Today was the last day of the connectUS preperatory seminar as tommorow will be the joint event with Insight China and Focus India. It was another fantastic day.

Simon May from IFJ explained us in the first session why the next Google will come from Switzerland.

The next two sessions were an extensive and very intresting workshop by Jean-Phillipe Hagmann from Denkmotor where we applied various idea creation techniques.

To wrap everything up we learned so far we had a key learnings session in the end of the day.

More pictures can be found in our picture section.

Wow what a day. Due to the heavy snowfall the start of the presentations was slightly delayed. Unfortunately Prof. Daniel Huber couldn't hold his session of innovation management, however it was a very intresting morning with a workshop on how to do an elevator pitch.

In the afternoon Peter Frei from Swiss Post introduced us to a very innovative company, surprisingly Swiss Post.

The last session gave insights about Entrepreneurship. Dominic Senn from Basisnote and Susanne Schanz from Gourmet15box presented their story of business success.

Afterwards we had an Alumni ápero including a little speed networking event. We were happy to welcome the founder Michael Schranz and another former project team member Thomas Müller.

More pictures can be found here.

Another exciting day of the seminar!

This morning we had the honor to welcome US Ambassador Don S. Beyer Jr. It was a great opportunity to get first hand information on the cultural differences between US and Switzerland. The Ambassador was very open and able to answer all questions of the seminar participants.

Later on CEO Timon Ruther and Kristina Leisten from academics4business introduced how to use your own business network for your career development.

In the afternoon Prof. Claudia Meier held an interactive session on the use of social media in networking.

A groupwork allowed the participants to apply their newly gained knowledge.

More pictures can be found here.

The first day of the preparatory seminar is over and it was fabulous. We all had a lot of fun even though it was a long day, however with a lot of useful inputs.

In the morning Corinne Staub from ONE provided benefical advise on how to dress and behave properly in the business world.

The next session was held by CEO Christian Hirsig from Atizo and was about what innovation means and how innovation is done efficiently.

In the last session Prof. Dr. Sita Mazumder outlined how networking in Switzerland differentiate form networking in USA.

All in all we learned a lot from these guest speakers and are very happy they joined us on the first day of our preparatory seminar.

More pictures can be found in our picture section.

It's finally here, the preparatory seminar time table! You can download it as pdf here.

All of the topics are well chosen and adress specifc subjects that are relevant to networking and innovation. One of the highlights will be the speech of U.S. Ambassador Donald S. Beyer Jr on tuesday, 14 february. He will talk about the cultural diffrences between USA and Switzerland which is absolutely critical for intercultural business activities/contacts with USA.

We are really looking forward to this seminar week and hope you'll have as much fun participating in it as us putting it together.

Have you seen the new Facebook Page from the Consulate General of Switzerland in New York? It is a great source of information, so like their page for constant updates on what is happening in the region! You can follow them by clicking this link.

We are pleased to announce two new supporters, 'Sesamnet' and 'Hellenic'! Thank you very much for your support!

Please take a look at their homepages by clicking on the logos.

We are very pleased to announce our new sponsors, 'FHNW', 'Swiss Independance' and 'Swisscom'! Thank you very much for your sponsoring. We really appreciate it!

Please take a look at their homepages by clicking on the logos.

We are pleased to announce a new supporter, 'Raum für Kinesiologie'! Thank you very much for your support!

Please take a look at their homepage by clicking on the logo.

The first Newsletter of connectUS 2012 is now online! You can find it by going to our
Newsletters section or here.

Enjoy the reading.