INTERVIEW WITH BEN PANTHER FROM “WIRKUNG.LIVE“ The year 2021 brought a lot of new things. Admittedly, most of us will probably view the past year with mixed feelings. But there are still positive stories in these times. Two companies for which the year 2021 brought a big change were Eventpanther GmbH and GH Prosound. What exactly happened, Ben Panther tells us in this interview. Ben, fi rst of all, thank you for your availability for the interview. Can you please introduce yourself briefl y to our readers? Thanks for the invitation. I’m Ben, founder and one of the managing di- rectors of WIRKUNG.live GmbH, an expert in event psychology and That sounds like an exciting story. What were the reasons for the mer- ger and how did it come about? The whole story started one evening in January last year. In the middle of Co- rona time, we were discussing the next steps over a glass of wine or two. Both companies had joked in the past that they would eventually take over the other. Well, in January, the idea came up to achieve much more together than alone. It made sense to everyone: just one accounting department, more staff, more materials, and a larger fl eet. Not only does it feel better for every- one involved, but it also gives our cus- tomers more security. It also allows us to handle larger projects. Schönbrunn Palace was a highlight in itself! Cool music, perfect weather, and fi nally open-air music again! The visi- tors celebrated. Another highlight was the Euro Fi- nance Week of the Deutscher Fach- verlag (dfv) in Frankfurt. The event is one of the leading fi nancial industry events in Frankfurt. We designed a fantastic hybrid event for it at Kap Eu- ropa, which combined tradition and trends in equal measure. And then there was the opening of the TESLA Gigafactory in Grünheide, which we also had the pleasure to technically equip. Europe’s big- gest trailer stage, over 300 mov- live directing - and also very knowledgeable in the fi eld of dig- ital and hybrid events since 2020. We already mentioned it in the introduction: There was a big change with you or your compa- ny last year. What was that exactly? Right. We have created one big com- pany out of two. Eventpanther GmbH, based near Frankfurt, and GH Pro- sound, based near Würzburg, became “WIRKUNG.live”. By the way, now with just fi nished new headquarters with over 2,000 m² warehouse and three loading docks - which makes our tech crew very happy. 66 INTERVIEWS “DESPITE VIDEO CONFERENCING AND ing lights and four trailers full of DIGITAL EVENTS, PEOPLE WANT TO CELEBRATE, NETWORK, AND SHAKE HANDS TOGETHER.” The new WIRKUNG.live company then also immediately attracted at- tention with large projects - we also reported on the event in the court- yard of Schönbrunn Palace in Vien- na in our last issue. Looking back, is there an event or a job that has par- ticularly stuck in your memory from the past year? That’s right, being able to provide the technology - that was cool! In addition to the great events, there were certainly also more diffi cult times in 2021. What were the biggest challenges for you in the fi rst year as a newly merged company? Well, the fi rst year is still going on. WIRKUNG.live has only been around since September 2021, and there are many challenges. We won’t talk about Corona and the planning uncertainty. It’s mainly the little things. I always say: people do business with people technical equipment for the event at - not with companies. So we’re doing