On the weekend of October 17 and 18, 2020, the Ski World Cup will kick off with the giant slaloms in Sölden, Austria. As usual, SRF will report live on all races of the season. Tina Weirather is a new addition to the SRF team of experts for the women's races, which includes Marc Berthod, Didier Plaschy and Tamara Wolf. The experts will take turns accompanying the SRF ski broadcasts.

Weirather retired as a professional ski racer at the end of March 2020 after 15 years and numerous medals - including at the Olympics and the World Championships. The 31-year-old will make her first appearance as an SRF expert on Saturday, October 17, alongside commentator Marco Felder.

After Keystone-SDA decided at the beginning of the year to give up its PR business for strategic reasons, Karin Lehmann and Sebastian Schneider are now opening their own agency. As part of a management buy-out, WeArePepper is taking over all clients from the existing Public Relations and Influencer Relations divisions.

The duo already headed the agency under the name PPR Media Relations as a subsidiary of Keystone-SDA, where they built up a considerable client base in the context of classic and visual PR work. As a new division of Keystone-SDA, the two continued to lead the team and focused more on the growth areas of influencer relations and video.

After a months-long transformation process, which the two CEOs drove together, Balz Lendorff has handed over the operational management of Plan.Net to Pam Hügli and is leaving the company at the end of September. "After 25 years as head of a digital agency, now is the optimal time for me to devote myself to new entrepreneurial challenges," the ex-Plan.Net CEO was quoted as saying in a statement on Wednesday. Mischa Seger, executive creative director, will continue to be responsible for the creative direction of the agency.

The boundaries between classic advertising agency and digital agency are fluid, and experts from both sides will work even more closely together in the future. Synergies in Serviceplan Group's global network will also be used more intensively, especially in the digital area, according to the statement. Teams of employees from both agencies will now be put together individually for the respective customer requirements. According to the release, the transformed agency structure will pursue the goal of perfectly orchestrating online and offline communication and implementing the central idea on all channels. (pd/swi)

James Dudley has held numerous design and creative positions at brand experience companies throughout his career to date. As Creative Principal, James Dudley will bring his skills and experience to the creative development of Standing Ovation.

An architect by training, he began his career with his own design firm in London. 20 years ago, he moved to Switzerland as a designer with Bellprat Associates and Interbrand Zintzmeyer & Lux. In 2003, he joined Andreas Messerli, where he served as creative director for 14 years. During this time, he led a multidisciplinary design team and won numerous national and international competitions. Since 2017, he has been running his own consultancy Atelier James Dudley and also lectures Master Design at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts.

His strengths as a creative expert include strategic consulting, creative direction of brand experience projects, and developing and leading topic-specific design thinking and design sprint workshops. James Dudley works at the intersection of strategy, identity and experience design to create authentic, meaningful and memorable brand touchpoints.

As part of the succession plan for Peter Frey, long-time owner and managing director of the Cr advertising agency known under the Cr Basel brand, new ownership and management will apply from October 1, 2020. "After some 50 years in communications, the time has come to hand over overall responsibility and management to new, proven hands. I am exceptionally happy that Cr Basel, with its new management team, can offer the existing team a promising, auspicious future," Peter Frey was quoted as saying in a statement on Wednesday.

Since May 1, the Executive Board has consisted of Rony Hauser, co-owner and CEO, Fredy Hadorn, co-owner and Head of Strategic Business Development, Gabriel Heuberger, Head of Creation, and Thomas Fux, Head of Consulting.

Positioning with art and culture

At the same time, Cr Basel is repositioning itself. The model builds on the fluid connection of communication with art and culture. This is made possible, among other things, by the cooperation with the Licht Feld Gallery for contemporary art in Basel and the Filter4 cultural affairs association. "We deliberately want to break up traditional patterns, to network ourselves and our customers and business partners in a new way, and thus to exploit synergies of creative potential even better," explains CEO Rony Hauser. "After all, underlying the supposedly different disciplines is a passion for creative expression that surprises, amazes, sometimes provokes, invites dialogue and thus forms one of the essential essences of engaged communication in the first place. This has an inspiring effect on our daily work and means an additional, border-crossing offer for our customers - for example, also for unprecedented, extraordinary events."

New creative pool "Cr Swarm

One of the fundamental innovations of Cr Basel is the modular creative pool "Cr Schwarm", an interdisciplinary think tank with young talents from the creative industries that Cr Basel finds in universities of applied sciences, apprenticeship companies or at university and mixes their unfiltered thinking with expert knowledge and know-how from practice.

The "Cr Schwarm" is used, for example, for specific, complex communication issues, but also for marketing, event or new business projects of the customers. The agency, with its 52-year history and 16-member team, has thus written a lot on its banner for the future, which is reflected in the redesigned website already manifested.

Livestreaming has been ubiquitous since Corona at the latest. During the lockdown, Kuble implemented or managed various livestreaming projects and thus built up expertise and know-how in the field. The agency is now bringing this experience together in the first "Kuble Conf" At the conference, international speakers will talk about various aspects of livestreaming:

• Blockchain star Julian Hosp to speak as keynote speaker on community building and business growth via livestreams
• Twitcher Stefanie Holenweg on the importance of livestreams for e-sports
• Jonas Karpf, Head International Projects UBS about digitalization and livestreams in sponsoring and hospitality.
• U.S. retail expert Tony D'Onofrio on livestream shopping in China, which already accounts for 4 percent of total Chinese retail sales

Wine tasting via streaming

As part of the conference, the agency is also conducting a livestream wine tasting on the topic of natural wines with the wine company Smith & Smith. The bottles will be sent out in advance so that participants can taste wine online but with the real experience. The event will conclude with a live concert.

Everyone knows that even minor intestinal upsets can quickly distract the mind from work, a date or relaxing vacations. Since communication in the pharmaceutical sector all too often follows the same pattern, TBWA\Zurich has taken a somewhat more unconventional route for the market launch of the SymbioPro Caps nutritional supplement. Instead of showing people holding their stomachs with distorted facial expressions, TBWA\ has them tell little stories about the learned shape of their intestines.

The cross-media campaign promotes the latest Biomed product "SymbioPro Caps", which supports the digestive tract.

With the Federal Council's approval on August 12, larger events in Switzerland will be permitted again from October. This also makes it possible to hold trade fairs. The flagship event Empack 2020 was postponed from spring to fall and will now take place on November 18 and 19. "The approval was an important signal for the event industry," says Debora Holdener, Event Content Manager at Easyfairs Switzerland. "Trade fairs can help to stimulate demand and bring the industries together. These are important building blocks for a step into the future."

142 exhibitors expected

The feedback from exhibitors on the postponement date in November was consistently positive. The cooperation partners and associations have also confirmed that the event will be held in late fall. The support of the Swiss Packaging Institute SVI is a key factor in this. The industry's interest is also reflected in the figures: Easyfairs is currently expecting around 142 exhibitors for the trade fair.

Extensive safety measures

This year's event will focus on the safety of the participants. For this reason, the protective measures go beyond those prescribed by the federal government and the canton of Zurich. Masks are compulsory for exhibitors, visitors and employees at Empack 2020 and the parallel event Logistics & Distribution 2020. Wearing gloves is recommended for everyone. In addition, all prescribed hygiene measures apply.

The protection concept provides for contactless registration of participants in the entrance area of the trade fair. Visitors must register online. Alternatively, visitors can register on site using their smartphone. A counting system registers the maximum number of visitors permitted in the exhibition halls. Individual timeslots for registration can be selected online in advance, which is another component of the hygiene concept. Inside the building, the directional separation of paths ensures the minimum distance. Exhibitors will be provided with a hygiene pack containing masks, hand cleansing gel, disposable gloves and a surface spray. Contact tracing is also planned, with visitors identifying themselves at the stands using their smart badges. In the event of a Covid-19 infection, those affected can be informed in this way.

Trade fair formats remain largely accessible

In the exhibition areas where the protective measures do not allow normal operation, security takes precedence. The only area likely to be affected is the "Connect" area, which is intended to facilitate targeted networking between participants. "Unfortunately, we can only implement this format to a limited extent," says Holdener. "However, there will be a spacious networking lounge where free refreshments will be available for everyone involved in the event." The JobsCorner, where visitors can find out about vacancies and apply directly to the companies looking for them, will not be affected.

The other two sections will remain fully accessible. This year, they reflect the core theme of "Green Pack - Closing the loop on plastics" and thus address the current topic of sustainability. The "Discover" area illustrates specific innovations and solutions, while "Learn" focuses on the aspects of knowledge and further training.

Swiss Packaging Award is held

Among the highlights of Empack 2020 are the presentations on research and development. One of these, for example, is the presentation of the 51st Swiss Packaging Award, with which the competition jury honors the best packaging. Empack 2020 provides the setting for the award ceremony and presents submitted projects.

In the week from January 11 to 17, 2021, young people between the ages of 13 and 20 will be able to go behind the scenes of Swiss media such as Tages-Anzeiger, SRF, Radio 24, NZZ and many more. Together with professionals, they write articles, shoot videos or present radio shows. The common goal: to understand journalism, experience journalism and help shape journalism. The young people's stories - whether text, video or audio contribution - are published by the host medium.

"Communicating with young people is more important than ever," says Michael Marti, one of the initiators of YouNews and a member of the Tamedia editorial team. "The last few months with the flood of information about the coronavirus pandemic show how important a high level of media literacy is for young people in everyday life." And Franz Fischlin, "Tagesschau" presenter and also a YouNews initiator, adds: "I'm looking forward to the exchange on an equal footing. The past few years have shown that both sides benefit - the young people, but also us journalists."

Various projects this year too

There is a wide range of projects on offer again this year: Young people are helping to design an entire edition of the city magazine Züritipp, in a joint project by Blick, SRF Tagesschau and Tages-Anzeiger they are at the start of a World Cup race as sports reporters and at the Engadiner Post a school class is to help shape the entire newspaper edition.

Interested school classes and young people between the ages of 13 and 20 can apply to take part on YouNews.ch until November 8. The winners will be informed by the end of November 2020.

New ambassador for YouNews

A new member of the YouNews team this year is 19-year-old Zurich radio journalist Lea Hilff: she is the ambassador for YouNews on the most important video platforms and social media sites and produces videos with her own crew of peers.

YouNews was created on the initiative of Viviane Manz, editor and producer at SRF Tagesschau, Michael Marti, member of the editorial team at Tamedia, and Franz Fischlin, SRF Tagesschau (Werbewoche.ch reported). The Swiss Media Association provides organizational support for the Youth Media Week, in which around 250 pupils take part each year.

Oliver Schmucki was responsible for the NZZ on Sunday for almost three years, the Style-magazine editorially. After that, he was chief of staff for the NZZ am Sonntag Magazine active. Schmuki learned the craft of cross-channel media production at print titles (View, Swiss Illustrated, Weltwoche), radio (Radio Stadtfilter) and TV (Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen SRF).

42-year-old Fred Valet joins Watson Romandie as Sandra Jean's deputy. The current editor-in-chief of regional broadcaster La Télé will join the Watson Romandie team as early as December. Valet was a columnist for the Migros Magazine and is part of the program "52 Minutes" on RTS.

Journalist and blogger Marie-Adèle Copin is to become the head of entertainment at Watson Romandie. The 30-year-old is the author behind the well-received blog "Into the Bobo" and moves from 20 Minutes Friday one.

Christian Despont also joins the team as a sports writer. The 48-year-old winner of the Francophone journalism prize "Prix Lalanne" is head of Tamedia's sports news agency Sport-Center in French-speaking Switzerland. For Watson Romandie, he is returning to his professional roots and will provide journalistic coverage of sports events in French-speaking Switzerland.

Editor-in-chief Jean has been able to sign up Adrien Schnarrenberger from Fribourg as chief of staff. The 31-year-old moves from the online editorial department of the daily newspaper La Liberté to Watson Romandie.

With around 35,000 visitors, the Bern Holiday Fair is the oldest tourism trade fair in Switzerland. The next edition of the fair, which is held annually on the Bernexpo site, would have been scheduled for January 7-10, 2021. Due to the Corona pandemic and its economic consequences for exhibitors, Bernexpo Groupe has decided not to hold the vacation fair again until 2022.

"The decision was very difficult for us. However, it is important for our customers to make a decision early on, because many exhibitors will soon be starting detailed planning for the trade fair and this will trigger costs," says Jennifer Somm, CEO of Bernexpo. Therefore, in this difficult situation, the group wants to provide clarity and planning security to the exhibitors at an early stage.

Reduced version is not an option

Holding the Bern Fair in a reduced version was also not an option. "In the last two years, we have sharpened the orientation of the fair together with the exhibitors and other partners and received a lot of positive feedback for this. If we were now to hold the vacation fair in a reduced version, this would not be a satisfactory basis for either the exhibitors or the visitors, neither economically nor in terms of content," explains Exhibition Director Mario Kovacevic.

FESPO is carried out

The holding of FESPO in Zurich is being maintained at the present time. Bernexpo Groupe would like to hold the trade fair in Zurich as planned from January 14 to 17, 2021. However, the situation will also be assessed here on an ongoing basis and in close exchange with exhibitors and key partners.

Next vacation fair in 2022

The next vacation fair in Bern will be held from 13 to 16 January 2022. The early postponement of the vacation trade fair allows the players in the travel industry to adapt to the new starting situation with sufficient lead time and to gear their appearance to the situation.