The ability to innovate is an essential skill for today's students. In a complex and often uncertain world, they must not only master existing knowledge and technologies, but also be creative and learn to collaborate across disciplinary boundaries to meet the challenges of our societies.
Open Geneva contributes to one of the fundamental missions of the University, that of sharing widely the knowledge produced by its researchers, as well as the ideas and skills of its students. By offering meeting places between the university community and society (companies, public services, international organisations, citizens, etc.), by developing tools for the exchange of knowledge and information, and by providing a forum for the exchange of ideas, Open Geneva is able to contribute to the development of the University's mission. By offering meeting places between the university community and society (companies, public services, international organisations, citizens, etc.), by developing tools to promote the ideas and projects that emerge from these meetings, and by encouraging the emergence of a community of citizen innovation, Open Geneva is today an important player in the Geneva landscape.
Open Geneva is above all the story of a meeting between people who are passionate about technology and innovation. AKKA and Open Geneva share a common vision of how companies, societies and administrations will evolve in this new disruptive technological era. The same applies to the importance of investing in our young potential, the growing role of continuing education, the importance of technology but also of soft skills, and the central role of people in the appropriation and exploitation of new technologies.
Geneva is historically a crossroads of innovation and the AKKA Group, as the European leader in engineering consultancy and R&D services in the mobility sector in particular, wishes through Open Geneva to contribute to the debate on the evolution of uses and the development of the technologies and systems of tomorrow.
For five years now, Open Geneva has been celebrating innovation throughout the canton. For one week, hackathons come to life, bringing together academics, citizens and companies in search of new ways to improve our quality of life. The State of Geneva fully supports this initiative, convinced that the strength of networks enables us to build a promising future in which large companies benefit from the agility of SMEs. It is also through collective intelligence that citizens become involved in the paradigm shifts brought about by digital acceleration and that researchers imagine personalised care with their patients. Open innovation puts people back at the centre. For Geneva, the cradle of the World Wide Web, of human rights and of the very notion of sustainable development, it is essential that the human being regains its fundamental place as the driving force of innovation.
The HUG has placed innovation at the heart of its strategic plan for the constructive participation of its employees and users. They support Open Geneva because it is through this type of open, cooperative, multidisciplinary and inspiring approach that cultural transformations can take place, allowing everyone to truly "make a difference".
Hewlett Packard Enterprise is pleased to once again be a partner of the Open Geneva 2019 festival and to support open innovation in Geneva through it. In 2019, HPE launched its Internet of Things (IOT) innovation centre in Geneva and its programme to support and mentor local startups active in this field.
Innovation has been at the heart of our corporate culture and the pride of our employees since we were founded by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard in what became known as Silicon Valley.
One of the objectives of the HES-SO Geneva and its six schools is to encourage and stimulate the emergence of innovative and interdisciplinary entrepreneurial projects among its student community. We are therefore delighted to be collaborating with the Open Geneva festival, which promotes collective intelligence in order to respond to multiple societal challenges.
Innovation is especially important for the Swiss economy, which is based on products and services with high added value. By pooling knowledge and creating synergies between people or institutions that would not normally come into contact, open innovation is an effective way to respond intelligently to the economic and social challenges of our time. It is also a tool particularly suited to SMEs. It is for all these reasons that the CCIG has been a partner of Open Geneva since last year.
At Coty, innovation is at the heart of product and service development. In beauty, the total value is not only in the product itself, but also in the know-how, innovation and various services that go with it. Our innovation is based on knowing the consumer, and finding solutions to their problems through emerging platforms and technologies. Creating real solutions to unmet consumer needs is a key approach to how we drive growth in our industry, beauty. We are delighted to be partnering with Open Geneva and contributing to innovation in Switzerland.
SIG is at the heart of open innovation, energy transition and the Smart City in our canton. We actively support the hackathons organised by OpenGeneva with the aim of making Geneva more civic-minded, more sustainable and more connected.
More than two hundred different professions work together at Geneva Airport to ensure the smooth running of the establishment. This complex alchemy requires a collective intelligence that would not be able to develop its effects if the skills of the different professions did not come together. Open Geneva is committed to scientific sharing. From time immemorial, researchers have learned to enrich their knowledge in networks. Between them, intelligence is exchanged, knowledge is enriched and progress takes shape. By supporting Open Geneva, Geneva Airport is proud to pay tribute to the transfer of grey matter, a reality experienced daily on our platform.