Boston & New York | April 13, 2026
This month, Swissnex and the IBSA Foundation for scientific research are collaborating on a series of events on community, technology, and well-being. The events in Boston and New York weave together insights from medicine, public health, digital research, and the arts to ask a deceptively simple question: what does it mean to be well in an increasingly isolated world?
“The digital world has given us extraordinary tools for connection — and yet we’re more isolated than ever,” says Philippe Roesle, CEO of Swissnex in Boston and New York. “That paradox sits at the heart of these events. We’re excited to join the IBSA Foundation in convening these conversations on how we can rekindle the social bonds that are essential for human flourishing.”
On April 27, Swissnex’s Boston office will host two events focusing on young people’s digital lives. In the afternoon, the workshop Happiness 2.0: Performing the Digital Self invites participants to explore the tensions between online and offline identities through a creative mask-making activity. Grounded in the IBSA Foundation’s project Happiness2.0, the workshop aims to help young people, parents, and educators reflect on their digital habits and develop more intentional relationships with technology. That evening, the panel discussion Growing Up Online: Interactive Media and Youth Well-Being continues the conversation, examining meaningful indicators of digital health, including belonging, autonomy, identity, and resilience, and grappling with how to translate research into practice — what gaps remain between academic findings and real-world implementation and what responsibility technology platforms bear in shaping healthier digital ecosystems.
On April 30 in New York, The Case for Social Prescribing will explore the growing movement of health professionals who are prescribing community-based, non-clinical activities to treat medical and psychological conditions. The discussion, presented in collaboration with the IBSA Foundation for scientific research and the Culture Division of the City of Lugano, will bring together practitioners, policy makers, and experts to explore pioneering social prescribing efforts taking shape in Switzerland and the US, and seek out common ground for community-centered care across healthcare systems.
These events mark the continuation of a collaboration between Swissnex and the IBSA Foundation for scientific research at the intersection of culture and health, which included the 2023 event Arts as Medicine: Where Do We Go From Here? hosted by Swissnex in Boston.