Once again the teams of the International Students Projects (ISP) have come together to start off the annual Preparatory Seminar, which gives the Project Teams and their Delegations a first look of what to expect both culturally and business wise from the upcoming Onsite Seminar.
For the first time in this year’s edition, the entirety of the International Students Projects met at once, and even though the semester break is officially still ongoing, the auditorium of the FHNW in Olten filled up quickly in the early morning.
The start into the first day of the Seminar was accompanied by a Welcoming Speech from Prof. Dr. Ruedi Nützi, director of the FHNW School of Business, and a following up Opening Speech by Marc Blaser, CEO of Blaser Swisslube.
The CEO of our Main Joint Partner captivated the crowd giving inputs about the art of presenting, the global challenge of competitiveness and the importance of working effectively together as people from all cultures and ethnicities, since in his experience, trust is more important than control. After the inspiring speech, the participants split up and pursuit the individual schedule of their specific projects.
In case of Insight China, Prof. Dr. Ruedi Nützi joined us to start-off our individual seminar. In his presentation, he explained what Switzerland can learn from China and emphasized the benefits of a prosperous relationship between the FHNW and China. With the vision of the FHNW, being the first point of call for knowledge transfer between Switzerland and China. The school persecutes this goal with several instruments, including the Insight China project or the Sino-Swiss Innovation Center in Shenzhen. This led to an ongoing history of 20 years of activities in China, establishing valuable and unmatched networking opportunities.
Following up the introduction of the Sino-Swiss Relationship, Prof. Dr. Peter Abplanalp shared his insights with us via an extensive and detailed speech about Chinas present, history and future. The passionate exchange of information was loosened up by a set of interactive quizzes and a steady comparison with European history. In the end, the attendees of the speech could leave the room with an astounding amount of greatly explained knowledge.
With the final guest speaker of the day and former SRF Asia correspondent, Pascal Nufer, the delegates received firsthand information from an experienced journalist with over five years of working expertise in China. With a colorful collection of Pictures, news reports and a great addition of his own stories, Pascal Nufer captivated the audience, while keeping a critically but neutral tone showing where the difficulties from the strictly controlled country lie.
To finish the day, Aline Pabst and Mihriban Kayikci, both project managers of this year’s Insight China, gave the delegates an introduction into basic Chinese Etiquette and cultural facets and cleared up about Do’s and Don’ts in the Chinese culture. With this last interactive session, Insight China released its delegates for the first day of the Preparatory Seminar, setting already great expectations of what’s still to come.
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