The first part was a short thank you speech, followed by a thematic reflexion about the main thematic idea of the conference and the talks to come. The speech addressed the striking similarities and yet notable differences between a few philosophical concepts of Jean-Paul Sartre and Emmanuel Levinas, describing their relationship as a missend encounter and their philosophies as marked by thematic proximity and distance at the same time.
Thus, bringing forth the idea of a dialog between the two thinkers or their respecitve philosophies which was then conducted by the talks of the conference.