GVA2 sponsors a team at the Lift:Lab
03.06.2017
The GVA2 association supports the "GEnIAL" citizen project within the Lift:Lab
The Urban Entrepreneur project is an incubator of ideas initiated about 5 years ago by Lift. It allows projects linked to “the smart city” to move from the concept and idea stage to the concretization and implementation stage. Through supervised workshops by academics and experts from across the fields of technology, marketing, prototyping, innovation methodology and coaching the Lift:Lab helps to develop projects around three themes:
1. Food and agriculture
2. Transport and mobility
3. Energy and the environment
After being approached by the Lift team to provide support, GVA2 chose a project called Conversational Responsive City.
This project aims to simplify the link between the citizens and the public authorities by facilitating administrative procedures, whether they are administrative or simply a search for information. A conversational platform will be created which will serve as a basis for the installation of chatbots. Thanks to artificial intelligence and the speed of connections, chatbots make it possible to avoid human intervention to answer practical questions. These will be developed according to the needs of the citizens.
A major innovation of the project is to offer user experiences adapted to all types of profiles (from chat integrated in Facebook Messenger to voice interfaces such as Siri or Alexa) and to allow children as well as elderly to effectively access this service.
Concerning the artificial intelligence and 'machine learning', the project approach is to develop an evolutionary system which will allow the algorithms to be improved according to the opportunities to collaborate with specialized Swiss research laboratories. The idea is eventually to foster the link between citizens through the sum of the information that will have been made available with this system.
The project will also consider all the security and privacy issues in this type of service.
The GVA2 team is very enthusiastic about participating in this project during the Lift:Lab and will continue to support it beyond! We will of course keep you informed of future developments!
Meet the Makers on the Blockchain with Alp ICT
06.25.2018
Second Meet the Makers session organised with our partner Alp ICT on the Geneva Boat
For this second session of “Meet the Makers” organized with Alp ICT, we have chosen to meet actors from the Blockchain field.
We had the opportunity to discover the different cases of application of this technology on the Geneva State, thanks to the presentation of Vincent Pignon, CEO of WeCan.Fund and digital advisor to the State of Geneva. A demonstration of the solution developed at SICPA, by Philippe Thévoz, Executive Vice-President eGovernment Systems, offered the participants a concrete visualization of the advantages offered by the blockchain. A demystification of ICO's by Emilie Raffo, Business Manager at Torus Solutions, helped to understand the full potential offered by this new financing solution. A presentation of the numerous cases of applications developed in Geneva within the Fongit, by its director Antonio Gambardella. And finally, a prospective vision of the societal and human responsibilities induced by the blockchain thanks to Jean-Henri Morin, professor at the University of Geneva.
This event took place on the Bateau Genève in the magnificent setting of La Rade and was attended by nearly 60 people.
GVA2 supports Sculpture Garden
06.08.2018
"Sculpture Garden", support for the contemporary art biennale at Parc des Eaux-Vives
A partnership was concluded between artgenève/sculptures and GVA2 to support the organization of a large-scale contemporary art biennale that will be part of Geneva's other major contemporary art summer fairs in Europe. The first edition takes place from June to September 2018 at Parc des Eaux-Vives.
To give the event a local and international influence, our association supports the organizers for the fundraising part with the help of our collaborator Renate Cornu. We have raised almost all the necessary funds and are waiting for confirmation from other potential sponsors.
A vernissage in the presence of Sami Kanaan, Mayor of Geneva, Lionel Bovier, director of the Mamco and curator of the exhibition, as well as officials of the FMAC, partner of the event, took place on 8 June, bringing together more than 200 people. On this occasion we had the opportunity to witness Roman Signer's performance on Le Jet d'eau. A video of the highlights of this event is visible by clicking on this link.
Collaboration GVA2 - HEAD Geneva
02.09.2018
HEAD and GVA2 collaborated in a competition for an artistic intervention in the parks of Geneva
GVA2 approached HEAD's Bureau d' Intervention Publique (BIP) to organize a student competition to improve the experience of park walkers. The goal was to make the parks attractive and increase visitation as well as the popularity of the parks.
Guiding principles were drafted to frame the approach, and GVA2 trusted the teachers to specify the pedagogical aspects of the approach, leaving a great freedom for students.
In the end, no fewer than eight projects were presented to a jury composed of teachers, a representative of the Service des espaces verts, a teacher from HEPIA and members of our association's committee. The projects presented surprised us very pleasantly by their originality, their degree of achievement as well as by the intellectual and creative approach that guided the students.
The winning project, entitled "L'autre bout du monde", proposes to install a sculpture depicting the island of Chatham, located on the opposite side of Geneva in the New Zealand archipelago. Located not far from our "Bout-du-monde", in Bertrand Park, it will be made of a material containing phosphorescent crystals that glow in the dark. It will therefore be visible day and night, thanks to the crystals that store daylight. At both ends of the globe, the two islands of Chatham - the true and the sculpture - can be illuminated at the same time.
Now all we have to do is to go to the end of this project and make it a happen with the help of the authorities. To be continued...
Meet the Makers evening with Alp ICT
11.27.2017
GVA2 and Alp ICT to organize the first "Meet the Makers" event on Smart Cities
As part of its partnership with Alp ICT, the association organised a meeting of innovators from the digital technology scene thanks to the Meet the Makers campaign initiated by Alp ICT. In a different format from our thematic dinners, the association invited its members to discover this program. The event focused on the theme of Smart Cities and was followed by a dinner.
Our speakers presented their work and their vision for the integration of Smart Cities technologies in Switzerland and elsewhere. We had the pleasure of listening to the following speakers:
- Giorgio Pauletto, Strategy, Foresight and Innovation Designer at SIG. Mr. Paulette's mission is to develop a strategy of innovation and industrial intelligence. In the past, he has been a consultant in technology, strategy and foresight for the State of Geneva.
- Nicolas Bongard, Project Manager Cantonal Economic Strategy 2030, came to present the Canton's Smart City strategy.
- Anne Mellano Koymans, Co-Founder and VP of Operations of BestMile. This company has developed a platform for the management of autonomous vehicles. Founded in 2014, BestMile has offices in San Francisco (USA), Lausanne (Switzerland) and London (United Kingdom).
- Herve Dedieu, CEO of Novaccess, who created a multi-service platform for the global management of connected objects on a city-wide scale (monitoring of fire detection systems, lighting, etc.).
- Flavia Viscardi, Communication Manager of the Swiss Living Challenge, who has devised a new way of living and living together by offering the inhabitants of a neighbourhood to adopt sustainable gestures thanks to her solar house, the NeighborHub. The project won the Solar Decathlon 2017 competition organized by the U. S. Department of Energy.
The event brought together about fifty people and, according to their positive feedback, was a success.
In memory of Victoria Canonica
06.30.2017
The Notting Hill model by Victoria has been re-released in support of the Cansearch Foundation and the refugee children
In November 2016, little victoria sadly lost her battle against acute myeloid leukemia and was taken away from this world.
During her illness, Victoria designed a shoe in collaboration with the Benjie brand. The money raised from the sale of this shoe was donated to the Cansearch Foundation, which funds research projects against various forms of childhood cancer.
Today, her parents decided to continue the fight by creating the committee "Canfight for Victoria", an action group within the Cansearch Foundation. With support from GVA2, this committee has reproduced the shoe designed by Victoria.
Some of the pairs are being sold at the store and the proceeds donated to Cansearch. The others were given to the International School where Victoria was educated. The school, which encourages its students to actively participate in humanitarian projects, decided to donate a large number of the shoes to refugee children in the “Foyer des Tattes”. The remaining pairs were offered to Victoria's close friends.
We are proud that the fight against childhood cancer led by Victoria, and continued today by her parents, can provide support to children in need and financial aid towards cancer research.
If you want to help research against childhood cancer, you can go to canfightforvictoria.com or the Cansearch Foundation website!
Thank you for your help so that Victoria's fight continues!
