean, it's only normal that when we set up such a wonderful project, not... Thank you, Anita, with this nice word, wonderful. I think I have to jump in and cut you a little bit. So, you were mentioning this a lot of these issues and conditions, and I really like this administrative burdens reference, but also positive side of the whole spectrum. Could you maybe answer my last question for now, which is a little bit kind of a hybrid. How do all these conditions, and maybe especially the challenging ones, but if you want, you can focus on the positive ones, actually affect the sustainable practices in touring? And also, how do they undermine or maybe stimulate inclusivity of the touring landscape in Europe? To start with the last, I think, well, in principle, Europe is very much for inclusivity. I mean, there are also anti-discrimination laws, so you buy law, have to be inclusive or people can take you to court. But as it was said much better than I can explain, in the opening part, it's the challenge, in the practice of what we do. Now, for sustainability, I think that's even more a challenge. How are we going to deal with it in a touring perspective? There, you can get confronting discussions. On the one hand, wanting to be sustainable. On the other hand, you have people who, for example, would like to be with their family. So how do you deal, for example, with the concept of slow touring? When people think of, oh, I have a family at home, I want to see my kids. And on the other hand, you're trying to develop another notion of touring. So I think that there will come interesting discussions of in what you will do and how you're going to balance. And I liked the word very much in the use of the word balance. How can you balance to come to an environment where everybody feels, yeah, respected? Because it's not because you say, for me, it's a priority to be back in one day because I want to see my kids. They shouldn't be punished versus the people who say, well, we should have another model of touring. We should not take the plane, but take the train. And it takes your tour three days longer, for example. I had a look before joining here. And I thought, yeah, when you were in the remote area, coming whatever from say Romania or so, it's quite different to get here by train than if you have the luxury talking about, I'm in Brussels based and it only takes me three, four hours to get to a horizon of capital cities. So also that is, and that was also discussed in the IPORTUNUS project very much. So it is a challenge to deal with questions on how to reach those goals. And I think the first thing is about setting those goals, how to perceive that, but also to talk with audiences. Because on the one hand, you have, of course, people who are traveling, but you also have the audiences that you're talking to and there are many aspects there. So I think in that remit, there are many kind of factors and elements that will have to be unraveled. And the ones size fits all will not exist. It will be always tailor made. Absolutely, absolutely. And yeah, thank you for this reference to balance because indeed, inclusivity and sustainability are such a great values, but they are not necessarily feeding each other as well. So sometimes we need to find a balance between them as well. So Anita, thank you very much. And I just would like to say to everyone that we are watched live on Facebook by 189 people. And here were 75 participants. So let's continue this concept solidation of Perform Europe and see into gaps which I exist in cultural mobility. And I would like to welcome our next speaker, Marie Foll, who is the president of On the Move Cultural Mobility Network. Hello, Marie, very nice to see you. Hi, Lina. How are you? Very well, thank you. Thank you for having me. And I want to join also Anita on congratulating all of you and the consortium but also the performing arts sector to pull this off and move forward with developing cultural mobility in practice being in a digital form or in a physical form in the coming 18 months. This is really exciting. But tell us, please, Marie, as On the Move has a lot of expertise in mobility, based on your expertise, could you please share with us your insights about the current imbalances and gaps which exist in cultural mobility in Europe? Yes. So if I look back at the eye-partner study, the operational study that was done in March 2019 in the framework of another mobility funding pilot project from the European Commission. And at the time, this was commissioned by the consortium of Goethe Institute, Institut Francais, Isoliatia, and that art colony to On the Move. So we made this study to see what mobility funding existed in Europe at that time. And given last year, this hasn't changed drastically, I would say, the observation of 2019. So we can see three form of imbalances as far as the mobility of persons is concerned, which is very relevant when we come to the mobility within the performing arts. So the first inequality I want to mention is inequality in terms of access to funding. In the 2000 regular calls that we studied, there are, those calls are in the hands of about five to eight countries, mostly in Western Europe, including France, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Austria, Spain, and the UK, for instance. Those grants cover, the grants that are provided cover travel, but often only partially, and all the related costs are often only partially covered. So a lot of performing arts professionals still have to put in money, and if they come from certain region of Europe, they will not be able to access this funding. And additionally to that, it's very irregular open calls and a lot of project-based calls that make the very short-term timeframe to apply very difficult for the sustainability of the sector itself when it comes to accessing those funds. So that's the first issue, the access to funding. The second one is an inequality between what the funders are providing and what the need of the sector are. So in this study, we also analyzed what the sector wanted in every discipline. So we covered visual arts, architecture, and so on, but we also covered performing arts. And it was clear that the performing arts sector wanted more, had more needs for research, for exploration, for networking. And I was very glad to hear Pia mention that those were a priority for Perform Europe because that was a need. And that's not often seen as what is being funded. Also, as was mentioned also by Anita in this issue of sustainability and durability, this question that a lot of the Performing Arts Practitioner were saying that they have the need for a very short mobility, a three to 15 days mobility because of the reality of the sector. And that was very difficult to match with the offer of funders. Finally, and this is linking to what Anita was saying also very quickly before me on the inequality of access to information. There are a lot of burdens which are very positive, obviously, as Anita said, but it's very difficult for independent artists, for independent companies to really be able to have the capacity to answer and fully benefit of the existing opportunities. Thank you, Marie. And my next question to you was, how did COVID-19 impact those imbalances? But I think you already said that nothing really changed since 2019 and probably is too early to say, but I assume that everything became, all these disbalances became even bigger. What's your opinion? It did become bigger. So of course, there was a negative impact in the sense that mobility wasn't possible. The funding opportunity have also shifted more to a national base, national focus because of the limitations to mobility, because of the health requirement and the sanitary requirements. So there is this potential shift that we see already happening that a lot of funding is more nationally focused, more less for the cross-border touring. And this is quite important to note because on the MoVe website has been extremely viewed during the pending make time and there is a huge competition towards existing calls. So it's important to be reminded that for many artists and cultural professionals, the need for mobility and the need for cross-border touring comes from an economical reality and an economic necessity. So it is a way to make a living and it is important to see how artists and cultural professionals will be able to sustain themselves after the pandemic has ended. That being said, of course, it also boosted the digital practices. A lot of funding for digital practices has been made available. So a lot of international funding moved to digital, which created somehow online as a new country in the calls that were presented. So that was quite interesting, but the imbalances I mentioned before were still there in the sense that the paid opportunity were coming from the same countries. So there is a replication of the same inequality and I think it's important to know about it, to be conscious of it, to make sure that opportunities continue to be as widely accessible as possible, especially if we consider it as a territory of creative Europe countries. A point also I wanna mention on online practices is that it cannot be a solution that fits everything. We are all longing for physical contact, for physical expression for cross-border touring and practice and we often have this question when it comes to sustainability and durability is online the green alternative that we were all looking for. And I think a lot of what has been tried out over the last year and also before because online is not a new practice that just appeared last year is that we need to avoid polarization and really consider all the options that are in front of us. And finally to add on a brighter side of we had a pandemic indeed, but when talking with mobility funders and this is what we do also with the members of On The Move, there is not only an attitude to answer the crisis with support to hybrid formats, with support to accompanies the practitioner through the digital shift, but also readiness to rethink and to revamp mobility funding schemes to the needs of artists and professionals to enhance the dialogue with those professionals. So I think there is really a momentum with Perfom Europe that we see right now definitely but also to continue thinking and this links to the topic we will talk about in a minute to rethink on what are the needs for access, what are the needs for parents, how can we really make cross-border mobility inclusive and sustainable. And this is really what I want to leave the Perfom Europe team with that this is really the challenges that are there and the opportunity that you're creating to really look into this. Thank you, Manny. That was quite inspiring actually. I expected to hear more dry information but we also got inspired from you. Thank you so much. And now in the second part of our conversations panel we are going to hear about three topics which we find very relevant for Perfom Europe and the topics are access of disabled artists to touring, digitalization of distribution and rural touring. And just it has to be said where there are many more other topics which are very important for sustainable and inclusive touring such as ecological sustainability, gender balance, ethnic diversity and so on. And all these topics will be definitely tackled within Perfom Europe. But we wanted now to hear about issues which we found are perhaps a bit under discussed in the current setting. So let's jump to the topic of access for disabled artists to touring opportunities and I'm very happy to welcome Ben Evans here. Ben Evans is head of arts and disability at British Council and also project director for the U-funded project, Europe Beyond Access. And Ben is really an expert in this issue and I would like to hear straight away from you Ben. So one of the ambitions of the project, Europe Beyond Access was to help disabled artists to internationalize their careers. From your experience and observations how do you think disabled artists experience the current European touring markets? And how did your project try to approach touring in a new way? And welcome. Thank you. And thanks for Perfom Europe Consortium for inviting our contribution. I think firstly I just wanted to say it's really important to know that there is a remarkable generation of disabled theatre and dance artists across Europe and I would encourage everyone to go and explore. And another thing to say is this work is not niche. It's being commissioned and presented by leading arts organizations. Organizations that understand and respect the innovative practices and the new approaches to the art forms. So disabled artists are not only making work for disability arts festivals. That's an old and outdated way of thinking. But touring in particular is hugely problematic. Accessible buildings, accommodation, transport for artists are not standard. And I think cultural managers assume that disabled artists and arts professionals simply will not be part of their touring programs unless they develop a special or dedicated program. So we've already heard of compared with international contracts and carnets and transport and language barriers and especially compared with COVID contingency plans. Accessible touring is not complicated for our professional arts managers in Europe. It just needs to be on the agenda and it needs to be on the agenda from the start and it needs to be planned and budgeted in from project design. So I think that's a key takeaway for us. It's not difficult, it just needs thinking about. But I think I'm just gonna move on to the next part of what I wanted to say, which is that there is a huge opportunity here, I think that perform Europe offers with a new touring program. It can no longer be assumed that disabled artists and arts professionals will not be hoping to benefit from European touring opportunities. And I think funding that touring not only needs to follow the direction of the cultural sector, but also at times it needs to lead the way. So I think some things in the perfect world are not negotiable. So we need to include budget lines for access costs. The things that others take for granted, personal assistance, sign language and additional transport costs, we need to see those budget lines in the application so that everyone applying has thought about it. And we need to understand that some artists work best in slightly different time scales. And we need to create protected budgets to cover access costs and not include this in the budget ceiling for artistic work, because currently disabled artists appeal lies because they're taking access seriously. So some huge opportunity, but also some challenges which we'd like to share with you. Yeah, that's very interesting. I cannot agree more. And how has the digitalization of the lockdown period taught us to maybe offer new ways for disabled artists or were there anything to learn from? Lots to learn from, I think. I think the sad irony of COVID is that for many, many years, cultural institutions have insisted on a specific way of working, one which has to be face to face, eight to 10 hour rehearsal days, a particular touring schedule, not taking work online. And this is despite years of disabled cultural professionals and audiences asking for online access to conferences, to digital exchange and hybrid events or online learning. And then suddenly in the space of a few weeks or months, our sector found the creativity to respond to a new situation. Of course we did, but what we learned was change as possible. And as we just heard, the reality that we all are desperate to meet and work together again, despite that we can never go back to the ways that we were before. So we've got to acknowledge the people that you want to reach. Some of them may have challenges traveling to a conference or a production. And along with our environmental responsibility, we have to take responsibility for not re-marginalizing those people. And I just one last thing and I promise I'll end here, but just to say, as we develop those digital tools, we must reflect on how those tools are accessed by professionals and audiences with access needs. So this is a practical consideration, but in my view, a political challenge to us all. How to make our digital offer accessible to visually impaired or deaf artists or audiences. How do we develop those tools without creating more barriers at a time we should be tearing them down in the arts? Thank you, Ben. I think what you're saying is super important and continuing our discussion about the digital. And before I invite our next panelist, Karin Toftegard, who is an expert in the digitalization of distribution, I would like to bring up another digital aspect. We're watched by 225 people on Facebook. And while here, you can see that we're at 76. So they're just, you know. Hello, Karin. Welcome and very nice to see you. Karin Toftegard is the CEO of Valtopia, which produces the Digital First Life Performing Arts Festival Relocation. And Karin is also a cultural entrepreneur and producer of Copenhagen Stage. Hello, Karin. Hello. Thank you, Elina. I just have to add, I'm not on the International Producer Copenhagen State. There are several producers at this festival. So not to take all the credit. Thank you very much for this invitation to share my perspective. I would say that when the COVID-19 started, I mean, it was kind of gave me the opportunity to combine two of my professional interests, like the festivals. I really like festivals been contributing to a ton of them or a lot of them at least. And then also I've been working a lot in the digital communication. So in some way that kind of just, whoa, did this combination and I decided also very much to look at the opportunities. And I think that what I hear when people are talking about digital versus in person, it's very much also about is the digital compromise or is it a creative opportunity? And what's important here is that the response to this very much depends on the eyes who's looking at it. And so we all have a choice to make there. Do we want to see it as a compromise or do we want to see it as a digital or as a creative opportunity? And I definitely want to embrace the latter one. And I think that when we look at the landscape, I think it's a pleasure to see that the festivals, they are embracing the hybrid formats. And I mean, also, I mean, this is actually a very important for a touring aspect because when the ones who are presenting the works, they are embracing the hybrid aspects, then we should also, and there is also, and it makes a lot of sense because theater is very much there. It's all, in all time, it has been there where the people are, where the audiences are. It's so connected with the audiences. And at some point, people have been talking about, okay, we have the digital state or is it real theater when it happens digitally? And I mean, this is just another stage. It's just another stage with an audience and it's our job to find out what are the opportunities in this? And I think that I would like to ask, instead of giving, talking a lot of things, I'm just gonna raise some questions regarding what I've been seeing and recognizing in the works, the digital works that I've been seeing and collaborating with. So what does digital intimacy look like? Please try and reflect that. What does digital intimacy look like? Because it's actually, there are works working on that. And there is also how do you enhance this in-person work with the digital presence? There was this a Dutch company who made Swan Lake where they did hybrid work there and they combined the digital audiences selections with what happened in the physical space. And that's where the two different, both the digital audiences and in-person audiences, they were kind of intertwined there. So you can work with that. And there's also participatory theater in-person that is going to be very much affected by the COVID-19 because personal distance, that is a thing in our mindset that has been a challenge a lot. And so participatory theater in person might change a lot, but maybe we could then make the participatory theater digitally because then you're not afraid of the body fluids or whatever which you are afraid of in the in-person aspect. And then also there's something about this immersive theater. That's another thing. How can you actually interact with people when you want to create safe environments in-person? So that's also something that you can actually develop in the digital sphere. So it's very much about looking at what, like in every aspect of doing creation, what kind of creative opportunities do we have here digitally and like diving into that? I think that's incredibly interesting. Yeah, thank you. One thing also, this thing about the audiences, there's actually a possibility online to have a co-experience with somebody who is on the other side of the world or is in another side of the country and so on. This co-experience for audiences without traveling, I think that's also a very important aspect, especially for like the participatory and immersive theater aspects. Thank you for that. Karen, yeah, you and your, in your answer, you kind of brought up what unique values digital actually can bring to the performing arts because we are used and you hear it all over again that digital brings, like takes away the main assets of performing arts at East Sliveness. So thank you for bringing up this kind of inspiring aspect. But maybe if we go back to the values of performing Europe briefly, how do you think the digital world can enhance inclusivity and sustainability of touring or distribution? You're mute. Sorry, I would like to begin to address a myth because there has, I've been hearing that several times, this thing about the two hours of Netflix streamed every single day in a year that pollutes as much as or affects the environmental situations just as much as flying 385 in 84 kilometers. And if you know that the flying distance between Copenhagen and Amsterdam, that is almost that. I mean, that's just one way. Then I think there is something about, yes, that working digitally is not solving all the sustainable issues. And it's not like you're like totally 100% sustainable when you're working digitally. However, I mean, you can show a lot of life-performing arts a lot of times during the year and not at all coming anyway close to the flight or the amount of flying around the world for doing the same thing in person. Because yes, these two hours each day of streaming, that's only a flight between Copenhagen and Amsterdam. So I'm just thinking that is something that we should also think about. So there is actually an actual fact in this thing that you can work internationally using the digital aspects. And you can also, the audiences don't have to travel as much. So there's definitely a thing about not traveling as much as earlier on. And then I think there's also something about the resources. You can reframe, you can reuse, you can reimagine the works that you're doing and you can actually bring it to more audiences but you could also make it more sustainable in the production wise. So you can present it in Denmark, in Brussels, in South Africa and at the same time, but you don't have to send your sonography across over the ocean or anything. You don't have to send away all your sonography. You can actually navigate in another way and be more careful of all the traveling and transportation, all that around which we are normally dealing with when it comes to touring. And I just think I also want to appreciate the fact there are several digital festivals also arising. I'm working on one who's called Relocation and I just put a link there in the chat. It's supported by the Danish Arts Foundation. Thank you so much. But then we have for example, Schellingburg. Schellingburg was a thing that arose because of Edinburgh Festival Fringe not happening last year. And then the Schellingburg actually appeared as a smaller digital festival. I think that was very interesting to see. And that's also a thing about digital touring. I think just like the festivals and venues are starting to think in in-person events and in digital events, then the touring agents and the touring and the companies, they should also just start thinking in digital and in-person. It's two different things. It's two different programs, but it's just like bringing different kinds of performing artworks to the audiences and to the venues. Thank you. I really sense your positive energy and I hope that every participant does. It was really great, your positive approach to the digital. And now let's jump to some completely different worlds. Maybe not, but another topic, the rural touring. And I'm happy to welcome here Ralph Lister, our fifth speaker. Welcome, Ralph. And thank you for being with us. Ralph Lister is the Chief Executive of Take Art, the UK-based organization. And this organization is also leading the EU funded project sparse, supporting and promoting arts and rural settlements of Europe. Hello, Ralph. And my first question to you would be, please share with us some of your insights and experiences and knowledge on how does rural touring and specifically the touring models developed in your project inspire environmentally sustainable practices? Yeah, thanks, Eleanor. And also, as with the others, congratulations on the project. I think it's going to be a very interesting experiment. Rural touring, for those that don't know, brings professional performing arts companies into rural areas. And it's achieved by working with rural communities. And importantly, there is no compromise over the artistic quality of the experience. Sparse is a three-year creative Europe funded project and it uses existing rural touring models in the UK and also in Sweden as the basis for creating new networks in Estonia, Italy, Lithuania and Romania. We recently increased the network and it also has partners now in Sweden, Norway, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Spain and Poland. So to answer your question, the beauty of rural touring is that it brings the artists to the audience rather than asking the audience to travel in their cars, their vehicles to the nearest theater in a town or city in their own region. In the UK, Julius Byskel, an organisation who advises the Arts Council of England on the environmental matters, they undertook a rural touring carbon assessment analysis. It showed that the rural touring model reduces emissions by a third. In relation to artists and audience travel, when compared with a single show at a town-based theatre. In addition, our sparse evaluation has showed that nearly 50% of our audience lives less than five kilometres from the village hall. People often walk to the performance and I've experienced one winter in the UK where because of the snow, the roads were completely blocked and the whole audience walked to the village hall. I saw them coming down the road. It was a really, really beautiful experience. In addition, linking rural touring agencies together can optimise touring opportunities. Collaboration between seven agencies in the south-west of England enabled a tour by a Spanish circus company in the spring of 2019. And that resulted in 11 performances, several workshops in 11 rural venues over two and a half weeks. The company drove to England, they brought all their equipment and they stayed in local accommodation and they were also able to enjoy the beautiful countryside in which they were touring. Yes, I had to unmute myself. Yeah, thank you for that. And what about social aspects? What could you say about rural touring and the social sustainability? Yeah, well, it was also very interesting hearing some of the speakers talk at the plenary session because the social and community aspects of our work is integral and central to the work that we do. So there are two key aspects of rural touring. One is the role of a local volunteer village promoter. And secondly, the fact that it's the village that chooses the show that they're going to present rather than be told what the show is going to be. The local promoter is not a professional programmer and they live in their local community and they know their local audience and they'll often work with a group in the village to make the necessary arrangements to sell tickets and to host a company. As I say, the village has a range of shows that they can choose from and this element of choice results in a sense of local ownership around the staging of the performance and the desire for its success. The performance itself is a social event for the community as much as it is a cultural event. There's a lack of stigma for those who are less confident or intimidated by the thought of going to a theater. They're more comfortable in the surrounds of a familiar village space. And the show is an opportunity to meet friends and neighbors and enjoy a convivial atmosphere. In the SPARS evaluation, we also found that audience feedback was very strong in the fact that they felt very connected to each other and it's very common for food and drink to play a part in the event. The intimacy created by the artist performing so close to the audience creates a real sense of cultural exchange and artists experiencing this love for this connection. And I can't overestimate how unique and how important this is. Quite often the performer will maybe be only two or three meters from the first round of the audience. Rural promoter feedback conveys a great sense of pride in organizing a successful event. They're memorable and they provide a talking point long after the show's over. Feedback also shows a sense of validation experienced by the village community. An appreciation that professional artists are willing and enthusiastic to travel and perform in their village hall. This all helps to bring, to build stronger social connections in village communities and also across a region where several rural promoters can meet and support each other. Although 40% of the European population lives in rural areas, something like 10% of available cultural investment is directed into rural areas. This imbalance in the distribution of resources for the arts impacts on the ongoing sustainability, visibility and accessibility of the arts in rural areas. I want to finish with two quotes, one from a Lithuanian promoter and one from a dance company. The quote from the Lithuanian promoter, they said, my main task is to arrange the venue and to invite the audience. I always feel infinite responsibility and anxiety, but after all goes well, the stone rolls from my heart and I feel immense satisfaction. When Soko dance theater performed, people were so touched they even cried. It's a real joy to be able to show it, to orderly people and to see the viewer and the whole community grow together and to be united. And from the dance company, from an artist's perspective, rural touring is a wonderful way to tour dance to new audiences who appreciate the work in a genuine and an unreserved way. What is the point in touring dance only for dance people? Rural touring opens up a new world of audiences and we're incredibly grateful and overwhelmed to have been offered this experience. So I'll put a couple of links to a couple of websites in the chat box as well. Thank you. Thank you very much, Alfie.  I think it's so clear that there are so many considerations, reflections. Oh, don't put away Elena next to me. Keep her with me. I need to talk to her. Studies that were mentioned, thinking, knowledge, questions that were put on the table. And I guess it's really high time now to put our heads together in this little group, our breakout groups that we are going to have now and start discussing. But before that, it's time to say goodbye to those ones that are following us on the live stream. It's not just a goodbye, but let me tell you that it was an impossible exercise, an impossible exercise we had to do to bring the number of these now little breakout groups to down to 80 participants. And we tried, of course, in a hard exercise to consider the balance in terms of sectors, presenters, producers, artists, countries, male, female. I mean, live up to our own values, backgrounds, interests, motivations that you put down and live up to our own values that we want to live and experience with perform Europe. And since it was such an impossible exercise, we decided that we are going to repeat this workshop on the 18th of February, yet the time has yet to be defined, but we are not going to exclude, I hope anybody who would like to contribute to this very first part of our 18 months trajectory together. So having said that, we are now going to break out and we say goodbye to the live stream audiences. We are going to break out now and we have around 50 minutes time to assemble each of us in an exercise that was shared with you beforehand by email, three wishes that we want to formulate when it comes to our idea of how the performing arts touring fund should look like. So we really go now down to the ground, we bring in our own professional backgrounds, our proposals that we can bring from the field and come back in plenary just before the ending to conclude together.


Jeff Shaw, and I'm the production manager at Davis Media Access. Welcome to, in the studio, the pandemic version. Normally we'd be in our studio recording these shows, talking to community members. We're both now talking from our homes separated, socially distanced during the pandemic. And today we're going to be talking to a very exciting person because we have some news to share regarding the bike garage in Davis, California, and the bike campaign. So joining us is Maria Contreras-Tibet. Welcome, Maria. Glad you're there safely at home. Thank you. It was such a short ride here. Yes, exactly. In fact, we will talk a little bit about biking and the pandemic and how that's been affected. But just give us a little bit of background on the bike campaign and the bike garage. I know you've been doing it for quite some time now. Maybe give us, for those of people who aren't familiar, give a little bit background information on the campaign and bike garage. Well, thank you so much for the opportunity. The bike campaign's been around for 10 years. It's hard to believe 10 years that we've been encouraging more people to get on bikes. And our number one objective has always been to decrease traffic congestion, especially in front of schools. And 2020 made that dream come true in a really big way. And we give support to people that want to ride bikes by being a really welcoming hub, human, urban bicyclists, helping urban bicyclists. That's who we want to help. And there's a lot of people out there that come to Davis and Yolo County that like the image of bike riding, but they may not have ever done it, ever, or maybe haven't ridden a bike since they were kids. And they need a reintroduction. And we do that at our bike garage. We work on their bikes if they have one. Maybe it has flat tires. And we also work with each individual rider to help them get comfortable and more confident navigating their way from one place to another on bike versus in a car. And I know that you started the bike garage in Woodland in particular. Davis is sort of known as a bike city. Is Woodland have the same reputation? Oh, no, it was the polar opposite. In fact, bike riding was very negatively stigmatized.  And again, we've seen a huge change in that, especially during 2020. People got those bikes out of their garages, brought them to the bike garage to make sure they were safe to ride, and just started getting out their hordes of people on bikes, hordes of people on bikes, entire families, all ages, all ethnicities, bike writings for everybody.  And here in Davis too, we see a lot more people on bikes during the daytime running errands, getting around for just enjoyment or physical movement. It's a wonderful thing to see. I was going to mention, I know a lot of bike stores have seen an increased in bike purchases. And in fact, there's been shortage of things like as common as bicycle tubes and tires, things that normally we take for granted have suddenly become a hot commodity. Have you found that to be the case that the increased popularity of using bicycles is transportation during the pandemic? Yes. We're very prudent about everything we use, whether it be a recycled bike tube. If we can recycle a bike tube, we're certainly going to do it. Taking bikes off of bikes, taking tires off of bikes that maybe the bike itself can no longer be used. It's too far gone, but the tires are okay. We want to reuse those again, brake pads, everything, everything, kickstands, seats, those are all things we need and are much harder to come by. They're costing us more, but that's okay. That's totally okay because it's really encouraging more people to think recycling and upcycling.  So do you have a lot of, do you have volunteers that work with you to work on these bikes and take the tires and tubes off of bikes? Do you have a group of volunteers? Have you always had a group of volunteers and have you seen that increase or decrease during the pandemic? Well, during the pandemic, it's been wonderful to see people come out and want to be a part of this movement. And so our number of volunteers have increased. Young and old women, men, it's just a variety of people that want to be a part of this huge movement that's not only impacting Davis and Woodland. This is happening all over the United States. It's happening all over the world. More people are getting on bikes. And it's not really even just about exercise or recreation. It's a different lifestyle. It's a culture. And I'm so excited that Davis has been a part of that culture and a part of my life for over 50 years. And so it's in my DNA. And I want to share that with as many people as possible because I firmly believe that riding a bike is joyful exertion. So I do want to ask you about the new project in Davis or the new opening in Davis. But before I ask that, I wanted to ask, do people who come to you and want to volunteer, do they have to have mechanical knowledge of how to use a bike, not how to use a bike, but mechanical knowledge on how to work on a bike? Or do you accept volunteers who don't have much experience? Yeah, you know, they don't have to have any experience, the desire. If they want to use a bike themselves, we certainly want to teach them how to do it. And there's a lot to know. A lot of people think, oh, I already know how to ride a bike. Well, if the last time you rode a bike, you were six years old and it was in the cul-de-sac, that's a different kind of experience than using your bike to go down covelle or 8th Street or Russell Boulevard. You know, which path do you use? What side of the road are you on? Do you know any hand signals? Do you feel comfortable riding next to cars? Is there a better path to go that has fewer cars on it? And that's why we also created the Davis Bike Map and we keep it very up to date so that people know what their options are to get from one place to another place and not necessarily using the path that they would have driven there. And do you have any staff? Is it all volunteers? It's all volunteers. We did hire a manager to run our Woodland location and that's been wonderful. Jamaica had been working with jump bicycles who they sold their company right as COVID began. They were a huge boon to Davis. We're very excited about the electric bike industry too. You know, I'm ready for an electric bike when the need should arise. It's a great way to go longer distances using a little bit less physical effort maybe getting to the other end of the trip a little bit less sweaty so it's a great alternative or if people have diminished energy or physical limitations, an electric assist bike can help. So having Jamaica on our team who has so much knowledge and is truly one of Northern California's best bike mechanics and just a really wonderful person to communicate with people that are new to bike riding or with experienced bike mechanics. He basically knows it all. We love having him on our team. I would say volunteers right now. We have probably about 20 in many different facets. We have men and women that enjoy working on bikes. We have men and women who are comfortable working on bikes but don't want to be anywhere socially close to another person. So they're working on bikes at home which has been wonderful and so helpful for us. We have people that help on the media and creative and we have volunteers that help with our big community bike rides like we just did the Zombie Bike Parade and the Polar Bear Ride. These are huge community events that people are enjoying. The next big community event will likely be Lupaloza in May and then the Ice Cream Ride during the summer and we just get people to just get out there on the Davis bike loop. It's a little over 12 miles and ride, wave at their friends and have a good time. Excellent and so the exciting news is that you just opened a bike garage in Davis after being in Woodland for all these years and I'm wondering what was the impetus for that or how did that come about? Well we'd been looking, looking, looking for 10 years. Our original desire I live here in Davis would be to open a location so I wouldn't have to drive to the bike garage and finally a location just came, came into being. We're located at the little barn behind the big barn at the cannery. So when people pull into the cannery, the main entrance, they see a big barn to their right and behind that's a little barn. It was a tractor shed and it's perfect for repairing bikes. It's perfect for having used bikes available for people. We can give training sessions out there so it pretty much is just a great place for people to come to and whatever their questions are, whatever support they need, we want to help move them forward in their experience of bicycling and bike culture. Right and do you take donations of, I'm sure you take monetary donations but do you take bike donations as well and parts donations? Yes we do and as a matter of fact we survive on people's bike donations. People in Davis buy bikes which is wonderful. Sometimes they outgrow them or they decide they want to ride a different kind of bike and it's, and it's a good bike but maybe it's got a couple flap tires or whatever and they don't quite know what to do with it. We need that bike. We're going to have our mechanics thoroughly go through the bike. We call it upcycling. A little different than recycling. If the bike's too far gone sometimes that happens it's been left out in the rain for several years that sort of thing. Sometimes there's salvageable parts and we need those too and we have interns, young people that are being trained all the time on how to disassemble a bike and how to figure out which parts are still usable again and we want to reuse those parts when it's possible. So yes we need those donated bikes or any parts of pumps that kind of thing that people have that somebody else could use. That's excellent and so what is now that you have a Davis location and I assume that we will put up the hours as to when people can go there and visit you and visit the bike campaign and learn about bike safety, learning about bike mechanics and overall get on a bike and I assume maybe some winterizing technique tips and tricks too like fenders and lights and that type of thing. But what's next for the bike campaign or what do you have a future plans or is this the pandemic is I'm sure made you very busy. It has made us really busy and it really just reinforced for us the importance of letting the public know that they have a choice when it comes to how they're going to get their kids to school. No matter what and no matter if we're in Davis or in Woodland or probably anywhere in USA there's huge traffic congestion around every single school in the United States and it's shameful because it's dangerous it's toxic people sit and sometimes idle for 20-30 minutes close to a school just polluting the air that's around the school and these are some of our you know most vulnerable people in our community are kids that are going to these schools and maybe they have asthma and so we want to make sure that they have the opportunity to know that they have options. The city of Davis produces some wonderful maps on safest routes to school so we direct people to the city of Davis website getting around Davis and look for those safe routes to school maps and start riding with kids right now right now while your kids are doing distance learning get up in the morning eat breakfast get dressed and get on their bikes if they're young kids go with them up till maybe maybe fourth or fifth grade ride with your kids to school wave at their friends who also rode their bikes to school and then go back home again and then begin the distance learning day okay this gets a lot of oxygen going to the brain and ensures that these kids are going to do better when they have to sit down for the next several hours behind a computer screen. I know that for me personally getting out on the bike has been a saving grace during the pandemic I'm glad to hear that you're you're promoting the same type of activity well we've been I'm afraid we're running out of time so if there's anything else you'd like to add how do people get a hold of you do you have a website that they can go to yeah so it's very easy to find we're www.thebikecampaign.com the bikecampaign.com I'm fun Maria at sbcglobal.net people are welcome to contact me via email people can phone me and actually get their questions answered live which is an unusual thing doesn't happen that much anymore in most industries of any kind I take questions all day long people have every imaginable question and there's almost a bike for everybody even people that are starting to lose balance maybe have some physical limitations or are fearful they haven't ridden a bike or have maybe haven't ridden a bike since they were young there's solutions for just about everybody and the biggest thing that we love about it is it just brings a lot of joy and positive endorphins to people's brains and we want to share this and get more of our community up and rolling well you heard that Davis residents and anyone else watching take advantage of Maria being available to answer questions well thanks for joining us from your home today Maria we've been joined we've been talking to Maria Contreras-Tebbett founder of the bike campaign and the bike garage and with the exciting news that there's now bike garage and Davis for people who live in Davis and you've been watching in the studio the pandemic version where we're both from home as you can see and if you like the more information about the bike campaign go to thebikecampaign.com thanks again Maria for joining us and stay safe thank you Jeff


Of all the anti-aging clinic scams, the selling and administration of human growth hormone has been called perhaps the most blatant and organized form of quackery today. It all started, promisingly enough, with a small trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine in which 12 men over the age 60 who got injections of growth hormone gained 8 pounds of lean mass over a period of 6 months compared to 9 guys who weren't injected. Newspapers around the world heralded the results, anti-aging clinics popped up to offer the injections for $4,700 per month or more, and the popular press churned out books extolling the hormone's age-reversing properties. After all, that's how much muscle mass one might lose over 10 to 20 years of aging. That's assuming, though, that what they gained was muscle. The original study didn't measure muscle strength or performance, but larger, longer, and better, i.e. placebo-controlled studies subsequently did and found zero benefit. A meta-analysis of studies of growth hormone for athletic performance found that it may even worsen exercise capacity. Wait, how can you gain pounds of lean mass, but not get any stronger, by retaining pounds of water? The lean mass was mostly just due to fluid retention. In fact, obvious swelling, soft tissue edema, is one of the most common side effects of growth hormone, affecting about half of recipients. Other side effects include joint aches, carpal tunnel syndrome, male breast development, elevated blood sugars, and new-onset diabetes. All this with no evidence of anti-aging effects, if anything, growth hormone may actually accelerate the aging process. For example, those with acromegaly, a disease of excess growth hormone, suffer disproportionately from muscle weakness, as well as diabetes, high blood pressure, artery dysfunction, and bone loss. In the 1980s, doctors and parents conspired to inject short kids with growth hormone to try to make them grow taller. What happened to them? A study following thousands of children who were injected decades ago with growth hormone for one reason or another found they had a 33% increase risk of being dead, largely from brain bleeds and tumors. The strokes would make sense from blood pressure elevation, and the malignancies from the growth hormone-induced rise of the cancer-provoting growth hormone, IGF-1. 20,000 to 30,000 people in the US are estimated to use growth hormone in a vain attempt to combat aging, a practice referred to in a leading endocrinology journal as a medical fraud of unprecedented proportions. Given the adverse effects, maybe it's good that all the tested samples of human growth hormone, also known as somatotropin, sourced from online pharmacies were found to have a fraction of the labeled amount, presumably due to degradation from improper storage, and the majority of samples confiscated in another study were counterfeit and contained none at all. There's also proliferation of pills and nasal or sublingual spray forms that makes no biological sense, as the hormone is too large a protein to effectively cross membranes and if swallowed is simply destroyed in the stomach. Given the risk of cancer and potential for a shortened lifespan, one prominent clinician remarked that maybe growth hormone is a true anti-aging drug and that it may prematurely stop you from growing any older.