Talks 2021

Son Nguyen

What you should pass on to your children

Son Nguyen shared with us a very personal story about his family, the Vietnam war, immigration to another country, overcoming cultural barriers and the pursuit of a better life. Ultimately, this story of him will give you an idea worth spreading: Son’s conviction on what should be passed on to our children.

Stefan Frenademez

Unexpected – Everything as it comes

How many times do we think about how wonderful it was to be a child and discover everything new? But how often do we, as adults, allow those unexpected moments to happen? Stefan shared with us an experience in which he showed us, why a lion killer and a conversation about the moon landing had a big impact on him and what he, and hopefully everyone of us, can learn from it for everyday life.

Julian Däster

Sustainable nutrition without thinking

Do you want to know how to eat more sustainable food without thinking? Sustainable nutrition is key for protecting our environment. Food related impacts are contributing up to 30% of the ecological damage in Switzerland. Julian introduced us to a life-changing concept that can lead us back to ecological and tasty products. The concept was developed by his father with a group of pioneers 40 years ago and is more relevant today than ever. Let Julian take you on a journey back to his childhood.

Andrea Bircher

Consider your work as an opportunity for a more relaxed family life

Balancing a career and a family requires a lot of energy. Driven by the initial question how to cope with mental load in her family life, Andrea challenged the dogmatic separation of work and family in favor of an overlapping approach. By integrating aspects of her work life, Andrea found a way to reduce stress in the daily routine of her family life and gain time for those things that really matter. On a very practical level she told us in her talk: How she got there, what tools and leadership principles were successful and which pitfalls occurred along the way.

Swen Sponagel

How cannabis can help to feed 10bn people by 2050 

Our global population could reach 10 billion by 2050. To feed that many people, our agriculture needs to be 60-70% more productive than today. There are possible solutions in play today such as genetically modified food. But GMO causes one big dilemma: some countries might not allow it, and some consumers might not want to eat it. To address the global food shortage, we need innovative solutions that are accepted by us, the consumers. What if Swen was able to tell us that we could learn everything there is to know to solve the world food shortage problem from cannabis breeding?

Tabea Oppliger

Social Business: The Balancing Act Between Head and Heart

A profitable social business is often conflicting and paradoxical. In order to become economically sustainable, employee productivity needs to be at the forefront. However, choosing to employ individuals with an unstable emotional and mental capacity affects productivity, efficiency, economic sustainability and stability. Tabea Oppliger shared with us more about the balancing act between the head and heart of a social business with real life stories and experience.

Jean-Philippe Hagmann

How our striving for data constantly undermines agility

Agility is the ability to deal with complex change. One of the biggest enemies of organizational agility comes in the form of a savior that hardly anyone questions: the requirement to have robust data for everything.

Data is the new gold, right? We live in an age of numbers – of KPIs, of statistics, of data accumulation. In this talk, Jean-Philippe Hagmann explored the question of whether measurement is not only useless in many cases, but can often even be harmful. And whether not measuring in our age of numbers might actually be a competitive advantage and promote agility.

Mylène Thiébaud

How to de-dramatize failure and turn it into success?

It was the 21st of September 2017. One day before Mylène turned 40. It’s 9.00 in the morning and Mylène just got fired. Her brain was exploding and emotions overwhelm her. Mylène was furious, disappointed, sad, full of fears and she felt extremely lonely. In her very personal talk, Mylène shared with us the 3 thoughts and life lessons that helped her de-dramatize the situation in her car this morning. Furthermore, Mylène showed us why coping better with failure is one of the most important skills to have as a leader today.

Angela Matthes

Learning the Power of Vulnerability in Leadership

The world around us is changing at an ever-faster pace. And a leader is no longer expected to be infallible (which they weren’t) or to have all the answers (which they didn’t). Today’s and tomorrow’s leaders admit they don’t have all the answers and they make mistakes too. They are always learning! They create an environment where everyone can learn and grow to be their best and make their greatest contribution to the company. Angela shared with us in her talk a profound encounter with the power of vulnerability during her transition that led her believe that vulnerability is a superpower in leadership.

Patrick Heinz

Change your world by changing perspectives

Perception is anything but objective, we often see only what we want to see – through our own eyes and from our very own point of view. Sometimes we are so stuck in our beliefs and firmly convinced that we no longer question something. This is where perspective-taking comes into play. A direct way of changing our world by becoming more open-minded, enhancing human relationships, strengthening our decision-making ability and taking action. The question begs to be asked: How do we get there? Frankly, perspective-taking is a matter of attitude adjustment. Bear with Patrick and become inspired…

Kevin Lötscher

The playmaker is YOU

Imagine that as a child you dream of becoming a professional ice hockey player. The dream becomes a reality, but one day your dream is shredded by a car!
You try to live your dream all over again. But then you realize that it will never make you happy again. You stop trying to fight your way back. After hard times, taking professional help and finding yourself again, you want to share your experiences with others, give them hope and show them what it’s really all about! Dive into this very touchy and personal story of Kevin Lötscher…

Peter Bolliger

How to follow your enthusiasm and make a living from it

In his talk, Peter told us about the importance of doing, learning, and pursuing something that we’re really passionate about. Peter shared his very personal story about how he went from being a broke backpacker sleeping in hostels for $2 a night to becoming an entrepreneur and making a living doing something ​that he really enjoys.