The Smart Cities KSB

Calendar » Smart Technologies as Tools to Support Responsible Recovery After COVID-19

Smart Technologies as Tools to Support Responsible Recovery After COVID-19

Created by Yu Na Chun
April 30, 2020 | 9:00 AM |

 

Thursday, April 30 | 09:00-10:30 AM (EST) 

Recording is available here.

Based on the very positive response to the first webex expert meeting presenting Swiss Smart Technology Solutions to fight against COVID-19 on April 16th, we would like to organize a follow-up BBL regarding Swiss partners focusing on (i) COVID-19 recovery efforts, and (ii) just-in-time technical support our Swiss partners can offer to Bank clients and project teams.

Smart City Hub Switzerland, SmartCity Alliance, InnoSuisse, SECO, and Risk Reduction Foundation are combining efforts of private and public stakeholders in applying Smart Technologies to address emerging challenges during the COVID-19 recovery and to transfer the best technologies and solutions to emerging markets via the World Bank Group network. The World Economic Forum will share examples on partnership collaboration for the COVID Action Platform.

As part of these efforts, the BBL would like to i) present ongoing efforts related to applying Smart Technologies as tools to support responsible recovery after COVID-19, and (ii) discuss demand for just-in-time technical support our Swiss partners can offer.

Presentations will be followed-up by Q&A. Participants are welcome to submit the challenges they have during the COVID-19 recovery to match these with the Swiss solutions.

Chair
Hyoung Gun Wang, 
Senior Economist and Smart Cities KSB lead, World Bank

Introduction Remarks

 Andrei Iatsenia, co-founder and the CEO, Risk Reduction Foundation

Part 1: COVID-19 Recovery Efforts

 Bertrand PicardFounder and President, Solar Impulse Foundation

Anja Riedle, Head of Smart City, SBB and Smart City Lab Basel

Tobias Reichmuth, Founder and Chairman, SUSI Investment Partners

Jonathan Isenring, Co-Founder, HackZurich and Digital Festival

Part 2: Just-In-Time Technical Support for WBG Clients through InnoSuisse Smart Cities Exchange Platforms; Examples of World Economic Forum Partnership Requests

Olivia Zeydler, Global Leadership Fellow, Acceleration Team & COVID Action Platform, World Economic Forum

Emile Dupont, Team Leader, Knowledge and Technology Transfer at InnoSuisse – the Swiss Innovation Agency, Coordinator of the Swiss Enterprise Europe Network consortium

 

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS/INTRODUCERS

Andrei Iatsenia is the co-founder and the CEO of the not-for-profit Risk Reduction Foundation in Geneva, Switzerland since 2010.  Prior to this he was senior advisor on Private-Public Partnerships in the UN and spent three years as the Director of Water Initiative at the World Economic Forum. He joined the World Bank in 1992 and worked both in country operations and in environmental departments in Europe, Asia and Latin America. He was one of the founding members of the Environmental Emergencies Network that was developed as a private-public partnership in 1998-2000 with the support from the US Government and private sector that seconded several staff members to the World Bank team, coordinated by him.  

Bertrand Picard, Founder and President Solar Impulse Foundation: One of the first to envision ecology through the lens of profitability, Bertrand Piccard is considered as an influential voice on progress and sustainability. He actively speaks out against the absurdity of the outdated and polluting devices and systems our society is still using and promotes the benefits for the Planet and for the economy of modern efficient technologies. After his round-the-world solar flight, he is now developing, through the Solar Impulse Foundation, collaborations with political and economic decision-makers to give them practical solutions to help them achieve a clean economic growth.

Anja Riedle is Head of Smart City at SBB, the Swiss Federal Railways. Together with her team, Anja operates the Smart City Lab Basel, a joint initiative of SBB and the Canton of Basel-Stadt that was established in April 2019. It is a unique 16ha testing ground for smart city solutions located on a freight yard in central Basel, a site that will soon undergo urban redevelopment. With already more than 20 active pilot projects, the lab successfully connects partners from industry, science, and public authorities. The findings will be used to transform the freight yard into Switzerland’s smartest city district and freely shared with city planners in Switzerland and beyond. Apart from her role at SBB, Anja is Co-Founder and Member of the Board of the Smart City Hub Switzerland, a national association that aims to foster knowledge exchange and collaboration across cities, public service providers, and federal institutions.

Tobias Reichmuth, Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of SUSI Partners. Since the company was founded in 2009 and as CEO, he has developed the company into a leading asset manager in the field of sustainable energy infrastructure. As director of an international foundation, he previously advised Fortune 500 companies on investments in renewable energies. He also worked as a strategy consultant for the Boston Consulting Group for several years. He is the editor of the book “The Financing of the Energy Transition in Switzerland” published by NZZ-Verlag and has worked on several publications on the subject of sustainable investments for institutional investors. He is a member of the German Economic Council as a consultant on energy and energy efficiency issues.

Jonathan Isenring co-founded HackZurich in 2014, which is now the largest and most renowned hackathon in Europe. In 2016, he co-founded and built up the Digital Festival, one of the most successful and well-known hubs for CEOs, decision makers and technological and creative experiences. He is also initiator of #CodeVsCOVID19, a 72h online hackathon to address COVID-19 related challenges that attracted 3,000 participants from 85 countries.

Olivia Zeydler is a part of the COVID Action Platform team at the World Economic Forum. The Platform accelerates COVID response by coordinating multi-stakeholder cooperation and action. She is a member of the Forum’s Acceleration team which scales internal projects across WEF that help accelerate solutions to key challenges facing society today. Prior to joining the World Economic Forum, Olivia co-developed a local incubator in Haiti that identified entrepreneurial solutions in fragile contexts in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Olivia is from Washington, D.C. and completed an M.B.A. from INSEAD.

Emile Dupont received his PhD on microelectronics from EPFL in 2010. After a couple of years in a Geneva-based SME, he works since 2013 in the Technology Transfer domain and currently leads the Knowledge and Technology Transfer team at Innosuisse, the Swiss Innovation Agency.