Syntezia Open 2023
At the Objective Earth Festival
The second edition of Syntezia Open took place on 9 June 2023 at the Salon du Casino de Montbenon in Lausanne, within the Objective Earth Festival.
The event brought innovation and experimentation together with festival-goers through a day dedicated to creative writing, design fiction, co-creation and sustainable futures.
CO-CREATING A DESIRABLE FUTURE
The 2023 edition explored how blue, regenerative and symbiotic circular-economy approaches could help people make better choices around the use of natural resources such as water, soil and air.
Participants worked together in a relaxed and playful environment, using design-fiction methods and creative-writing techniques to imagine a sustainable, desirable and symbiotic future for a city with a high quality of life
From Ideas to Teams and Projects
Syntezia Open was designed to help participants move beyond discussion.
Participants were encouraged to:
- Explore possibilities
Bring different perspectives and ideas to a shared challenge. - Co-create and develop
Use methods and tools such as design fiction, experimentation and writing workshops. - Find teammates
Connect with other participants and form creative or project-oriented teams. - Structure an idea
Move from an initial concept toward a project and supporting documentation. - Explore funding
Some teams subsequently chose to submit funding requests to help their projects continue and develop.
Innovation Papers
The edition also launched a call for written contributions around the circular economy.
Participants were invited to submit articles in French or English exploring subjects such as the blue economy, fiction and science fiction, and desirable and sustainable futures. Submitted contributions were to be reviewed by the Syntezia Open scientific committee and then submitted for a second peer review by a publishing house.
The Challenges
The event explored a range of practical questions, including:
- How can we develop the blue circular economy around Lake Geneva?
- How can construction become more circular?
- How can food and drink contribute to a circular economy?
- What could the festival of the future look like?
- How can local currencies support short circuits?
- What does circular fashion look like?
THE RESULT
The day was designed to create more than a collection of ideas. Through co-creation, networking and project structuring, Syntezia Open sought to help people meet, experiment, form teams and turn sustainability questions into projects that could continue beyond the event.
- Explore possibilities
What results have we obtained in previous editions?
Carbon-free and active mobility
This was the theme of the 2022 edition, which took place in Geneva, and which allowed us to welcome the participants to the Geneva hotel school, for a day of pragmatic actions, which allowed us to generate around thirty innovative ideas and submit 5 complete files of radical innovations to seek funding.
We encouraged participants to take measures to come to our event in carbon-free mobility, and we were pleased to note that the parking lot remained empty throughout the event.
We want to keep the same approach for all future editions of syntezia open.
Meetings and exchanges between partners and participants
Feedback on the experience of previous Syntezia Opens tells us that participants appreciated being able to meet new people, network, and initiate a constructive dialogue on real issues. Consortia were created or strengthened during our times of informal dialogue, and allowed the teams formed to participate in calls for projects with the systems of Switzerland and the European Union to be able to carry out their feasibility studies, the validation of their value proposition, their prototype or their tests prior to placing their solution on the market.
Singular and original content, a new media that is emerging
During syntezia open, we share testimonials from innovative project leaders who have created businesses. We also conducted interviews that we broadcast in the All Inclusive SDGs podcast.
A gendered and balanced budget
We operate with parity in our organizational team and with a gendered budget.
We also measure the participation of women and men to ensure we have diversity in gender, background, experience, achievement and discipline.
Our carbon footprint under control
We measure our carbon footprint and we do our best to minimize the carbon footprint of our eco-responsible Syntezia Open event, and to raise awareness among participants about eco-friendly actions at every opportunity.
Zero waste, zero waste
No food was thrown away during the 2022 edition.
No leftovers, no waste!
We now know that it is possible and we intend to do it again!
Short circuits and local currency
By introducing Lake Geneva into the circuit at every opportunity, we are working on our scale to promote the local economy of the Lake Geneva region.
Bees, butterflies and little birds!
Because the protection of all forms of biodiversity is important to us, we have worked to disseminate flowers that bees, butterflies and birds love.
Innovative ideas, teams
This day resulted in several ideas being generated, and several of the teams were formed during our event.
Funding request submissions
Some teams have chosen to submit funding requests to see their projects funded and sustained.
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Syntezia Sàrl,
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