#Impact Hub Switzerland: Circular Economy Incubator 2020 launched

In early 2020, Impact Hub Switzerland will facilitate the second edition of its 3-month Incubator program for early-stage startups in the Circular Economy. As in the first edition, more than 25 projects from all over Switzerland will work on developing their minimum viable product (MVP) and validating their business model, supported by one-to-one mentoring sessions with experienced coaches, workshops, networking sessions, and access to the Swiss circular startup ecosystem and a pool of experts within the field of Circular Economy. The incubation phase takes place in their respective city at the Impact Hubs in Bern, Geneva, Lausanne and Zurich.

 

#Impact Hub Switzerland: Climathons 2019 in Basel, Geneva, Lausanne, Zürich and Ticino

Four Swiss Impact Hubs organized a Climathon this year. During this 24h climate hackathons, diverse teams work on finding solutions for previously set climate challenges. In Basel, for example, one challenge focused on urban bicycle concepts, teams in Lausanne worked on the topic “slow tourism”, in Geneva existing shared mobility concepts and the use of telephone conferences as a means of reducing CO2 emissions were examined, and in Zürich, participants found solutions for preventing urban heat islands and fostering urban gardening concepts. In Ticino, the Impact Hub Candidate team run a Circular Design Workshop during the Climathon Mendrisio.

 

#Impact Hub Switzerland: Switzerland Global Enterprise S-GE partners up with IHCH

Mid-October S-GE and Impact Hub Switzerland announced their partnership. The alliance brings together the leading expertise base for scaling businesses beyond Switzerland and the world’s largest network for social entrepreneurship. The aim is to give companies the tools to connect with the local innovation ecosystem in the target market, to enable lean entrance, and to give Swiss startups direct access to leading experts who support them in their international expansion. More info…

 

#Impact Switzerland: World Cafés on Digitalization, Artificial Intelligence and Society

During this year’s Digital Day, all six Impact Hub cities hosted local World Café Sessions on digitalization, AI and society together with Mercator Stiftung Schweiz. The World Cafés hosted over 250 citizens, politicians and journalists to discuss the implications of the digital transformation and artificial intelligence on the society in Switzerland. The results were analyzed and fed into a Swiss-wide research project together with digitalswitzerland and academia. We look forward to repeat this format as a pulse check into our local communities across the country on topics that matter to all of us.

 

#Impact Hub Basel: Grand Opening Party of Impact Hub Basel

On November 22, Impact Hub Basel celebrated its newly opened Community Coworking and Event space in the up and coming Dreispitz area of Basel! Around 400 community members, including partners, friends and families. The evening started with speeches from our Co-Founder Hanna Byland and Dr. Beat von Wartburg, director of Christoph Merian Stiftung, followed by the whole Impact Hub Basel team officially cutting the ribbon all together! Before our DJ, Dersu, got the party started we offered a program ranging from 3D printing & laser cutting over startup open stage and holacracy playshop with Xpreneurs to an eco wine tasting with Delinat. We are very happy and thankful for the successful evening.

More/other pictures: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1iAeVK7osekEEi3TFg-QagbpXPhYxTrq7

 

#Impact Hub Bern: 10’000 CHF for the Impact Hub Bern Community

In November, Impact Hub Bern had a powerful Community Gathering, where ideas were drafted, pitched and finally selected. The community had the unique chance to distribute 10’000 CHF offered by Impact Hub Bern. And the community voted for four different projects: Melanie Dellenbach’s Project Yes2Bodies about body diversity gets 5000 CHF for the build up of the national event Body Respect Day 2021. The coding academy for refugees Powercoders wins three memberships for refugees, sponsored by the Hub. Our Hubonaut and longtime member Olivier Stuker represented the community’s wish of an improvement of Impact Hub kitchen infrastructure – and got heard: 5’000 CHF are budgeted for this community idea. And, the fourth share went to Andrea Halmy’s project of a Startup Weekend for Women (9-11th September 2020). Since the team, including Impact Hub team members, already got enough funding, she kindly refused the price money. For more impressions check the Impact Hub Bern social media channels.

 

#Impact Hub Geneva & Lausanne: Accelerate2030 

The global phase of the Accelerate2030 scaling program kicked-off in October, with an intensive Scaling Week Geneva. Selected from over 1,100 applications, the 2019 global finalists represent a diverse cohort of impact-driven ventures covering numerous Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) including innovative solutions for rapid and inexpensive disease diagnostics, bioplastic from olive seeds, and using artificial intelligence in agriculture, to name only a few.

Accelerate2030 is an international program, co-initiated by UNDP and Impact Hub, supporting high-impact ventures tackling the SDGs to go to scale. Since 2016, the Accelerate2030 program has been implemented across 24 countries, covering 16 developing countries in this year’s edition. Partners include UNDP,  International Trade Centre, Pfizer, Amazon Web Services, UNAIDS, Boston Consulting Group and others. Have a look at some of the photos of the week here.

 

#Impact Hub Geneva: Factory17 – From the Building Bridges Week to the World Economic Forum 2020

On October 10th, Impact Hub Geneva hosted a unique public event – Factory17: Where the Magic Happens – at Geneva’s landmark building, the Bâtiment des Forces Motrice, with the support of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs and partners. The event was part of the Building Bridges Week, the first-ever week dedicated to sustainable finance held in Switzerland.

Accelerate2030 entrepreneurs along with other global visionaries, influencers, and disruptors shared their inspiring personal stories of how they undertook their Hero’s Journey towards creating a new, sustainable future. Check out the photos of the event!

Now, Impact Hub Geneva will host the next edition of Factory17 during the opening night 21.1.2020, of the World Economic Forum, at the House of Switzerland in Davos!

More pictures here.

 

#Impact Hub Zürich: Open Hub Day 2019

On November 22, Impact Hub Zürich opened its doors for the general public for the first time. Around 250 attendees took part in more than 25 workshops, panel discussions and product market by the community and partners like Engagement Migros, AXA, S-GE and Google Switzerland. This first edition’s overall focus topic was Radical Collaboration and has been discussed, reflected and shared throughout the whole program. Find all impressions here.

 

#Impact Hub Zürich: Switzerland’s first public podcast studio opened at Kraftwerk

It all started with meet-ups of podcast enthusiasts in Impact Hub Zürich’s coworking space. After many months of planning and stategy sessions, the “Podcast Tower” has been launched at Kraftwerk Zürich on November 18 as a collaborative pilot project between “Podcast Club Switzerland”, Impact Hub Zürich, Mercator Foundation Switzerland and Gebert Rüf Foundation. The Podcast Tower consists of its own community area on the 4th floor and a professional and public podcast studio on the 2nd floor of the Kraftwerk tower above the entrance. It enables professional recordings under guidance at a low price. The main goal is to make professional podcasting accessible to everyone, to strengthen the Swiss podcast community and to offer podcast trainings. Stay updated!

 

#Impact Hub Zürich: Collaborative book “Ecosystem Innovation” features 31 co-authors

In our complex, hyper-connected, technology-driven world, we need to work together across industries and sectors like never before. “Ecosystem Innovation” describes the process of new solutions and technologies emerging from collaboration and partnerships within a system of several organizations and individuals. The book was published by Kickstart Innovation, a subsidiary company of Impact Hub Zürich. It features articles by ETH Zurich, University of St.Gallen, ZHAW, Swisscom, digitalswitzerland, PwC Switzerland, WWF Switzerland and many more. Free download here.

 

#Impact Hub Ticino: Impacting while building the Impact Hub

Impact Hub Ticino is in the Candidate stage, that is, the co-founding team is working hard to open Impact Hub Ticino in Lugano in 2020. And the team has already begun to have an active role and an impact in Ticino. In August the team organized, during the Digital Day, a World Café in collaboration with the City of Lugano that involved the community on the theme of the Cities of the Future. In October, four members of the team facilitated a Circular Design Workshop during the Mendrisio Climathon. In November the team moderated a co-design session on Social Cohesion during the masterclass of Kate Raworth, creator of Doughnut Economics, with the Franklin University of Lugano.