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Thomas Maillart is the founding president of Open Geneva and a member of the faculty of economics and management at the University of Geneva. He looks back on the 7th edition of the Open Geneva Open Innovation Festival, which will take place from March 16 to 26, 2023 throughout Geneva.
Since 2017, Open Geneva has been organizing a unique annual innovation festival that aims to mobilize collective intelligence on the scale of a city like Geneva, which is rich in a huge diversity of people, both in terms of culture and expertise.
How can we imagine that innovation is a strong link between musicians, disabled people, refugees, retired people, researchers, journalists, students or international civil servants?
What is the idea. Open Geneva was born from the idea that all citizens together can improve the quality of life in Geneva. Innovation is not only the result of great scientific and technical discoveries, but also of a multitude of improvements, often "low tech", to which all citizens can actively contribute every day with the means at their disposal.
This "open" practice of innovation has very positive consequences on the social link, learning, quality and social acceptability of innovation.
How it works. The rapid changes and complexity of the world in which we live increase both the opportunities for innovation and the difficulties of finding viable and, above all, socially acceptable solutions. To find them, a great diversity of perspectives is needed, with the risk that they collide. Reconciling and synthesizing points of view so that the whole is more than the sum of its parts is the science of collective intelligence.
Hackathons, these innovation marathons that last 12, 24 or 48 hours with the objective of finding practical solutions to concrete problems, are one way to address these issues.
They also have social benefits, as shown in a recent study conducted in collaboration with the Unige. It was observed that social interactions are strengthened, that learning and contributing in a fun and non-judgmental work environment tends to strongly increase citizens' motivation, commitment, as well as their pride in contributing to common good goals.
At the interface between society and technology. In order to preserve the search for diversity, the Open Geneva festival does not put forward a theme. However, each year some strong topics stand out. For the 2023 edition, innovation at the interface between society and technology takes an important place.
Some examples:
- Open Geneva will propose to citizens to to contribute to the design of autonomous public transportation by 2026, in collaboration with the Unige, the TPG and the Canton.
- On the other hand, Edgelands Institute offers a workshop to inventory the places of digital surveillance in Geneva.
- Finally, a collective offers a fun workshop "paper, pencils to demystify the blockchain".
To enhance the Festival experience beyond these events, Open Geneva in collaboration with Digital Content Marketplace Swiss, is offering Festival attendees the opportunity to learn about NFT technology. Everyone will be able to download an NFT in the form of a QRcode giving access to free products and services from numerous partners in the city (bar, café, bakery, wine cellar...).
The international touch. In 2017, a delegation from the prestigious Tsinghua University (Beijing) visited Geneva during the first Open Geneva festival. Following this visit, a similar festival was organized in 2019 on the Tsinghua campus in China.
With the support of the DFA and Unitar, this initiative has spread throughout Southeast Asia. Numerous open innovation festivals and hackathons, under the label SDG Open Hack! have been held in Singapore, Vientiane (Laos), Bangkok, Bali, Lalitpur (Nepal) and in several Chinese cities.
In this way, Geneva inspires the world through a collective approach to innovation that increases its social acceptability while strengthening social ties and education. In this spirit, the Open Geneva Festival opens each year with the Geneva Trialoguea day of international dialogue on innovation and education for sustainable development, co-organized with Unitar and Unige.
Some other events not to be missed.
- Inclusive music festival where deaf and hearing people will mix to share together an inclusive and festive cultural event.
- Living Lab Hackahealth: engineering for people with disabilities
- Dare to develop your potential!: Entrepreneurship Awareness Workshop for Refugees and Migrants.
