From the 10^th-14^th of August, the city center of Stuttgart was crowded with people of different ages: they were there to celebrate Mercedes Benz’s 125^th anniversary. As part of the event, the mb! Lounge was built. Here new and environmentally-friendly Mercedes Benz cars as well as the newest technologies and inventions were presented.

But not only cars could be found in the mb! Lounge: A big part of the the exhibition was Pangaea. Sixteen Young Explorers gathered to pass on their experience and knowledge about YEP. In different workshops the youths could learn about the Pangaea expeditions and how they can make a difference by living more environmentally friendly.

Every workshop, organized by two to four YEPs, was a great success. It was great to see the facial expressions of the participants change: In the beginning, some of the participants weren’t very motivated, however a by the end of the hour, many of the teenagers were really enthusiastic about the project and decided to apply for one of the two final expeditions! They clearly became infected by the exploration virus…

Exploration was also the topic of Mike Horn’s TrendTalk on Thursday evening, which was definitely the highlight of the third day! People were totally silent when Mike passed on his experience about Latitude Zero, the Arktos and the Amazon river expedition. When he finally showed a short video sequence of him fighting on the last few meters on top of an 8000-meter mountain without any additional oxygen, the auditorium was completely quiet…

For us Young explorers these few days in Stuttgart were definitely an incredible time and a perfect platform to pass on our own experiences and discuss the topics we love with other people: exploration, sustainability and preservation of the environment…