Open Geneva: The Faces of Innovation Meet Up in Geneva Switzerland April 9-15, 2018

Geneva Switzerland is hosting "Open Geneva, the Open Innovation Festival for Science Technology and Society " from April 9-15, 2018. This festival is organized by Open Geneva, a Swiss non-profit association. Aligned on the United Nations SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), the objective of this festival is to promote innovation by gathering everyone willing to share their ideas, skills, competencies and resources to invent our future world through a series of events. Thirty Hackathons, Open Doors, Conferences and incubation Workshops are taking place over the festival week. The Final Hack Show, Sunday, April 15, closes the event. There the broader public will meet the festival participants and see their projects developed during the week.

In 2015 for its first edition, Open Geneva gathered teams around a common objective: improve Geneva's quality of life with Energy, Healthcare and Mobility focused projects. After two successful years, Open Geneva grew up to become a true Open City festival in 2017. That year, more than 20 hackathons gathered 400 participants with a common objective: Share their ideals, competencies and experience, imagining solutions to improve our society life. These consecutive successes confirm that Geneva hosts a true Open Innovation spirit and engagement.

Innovation and creative potential can be felt everywhere in Geneva during the Open Geneva festival: In schools and research institutes of course - the University of Geneva and the HES-SO Genève are historical event partners - but also in private enterprises, public structures, foundations as well as representatives of the International Geneva landscape. The strong engagement from local citizens wanting to engage in their local society helping improve their day-to-day life is to be noted.

The Open Geneva association, created in October 2017, has set itself a mission to grow the value of this innovation potential by fostering and gathering all innovators, helping give life to their ideas and helping communicate their projects to support their development.

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Thomas Verduyn, winner of the 2017 Smart City Hack and a student of HEC Lausanne University with his team's project "Légumes perchés" testifies: "The most decisive element for us has been the support we enjoyed right after the hackathon. We were able to establish many contacts, meetup many people that listened to us and helped us grow when challenges arose. The Open Geneva festival website mapped all hackathon projects and shared our project information broadly. As a result, many students contacted us to offer their help." Early 2018, "Legume Perchés" has become an association with 12 members developing many new projects. Each project does not automatically require big funding but often a "kick-start support." During the 2018 Open Geneva festival, "Légumes Perchés" will be one of the five associations teams benefiting from BNP Paribas' support with professional coaches support and a hosting in the bank's incubator "Colibri." To fulfill its mission, Open Geneva has engaged with partners who all share the desire to transform Geneva's creativity into opportunities, in fields as varied as social innovation, smart cities, digital humanities, healthcare, humanitarian engagement and earth observation and in alignment with the UN sustainable development goals (SDG).

"The State of Geneva supports Open Geneva. This Open Innovation Festival anchors collective innovation at the heart of our Canton," said Nicholas Niggli, director general, Economic Development, Research & Innovation at Republic and State of Geneva.

"In a spirit of openness and creativity, the City of Geneva Switzerland is pleased to support the Open Geneva festival," Sandrine Salerno, vice-mayor, City of Geneva, Programme G'innove.

For this 2018 edition, this week-long festival will gather 30 hackathons, conferences, Open Doors and Workshops all over Geneva. The watchwords? Collaborate, Share, Challenge, Innovate and have some fun together!

The highlight: Sunday, April 15, the Hack Show at the "Espace Hippomène" of the HEAD Campus in Geneva Switzerland. Hackathons participants will present their solutions to the broad public as well as festival partners that will help them develop their projects forward: i.e., media representatives, accelerators, public and private enterprises, associations, etc. (free entrance on registration: opengeneva.org/hackshow).

More information: www.opengeneva.org