First "Digitalswitzerland Challenge": Deeds instead of words

At the first "Digitalswitzerland Challenge" on April 3, 2017, ten teams formed in roundtables presented 18 bets. These are now being tackled and implemented by the teams.

The jury president, Chancellor Walter Thurnherr, announced the winning bets in the three categories:

• The most courageous betwhich earns headshakes today and applause tomorrow, is betting to build a "smart neighborhood" as a test bed for advanced sustainable autonomous transportation solutions.
• The most collaborative bet, which creates new partners and breaks down silos, is betting to establish a digital ecosystem to increase health literacy with an initial pilot to lower blood pressure.
• The most lucrative bet, which is making Switzerland (success)rich, is betting to realize a commercial registry prototype based on blockchain, through which company formation can be digitized.
• The Audience Award for the bet we believe in the most: bet to establish a Swiss standard for data handling and privacy pictograms and implement it in a digital privacy assistant.

Marc Walder, CEO of Ringier and initiator of Digitalswitzerland, says: "The Challenge is about action, not words. By joining forces, we are putting ambitious key digitization projects into action. With the Challenge's bets, we are proving that Switzerland is in pole position in the global digital competition."

Susanne Ruoff, CEO of Swiss Post and member of the Digitalswitzerland steering committee, adds: "It is crucial that we become concrete and really bring projects to fruition.Challengebringt us further as a company, because we can only realize projects on the scale of these bets together. The distances in Switzerland are short and the four national languages make us world champions in collaboration. In the Challenge, we are building on precisely these Swiss strengths."

What's next?

After the pitch, the bets are placed. After half a year, as of September 2017, a first milestone is reached. After that, it's full steam ahead until the results are presented at the Demoday in April 2018.

The individual roundtables finance their projects themselves. The support fund Engagement Migros enables the development of the overall project of the Challengein its funding priority Collaborative Innovation.

About Digitalswitzerland

Digitalswitzerland is a joint initiative of business, the public sector and academia that aims to make Switzerland a leading international location for digital innovation. Digitalswitzerland is already active in a wide range of fields, such as knowledge transfer, education, start-up ecosystems and political framework conditions. The association includes over 60 of the most renowned companies and organizations as well as innovative locations throughout Switzerland. The initiative was launched in 2015.

The 18 bets: