Smart City Boost, the new innovation program for cities in French-speaking Switzerland
Digitization is affecting every aspect of our society, including our cities. This technological revolution has given rise to the concept of "smart cities", more efficient and more comfortable, for the well-being of citizens.
The City of Lausanne, the City of Geneva and Innobridge Services Sàrl have agreed to set up a program to promote urban and sustainable innovation, called " Smart City Boost ", based on "augmented hackathons". The project is being carried out with the support of the Swiss Energy for Municipalities program of the Swiss Federal Office of Energy, as part of the Cité de l'Energie label, of which Lausanne and Geneva have Gold status. The aim of this initiative is to support towns in French-speaking Switzerland in the development of projects to serve their administrations and citizens.
The two cities also wish to use this approach in two specific strategic directions:
- Lausanne: stimulating the implementation and deployment of an "Open Data" dynamic
- Geneva: stimulating urban innovation and the "G'Innove" call for urban innovation projects
The four sector platforms, Alp ICT, Micronarc, CleantechAlps and BioAlps, will award a "Coup de Coeur" prize per city, to each member of the winning teams.
The Smart City Boost process consists of 3 stages:
- Phase 1: Defining issues with partner cities
- Phase 2: imagining solutions, in particular via a hackathon in the city
- Phase 3: Putting solutions into practice
Innovation consultancy Innobridge has been active in this field since its inception, and has notably launched an annual conference since 2014, Smart City Day, a flagship event rotating from city to city in Western Switzerland, of which Alp ICT is a partner. Innobridge is currently working on phase 1 with Geneva and Lausanne. In Geneva, phase 2 will be launched with a new hackathon on March 22 and 23, during the Open Geneva open innovation festival. This will be followed a month later by a hackathon in Lausanne. Various collaborations have been set up with local public and semi-public players, as well as with economic players, in relation to the challenges identified.
Any member of the public can apply for the Geneva or Lausanne hackathon by following the instructions on the dedicated website or by contacting the project manager directly: Jean-François Hugues - jf.hugues@innobridge.ch
