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JOB POSITION: COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER

Date: December 5, 2023

Apply by: 24 December 2023

Start date: immediate 

Contract: full-time

Location: Geneva (with occasional remote) @ SDG Solution Space, EPFL Innovation Park

Contact: send resume + cover letter to talents@opengeneva.org

About Open Geneva

Open Geneva is a non-profit association dedicated to promoting and stimulating open innovation. With the Collective Intelligence First initiative, Open Geneva is pioneering collaborative knowledge production via collective intelligence and citizen participation. The objective is to concretely address significant challenges related to climate change, environment, technology, and society, as well as position and promote Geneva as a key platform to practice collective intelligence programs.

We're looking for

We are seeking a talented and energetic communications manager with a passion for innovation to help us build the brand and the content of Open Geneva and its Collective Intelligence First program. This person will be directly involved in the creation, planning and execution of online campaigns. We are a small team of 3 full-time, working very much as a startup. This is a fast-paced environment with lots of opportunities to learn, be creative and gain critical experience. 

The position is based in Geneva, full-time and reports directly to Open Geneva's Director. 

Key responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Develop and implement communication strategies to build and enhance the brand of the Collaborative Intelligence First program.
• Craft narratives that will allow the brand to resonate with the existing Open Geneva community as well as a larger audience. 
• Create content, including written materials, videos, and other assets, for social media platforms, newsletters, and other communication channels.
• Oversee and manage social media accounts to promote the program, drive engagement, and foster a sense of community.
• Monitor campaigns, report on metrics and adjust strategy accordingly to optimize impact.
• Assist with event planning and organization.
• Prepare pitch materials for key partners.
• Act as a liaison between the program, international organizations and other strategic partners.

Experience / Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in communications, marketing field preferred.
• Fluency in French and English.
• Strong interest in the fields of technological innovation and the media (good knowledge of AI platforms). 
• Familiarity with international organizations and a global mindset.
• Excellent written, verbal and interpersonal communication skills.
• Fluency in digital media, video, mobile, display, social platforms (including basic graphic design and video editing skills).
• Ability to learn quickly, think on the fly and self-teach as required.

How to Apply:

Please submit your resume and cover letter to talents@opengeneva.org   

Deadline: December 24 

Start date: immediate 

Faced with major challenges such as climate, environmental, technological and societal change, organizations are looking for new ways to find concrete solutions to these problems, in order to turn them into opportunities. It is becoming increasingly clear that these solutions need to be the fruit of radical innovation if they are to continue to occupy high-potential niches in a rapidly changing world. 

However, the problem with radical innovations for organizations is that they require significant adaptation of the production tool, and therefore high investment costs. So-called "architectural" or "modular" innovation appears to be a solution that combines the best of both worlds (1): it involves inventing radical innovations by adding a small number of new components that fit together correctly, i.e. in a modular way, with existing components (2). These components may be completely new and created for the occasion by the organization. They may also, more likely, be sourced from outside the organization. Radical-modular innovation thus arises from the constructive confrontation between traditional R&D within the organization and open innovation, which can rapidly scan a large number of external components that can be intelligently combined with components already mastered by the organization.

Even when modular, radical innovation remains complicated in a changing, and therefore highly uncertain, world. According to the principle of option theory (3), the more uncertain the future, the more diversified the options. This means exploring a vast array of possible solutions to find and integrate the "rare pearls". Collective intelligence (4) helps to explore these vast solution spaces, by diversifying perspectives: the more people there are, and the more diverse their profiles, in terms of expertise and culture, the greater the chances of finding a viable non-trivial solution. 

In concrete terms, the challenge of bringing out collective intelligence is to organize the collision of perspectives in a group of people with diverse profiles, and then to integrate the relevant knowledge of each into a solution that is more than the sum of its parts. To this end, a number of recommendations can be made:

• Organize collective intelligence sessions in a third location, if possible an emblematic and inspiring one, mixing internal and external people, in both cases well chosen for their rebellious but benevolent spirit (5). In these sessions, there are no experts, coaches or facilitators; everyone has the same social status, that of people working together to find solutions (6).
• Provide a clear social impact goal (i.e., purpose) that allows participants to project themselves and invest their intrinsic motivation beyond the contingencies of "daily business", 
• Give enough time, but not too much, to converge on a concrete solution (i.e., 8, 12 or 24 hours). The time limit and the objective of a concrete solution force participants to look together for possible solutions, but also to quickly set aside those that are the least relevant.

(1) Henderson, Rebecca M., and Kim B. Clark. "Architectural innovation: The reconfiguration of existing product technologies and the failure of established firms." Administrative science quarterly (1990): 9-3

(2) Note: These components can be "hardware" but also "software", i.e. they can be software code or any other kind of intellectual property or knowledge.

(3) Van Bekkum, Sjoerd, Enrico Pennings, and Han Smit. "A real options perspective on R&D portfolio diversification." Research Policy 38.7 (2009): 1150-1158.

(4) Malone, Thomas W. "How human-computer 'superminds' are redefining the future of work." MIT Sloan management review (2018).

(5) Gino, Francesca. Rebel talent: Why it pays to break the rules at work and in life. Pan Macmillan, 2018.

(6) Note: differences in social status within a group generate self-censorship, which is detrimental to collective intelligence.

"Maria Beltran is not a geek, even though her work today consists mainly of interacting with screens. {...} This need to be grounded in reality leads Maria Beltran to believe that the future of virtual reality and augmented reality technologies will take shape with mixed reality."

Discover her portrait in this last episode of our Exploration in collaboration with Heidi.news!

To subscribe to this media partner of Open Geneva: https://www.heidi.news/abonnements

"The third portrait of this Exploration is that of a face who is certainly discreet, but who is well known to some of the public in French-speaking Switzerland. A former presenter at Couleur 3, Serge Gremion has led the Tataki project at RTS - Radio Télévision Suisse, a real success story that allows the public service to forge links with young people.

Discover her portrait in this third episode of our Exploration in collaboration with Heidi.news!

To subscribe to this media partner of Open Geneva: https://www.heidi.news/abonnements

"In recent years, I have been deconstructing the notion of innovation associated with technology. For me, innovation is not necessarily something revolutionary. It can be small steps, adapting tools that we already use in other situations. Discover the portrait of Stéphanie Reusse in this second episode of our Exploration in collaboration with Heidi.news!

To subscribe to this media partner of Open Geneva: https: //www.heidi.news/abonnements

The period of confinement was conducive to creativity and agility. 

We took advantage of this suspended time to reinvent our open innovation practices, acquire new knowledge, develop strong collaborations, take part in collective intelligence events and strengthen our skills in a digital world.

Open Geneva's resilience was not a challenge: it is an attitude that has guided us since the beginning of the adventure. Yet we seized the opportunity to rethink our tools and processes globally. We had a duty to fully deploy our mission in a context where the ability to innovate is existential.

By participating in the organisation of online hackathons, such as versusvirus or EUvsVirus, we have experienced and learned how to design virtual innovation events. The challenge of distance learning has encouraged us to further develop our digital tools, in particular the Sparkboard Open Geneva. In a few weeks, the Sparkboard will be ready to organise online hackathons. We have been considering new forms of social interaction to facilitate collective intelligence, even at a distance from each other.

We have stayed the same: we will continue to learn, we will test new open innovation practices, we will organise events both face-to-face and online, and we will provide our community with new tools!

This is the model of innovation based on collaboration and the free sharing of knowledge, including the use of free licenses in a spirit of open source. 

The Open Geneva festival is an opportunity to practice together differently to change the culture of innovation!

Register > www.opengeneva.org

#opengeneva #openinnovation 

You are probably wondering what the Sparkbaord is and especially what it can do for you? 

Have a look here and discover how one of the biggest hackathons of the Open Geneva festival uses this platform to manage its event!

The sparkboard allows you to promote your event to the general public, and facilitates the organisation of your hackathon, in particular to present your challenges and build your teams. It also allows you to follow the projects that have emerged from your event and encourages direct contact between innovators and the accelerator programmes in the Lake Geneva region.

Discover the Sparkboard user guide > https://opengeneva.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Guide-Sparkboard.pdf

At the end of November, the 1st SDG Innovation Festival was organised on the campus of Tsinghua University in collaboration with the Geneva Tsinghua Initiative. This festival is inspired by the Open Geneva innovation festival. Thanks to the UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UNITAR (United Nations Institute for Training and Research) for his testimony! Listen to his message > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzV3k1j7DxI