Enschede, Budapest and then…? Mannheim! The spring Agora 2013 will take place in South-West Germany! While originally also AEGEE-Katowice announced that they will candidate (see this Youtube video), but then decided to do it ater, there was finally only one serious contester: a group of antennae from South-West Germany handed in its application after several discussion and coordination meetings for a possible common candidature. On 26th of April 2012 they finally got the good news from the CD: they got the Agora! Already a few months ago the Golden Times spoke with the planning team of the Rhine-Neckar region, named after its two main rivers.

Golden Times: Some German antennae are thinking about organising the spring Agora in 2013 together. How did you get the idea?
Planning Team: Over the past few years the cooperation amongst our Rhine-Neckar area has constantly improved, and apart from regular meetings, several antennae also assemble for projects such as Summer Universities. Now we want to take advantage of this fruitful cooperation in order to organise an Agora together in 2013.

Golden Times: Which antennae are involved?
Planning Team: Up to this point we have team members from Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Kaiserslautern and Mainz-Wiesbaden. Furthermore, the antennae Darmstadt, Karlsruhe and Mannheim have stated their interest in supporting the project. More concrete, the following members of our team are: Alexander Sieber from AEGEE-Kaiserslautern, Alexandra Becker, Alexandra Stefanov, Benjamin Röck, Sebastian Hitz and Stephanie Müller from AEGEE-Heidelberg, Benjamin Doll from AEGEE-Mainz-Wiesbaden and last but not least Kay Lieker and Olivier Genkin from AEGEE-Frankfurt.

Golden Times: Quite some experienced members. You had a couple of meeting regarding this topic in the last two weeks. What was the general sentiment? Enthusiasm?
Planning Team: Yes, the reaction was completely enthusiastic and positive! Everyone was very much in favour of contributing to the realisation of this project.

Golden Times: Why can’t one German antenna organise it alone?
Planning Team: Most of the German antennae lack the necessary human resources for organising an Agora on their own. We believe this is the main problem of organising an Agora in Germany. The idea of the current project is to take advantage of the geographical proximity of our locals and to merge our human resources and our knowledge.

Golden Times: There was only one Agora in Germany in the past 13 years. Are there other reasons except for human resources?
Planning Team: Another problem that we are facing right now is the missing university support. In order to overcome these obstacles we decided to team up, to combine our strengths, and to benefit from the synergistic effects.

Golden Times: Will there be also pre or post events in this area?
Planning Team: We did not discuss this yet. However, with six antennae in the neighbourhood of each other, it will be likely.

Golden Times: Which city would you choose for the Agora?
Planning Team: Originally we planned to do it in Heidelberg. However, the university support was not so strong, whereas the support from the city authorities in Mannheim is excellent!

Golden Times: Would it be the spring or autumn Agora? And how big is the chance in percentage that you will actually apply?
Planning Team: 99%! It will be the Spring Agora Rhein Neckar 2013.