{"id":6271,"date":"2022-05-19T17:53:49","date_gmt":"2022-05-19T17:53:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/symposium.org\/?p=6271"},"modified":"2022-06-14T07:57:01","modified_gmt":"2022-06-14T07:57:01","slug":"isc-alumni","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/symposium.org\/isc-alumni\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating 50 Years of Cross-Generational Dialogue"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In 1970, conflict defined the relationship between generations. As students elsewhere took to the streets to protest, a few in St. Gallen took a different approach. More than half a century later, the conference they started is still going strong. In May, hundreds of International Student Committee Alumni gathered to celebrate the St. Gallen Symposium\u2019s 50th anniversary.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1970 the St. Gallen Symposium took place for the first time, and was due to celebrate its 50th anniversary in the spring of 2020. But \u2013 as it did so many other things \u2013 the coronavirus pandemic disrupted those plans, too: the event waspostponed entirely in 2020 and held in a hybrid format in 2021. It was only this year that the 50-year-anniversary of the symposium could be celebrated in person, a special occasion that brought together more than 460 alumni of the International Students’ Committee (ISC), the organising body of the symposium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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More than 50 per cent of this community, including representatives of 48 out of the 50 former organising committees, signed up to attend, a tremendous turnout testifying to the deep bonds among the ISC community. Arriving from 15 different countries, they all gathered the Saturday after the symposium at the SQUARE, the University of St. Gallen\u2019s brand new learning centre opened only three months ago. This modernist glass structure, designed by Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto, was the venue for a relaxed brunch in the morning and a festive dinner in the evening. Debate over a New Generational Contract, hiking in the Appenzell Alps or a taste of St. Gallen\u2019s beer culture were on offer to round out the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the alumni present, Christoph Loos, CEO of the multinational power tool manufacturer Hilti, remembershis time as part of the 22nd Organising Committee as the activity that, in four years of university, taught him the most. \u201cI matured and picked up a number of skills and self-confidence that, in a normal student life, I would not have,\u201d Loos says. Christian Sutter, president of the ISC Alumni Commitee and member of the 46th and 47th Organising Committees, recently co-founded the app \u201cMympact\u201d, measuring the carbon footprint of purchases. He calls the ISC a \u201cschool of life\u201d: it\u2019s where he met many of his business partners, and he considers it one of the reasons for his post-ISC success. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At the centre of the alumni gathering was Wolfgang Sch\u00fcrer, who founded the St. Gallen Symposium and the ISC in 1970. At the time, student-led riots had spread from France to other European countries, including Switzerland, as a protest against the conservative social establishment, while in Czechoslovakia, the brief period of cultural liberalisation known as the Prague Spring was crushed when Soviet tanks came rolling in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was an era when the generational divide seemed insurmountable, and the concept of a cross-generational symposium was something unusual. \u201cThere was scepticism among our professors and fellow students, as well as government and private sector representatives, who thought, \u2018if students went to the streets with stones in their hands and lit fires, why would they suddenly be looking for dialogue?\u2019\u201d Sch\u00fcrer recalls. \u201cWe had to do some intense effort to convince them that this was a serious approach. And then we were able to generate interest.\u201d Sch\u00fcrer\u2019s founding role was celebrated by several speeches, including by former German President Horst K\u00f6hler. In a recorded video message played on a screen, K\u00f6hler praised Sch\u00fcrer for his \u201ccommitment and engagement\u201d and called for today\u2019s younger generations to \u201crespect what previous generations have accomplished but still have the courage to realise their own ideas\u201d. To that end, organisers also announced a Monika and Wolfgang Sch\u00fcrer Award to honour promising cross-generational initiatives every year from now on, of which the two namesakes were the inaugural recipients. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As the St. Gallen Symposium goes into its second half-century, alumni say, maintaining this platform of dialogue will be a challenge requiring constant effort from future organising committees. For Sutter, the ISC can always be even more proactive in inviting and including diverse voices, but the structure of the committee, each year composed of a new, younger generation of students, gives him confidence: \u201cthis is what allows us to always maintain new impulses and what allows the St. Gallen Symposium to remain at the cutting edge\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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