You can find this year's Seminar Report on our Youtube channel or watch it right here.
We hope you enjoy watching it and hope you will be able to get an impression of this year's preparatory and on-site seminar.

The third Newsletter of connectUS 2012 is now online! You can find it by going to our
Newsletter section or here.

Enjoy the reading.

Wednesday, April 11

Today we had the opportunity to be part of the NASDAQ Opening Bell Ceremony. It was a great feeling to see this live-ritual. Very impressive how it was so professionally staged. John Wiehoff, the CEO of C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc. rang the bell at 9.30 am.

In the afternoon, a great tour on Ellis Island followed. Interesting facts about the history of immigration to the United States from1892 until 1954 and the impact immigrants have had on US history. An additional bonus was a stop on Liberty Island which enabled us to see the Statue of Liberty at a close range.

On the last business day in the city, a visit to the General Consulate in New York was on the program. We learn about the wide scope of consular activities- Swiss citizen services, economic and financial affairs, cultural events as well as the handling of the Switzerland's PR in the greater area of New York.

In the afternoon, Accion USA introduced their business at the Long Island University to the delegation. Together with local students, we learned a lot about micro-financing, the micro lender Accion USA and their responsibilities as a non-profit organization. Once again networking, sharing experiences and showing presence of the company were empahised as the key factor to run any project successfully.

The delegation took off early in the morning and is looking back at a unique experience in the United States. Thank you, project team, for organizing such a great and thanks a lot to the delegation for making this seminar outstanding. We appreciate everybody's great inputs and are eager to see you at the final event on Wednesday 2 May in order to share the great insights gained with our colleagues, the school and many more stakeholders.

Saturday, April 7

After a five hour bus ride from Boston to the hotel in Long Island City, we had an input session on entrepreneurship in the luxury design market from Joseph Jeup. He shared with the delegation how he founded his company from scratch and entered into the luxury furniture business.
In the evening we headed in to the city, where we got to see the rhythmic and vibrant STOMP Broadway show.

Sunday, April 8 / Monday, April 9

Over Easter we got to see over 101 city sights of NYC on a guided boat tour around Manhattan.. After detailed explanations about the history and buildings of New Year, everyone could explore the countless cultural gems of the city at their own pace.

Tuesday, April 10

Like every day, we started off with a short briefing on the activities ahead. In the morning we visited the UN headquarters, where we enjoyed a guided tour and a presentation on "Business Call for Action", a private organization out of United Nations Development Programme. Their purpose is to support the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. Companies, who join the organization, develop new business models to achieve commercial success and development progress.

In the afternoon, Markus Schneider, an entrepreneur in the US, gave invaluable inputs on how to start up a business in the United Stated. He outlined the cultural differences between Switzerland and the United States and their impact on doing business in the US.

Later on we went to downtown Manhattan, to see the luxury furniture of Joseph Jeup in the DONGHIA Showroom.

To end the day, we went to see the NYC Mets playing in their home stadium. We got introduced to the basic  rules and tried to figure the rest out ourselves. There was an awesome atmosphere in the stadium.

Sébastien Hug from Swissnex warmly welcomed connectUS at Boston airport on Tuesday, 3 April. An outstanding program had been organized for us.

Wednesday, 4 April 2012

We began the day with a visit to the globally top-ranked Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). We were offered the unique opportunity to gain insights from current PhD candidate Aron Bläsi. He graduated from the ETH in Zürich and through his exchange semester in California he gained entry to MIT.

After an authentic Swiss breakfast, generously sponsored and delivered by swissbäkers, Christina Inge, Director and Vice-President of Social Media at American Marketing Association-Boston Chapter, held an interactive workshop on how to implement social media throughout the whole company.

In the afternoon the delegation visited the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD). Daia Stutz, a MA candidate at Harvard, allowed us a close-up look into the working spaces of architecture and design students.

Back at Swissnex, Pascal Marmier introduced the Swissnex team and its amazing scope of activities, with direct reference to networking and social media. After that, at the Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC), the young entrepreneurs from ginger.io shared their experiences and knowledge on how to build up a successful start-up.

In the evening we rounded off the day with a lecture from Prof. Ravi Ramamurti about reverse innovation at the Boston International.

Thursday, 5 April 2012

Imran Nasrullah, Head of Strategic Alliances of T1D Exchange, kicked off the day with his presentation on innovation in the health care sector.

Next we had an interesting interactive session with James Broglio the director of the MIT Alumni network.

Following that we were guided by Christoph Dumelin, Post-doc at Harvard, through the labratories of Harvard Department of Chemistry.

Our last official business activity of the day took place at the Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC). Dougan Sherwood introduced us to their unique business idea. CIC provides infrastructure to start-ups to help them in their beginning phases. Besides CIC created a unique networking event, the venture café. We were invited to take an active part in the event, connected with many people and applied our elevator pitches in the real life.

The joint dinner at the Barking Crab ended this excellent day.

After exploring Washington with its museums, eclectic architecture and political atmosphere yesterday, we set off for our first business activities.

We were welcomed at the Swiss Embassy in D.C. Josef P. Renggli who introduced the delegation to the role, the responsibilities and principal issues of the Embassy.

During the interactive session, Josef Renggli and his colleagues responded to the diverse questions regarding Swiss-US financial, cultural and legal aspects.

In the afternoon we had the honor to visit the Kogod School of Business, where Rebecca Youngerman presented their Alumni relations to us. She demonstrated the many advantages it gives to students, business owners and the school, as well as the issues in building up a great network.


A campus tour gave the delegation an insight for the daily business of  students and the wide range of study fields they offer.

First activity in Washington D.C. - Visiting the Capitol, a monument to the American people. The Capitol is home to the U.S. Congress and its two legislative bodies, the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. The introduction movie “E Pluribus Unum"(Out of Many, One) showed how the United States created a new form of government. The film emphasized the importance of the Congress and through a tour in the public area we got to see the impressive Greek revival architecture.

More pictures can be found in our picture section.

We're happy to present you a small overview of the program for the On-Site seminar, which can be found as pdf here.

The second Newsletter of connectUS 2012 is now online! You can find it by going to our
Newsletter section or here.

Enjoy the reading.

Our sponsor 'Swiss Independance' will be holding one of their successful events (lecture and apéro) about old-age insurance and how to control your budget on March 14 at the FHNW. More infos can be found in their event flyer. To attend this attractive event register yourself until March 10 via the following Doodle Link: http://www.doodle.com/pn99tcrtc9uttzve

Don't miss it!