NEXPO Retreat April 2019

In the fall of 2016, the mayors of the 10 biggest cities in Switzerland got together for a cup of coffee and came away from this informal meeting with the idea for NEXPO – today the project is in the middle of its launch period. In this phase of the project, the draft concept is set to be developed further and the most important process issues are to be agreed upon by mid-2020. After the founding of the association in May of 2018 – this retreat well over a year later was a milestone on our way to a joint national exhibition.

Our goal to make NEXPO a national exhibition built on the spirit of participation was once again at the core of our efforts. The Swiss people will determine what is to be shown at the exhibition. All NEXPO projects are subject to a selection process through the platform. They advance round by round until they are finally nominated as a new symbol for Switzerland in the 21^st century. A variety of different formats are possible. NEXPO projects can be living traditions, buildings or places of symbolic significance, they can also be exciting new projects and concepts: e.g. Smart City or new forms of living together. NEXPO accompanies this process by creating a framework as well as a set of rules and topics – and ensuring that they are followed.

In the context of the NEXPO, Switzerland is given the opportunity to create projects that are outside of the Courant normal or “daily routine”. The Swiss people living in cities, urban and rural areas are being called upon to try out new things and at best, learn from one another. A newly developed, socially relevant project in Geneva can also work in places such as Schlieren or in Mendrisiotto. And to shed light on what issues could play an important role, Rosie Bitteli Mucha from Lucerne, Fritz Zollinger from Winterthur and Giorgio Maric from Lugano took some time to share their thoughts in the video above.