Wall intervention: “The Enormous Room”
© Helmut Federle, 2014

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The discussion was moderated by Laurence de Nervaux with specific insights by Roberto Balzaretti, Bertrand Badré, Arthur Keller and Abdelaali el Badauoi. We would also like to thank our participants Mathilde Alloin, Monica Corrado, Gilles Effront, Jakob Haesler and Malte Immel for their input. A special thanks goes to David McCord (Swiss Embassy) and Olivier Benoit for the event’s organization.

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In times like these, it is more important than ever to foster dialogue. We believe that dialogue between countries and generations gives us the possibility to tackle today’s most pressuring challenges. Due to this reason, we also bring this dialogue to Austria. 

On March 7, we had the opportunity to hold our Vienna Reception, which was hosted by the Swiss Embassy in Austria. We welcomed our guest in the historical sidetrack of the Palais Schwarzenberg.  

Our distinguished guest Dr. Johannes Kopf gave us enriching insights into the Austrian labour market under the topic “Now more than ever, staff matters.” What are the opportunities and challenges of the Austrian labour market?  

Afterwards, we had the opportunity to discuss these questions informally with our Leaders of Tomorrow, Florian Bauer, Jakob Etzel, Lisa-Marie Fassl, Florian Gasser, Schima Labitsch and Carina Roth, over an aperitif and to live the generational dialogue of the St. Gallen Symposium. 

We would like to express our gratitude to all the guests who enriched this year’s Vienna Reception with their insights and made it so memorable. Christian Borstnar, Dr. Andreas Grünbichler, Michael Hengl, Katja Hengl Bellinghausen, Susanne Janeschitz, Dr. Andreas Nemeth, Simone Oremovic, Patrick Pähler, Mag. Johann Pinatrich, Lukas A. Sprenger, Valentin Stalf and Dr. Martin Waldhäusl. 

Big thank you to the Swiss Embassy in Austria, Botschafter Walter Haffner Dr. Christina Bürgi-Dellsperger, for having us, to Franz Peter Amesberger for his welcoming speech, keynote speaker Dr. Johannes Kopf, our Leaders of Tomorrow, and finally to Vinzenz Eisl, Luca Kamber, Tatjana Rupp, Niklas Zeller and Simon Zulliger for organising the reception.  

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Following the welcoming words from Ambassador Tinguely Mattli, our team member Deborah Walt, responsible for the Nordics, had the opportunity to present the St. Gallen Symposium to the guests. 

We then proceeded to the main part of the evening, the dinner discussion on the “Social Acceptance of Renewable Energies”. The discussion was started by the opening statements of  

• Morten Dyrholm, Group Senior Vice President, Marketing, Communications, Sustainability and Public Affairs at Vestas Wind Systems 
• Prof. Rolf Wüstenhagen, professor of Management of Renewable Energies at the University of St. Gallen) started the discussion with their respective opening statements 

Moderated by the Ambassador, all guests then had the opportunity to contribute. The different backgrounds made for an insightful discussion, which we all left with actionable take-aways for accelerating the global energy transition. 

Fitting to this the 51^st St. Gallen Symposium’s topic “Collaborative Advantage”, a key take-away was the necessity for different industries and regions to work together in order to achieve social acceptance of renewable energies and a smooth energy transition. The need for sharing solutions and at the same time leaving everyone to choose the most fitting option for themselves was also at the core of the discussion. 

We want to thank all guests for coming and engaging and hope to see some of them at the 51^st St. Gallen Symposium in May 2022.  

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The event was designed around the topic of UK-China relations and took place under the title “The great decoupling: How should the UK reshape its relationship with China?”

Economic relations between China and the UK are at a tipping point. Among others, the dispute over China’s national security law and the UK’s ban on Chinese 5G technology has led to a drastic cooling of relations between the two nations. Against the backdrop of increasing decoupling between the US and China in the technology and investment sectors, an important question also arises for the UK: How far should they extend their independence and where do the opportunities of cooperation outweigh the risks of interdependence?

The event was opened by a welcoming speech of Beat Ulrich, our CEO and Bruno Wihelm, our responsible for the UK and Ireland.

To provide the audience with some context and introduce the topic, Jon Geldart, Director General of the Institute of Directors, delivered a keynote speech outlining the socio-political landscape that has contributed to making China what it is today and providing a balanced perspective to better support the understanding of attendees to this complex country and its culture.

The speech was followed by an expert panel discussion, carried out by

• John McLean OBE: Chairman, IoD City of London and former Director of the China-Britain Business Council (CBBC)
• Mark Logan MP: Vice Chair, All-Party Parliamentary China Group
• Tim Loughton MP: Member of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China
• Hong Bo: Professor in Financial Economics, SOAS University of London

The discussion was moderated by Martina Fuchs, Europe Business Correspondent for China’s Xinhua news agency and International Advisor to the St. Gallen Symposium, and followed by a Q&A with the audience.

Following the thought-provoking, insightful and sometimes contentious discussion, our guests were invited for drinks and canapés and thus had the opportunity to connect with other participants and representatives of the St. Gallen Symposium.

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Introductory words from Krystyna Marty Lang, the Ambassador of Switzerland in Moscow, about the need for innovation were followed by welcoming words from Cosima von Wackerbarth, part of the organising team of the St. Gallen Symposium and responsible for Leader of Tomorrow Northern Europe, Russia and Africa, about the cooperation between the St. Gallen Symposium and the Swiss Embassy.

Our moderator Andrey Aliasov, CEO & Founder at Changellenge, and also a former Leader of Tomorrow in 2016 at the St. Gallen Symposium, opened the panel discussion by talking about innovation in Russia and the need for a change.

In the spirit of the St. Gallen Symposium, the Moscow reception also placed great emphasis on intergenerational dialogue and a gender-balanced panel. We had the honour to welcome the following speakers in present and online:

• Natalya Zolotykh, Managing Director of the company “Transtechnology” and Vice President of “OPORA RUSSIA”

• Yana Gladysheva, Associate Professor at Bauman Moscow State Technical University, project manager at the Altai Optical Laser Center

• Andreas Gut, Head, International Programmes at Innosuisse – Swiss Innovation Agency

The wide-ranging audience was very involved in the discussion both on site and online. We were honoured to welcome partners of the Embassy, past and future Leaders of Tomorrow of the St. Gallen Symposium, students from universities in Switzerland and Russia, members of the St. Gallen Symposium and the Embassy.

The key insights are the importance of changing education at a younger age to prepare them for the business world and the promotion of young founders and entrepreuneurs with the help of institutionalised dialogue between business and academia.

Many thanks to the Swiss Embassy for co-organising and hosting the event.

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On Tuesday, 25 January 2022, a group of former visitors to the St. Gallen Symposium, members of the St. Gallen Symposium’s Singapore community and students from various universities were invited to NUS Shaw Foundation Alumni House. Enabled by the National Youth Achievement Award (NYAA) Council of Singapore, the National University of Singapore and the Swiss Embassy the St. Gallen Symposium was able to hold the St. Gallen Symposium Singapore Forum, one of the first physical events within its year-round initiative.

Starting with a keynote speech by Ms Grace Fu, Minister for Sustainability and the Environment the audience got an overview of Singapore’s efforts to become more sustainable and the important role of collaboration within it. In particular, Minister Fu described how grants funded by a carbon tax will help to decarbonise companies and how Singapore partners with companies and researchers to leverage emerging low-carbon technologies.

In the following panel discussion, the topic “Collaborative Advantage” was discussed from a broader perspective. With Ms Jacqueline Poh, Managing Director of Singapore’s Economic Development Board, Mr Wong Kee Joo, chief executive officer of HSBC Singapore and Mr Warren Fernandez, editor-in-chief of SPH Media Trust’s English, Malay and Tamil Media Group, representatives from the public sector, the private sector and the media were present, allowing the panel to explore collaborations within as well as between these domains. By providing multiple examples where their organisations collaborate, the panel was able to again underline the importance of working together to create economic and social value and left the audience with inspiration to collaborate on their own.

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The introduction speech by Joanne Rimbeaux, host of the event and responsible at the
St. Gallen Symposium for Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, was followed by welcoming words of Carlo Thelen, CEO of the Chamber of Commerce. He explained how important Collaboration in case of the Chamber of Commerce as central player is for the success and support to Luxembourgs business.

Bernhard Dedenbach, Moderator of the panel discussion, introduced the topic of “Collaborative Advantage” to the audience by defining it as ability to firm effective and rewarding partnerships with others for mutual benefit. We had than the honor to welcome the following speaker to the panel:

• Julie Becker, CEO of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange
• Marc Angel, Member of the EU Parliament, Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats
• Nicolas Mackel, Chief Executive Officer of Luxembourg for Finance
• Tonika Hirdman, General Manager of the Foundation of Luxembourg

The room was colorfully filled with ambassadors from Switzerland, Turkey, Poland, the Netherlands and the Britannic Majesty next to members of the University of Luxembourg, alumni of the University of St. Gallen and various executives from Luxembourg.

The discussion has been closed and the apero opened by Swiss Ambassador Markus Dutly.

It seemed that the guests really appreciated the format of a physical panel discussion and especially the gender balanced choice of panelists.

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