Anniversary Event
By 2050, urban living will be the reality for almost 70 percent of the global population.
As cities continue to grow, it becomes crucial to ensure that citizens not only have adequate housing and public services but also access to safe and affordable food. Join us for an engaging event that unites diverse perspectives from Switzerland and the Bay Area, exploring the latest advancements and solutions for a more sustainable urban food system.
Speakers & Moderator
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Bio
Bettina Scharrer
Senior Research Scientist at Universität BernBettina Scharrer is an environmental historian and senior research scientist at the Centre for Development and Environment at the University of Bern with a focus on agricultural policy and problem areas of the agro-industrial food system as well as possible transformation approaches. She is currently leading a project on urban food systems and one on interactions between production, processing and trade in the Swiss dairy and meat sector.
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Bio
Jonelle Simunich
Co-Founder and Executive Director at [y]our 2040Jonelle is a futurist, entrepreneur and urban strategist focused on life in and around cities. She co-founded [y]our 2040 to evolve a better understanding of the future to help rapidly transition towards positive outcomes for people, place and planet. Her expertise in architecture, urban planning, and foresight enables her to support a variety of companies, community and cities to shape our collective built future.
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Moderator
Lauren Wildbolz
Entrepeneur and plant based Expert and Chef, Future Cuisine & Soil to SoulLauren Wildbolz, a visionary plant-based chef, is focused on inspiring and educating chefs and creating innovative concepts for companies and the hospitality industry.
Wildbolz is a pioneer in the field of vegan cuisine in Europe, driven by her strong desire to inspire and educate others in the culinary industry. Her mastery of future cuisine, sustainable living, and ethical practices is unmatched and is firmly rooted in her extensive knowledge of plant-based nutrition.
Over the last 15 years, Wildbolz has established a thriving career as a chef, running a successful noble-premier catering company, offering her signature plant-based cuisine to events and gatherings. She also runs a flourishing pastry brand called KUBO, expanding the range of plant-based dessert options for restaurants and hotels.
To share her knowledge and skills, she offers online cooking courses and chef training programs, as well as producing documentaries that promote plant-based nutrition and sustainable living practices.
As Creative Director at the Soil to Soul Symposium, Wildbolz continues to advocate for sustainable living. She serves on the Gastro Advisory Board for a prominent plant-based Co-Working location in Zurich. She remains a leading voice in the culinary industry through her dedication to promoting healthy and nutritious eating habits.
She continues to inspire and educate chefs, creating innovative concepts for companies, restaurants, and hotels.
Lauren Wildbolz is the founder of Future Cuisine and is dedicated to creating delicious, healthy, and sustainable food solutions. She works with food and food-tech companies globally, leveraging her expertise in plant-based nutrition and collaborating with scientists and startups to provide people with safe, affordable, and high-quality food.
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Bio
Mar Serra
Nestlé Accelerator Head, Lausanne HubMar has fifteen years of experience leading innovation and technical teams in the food industry. She is a passionate and purpose-driven leader, and in her current role as Accelerator Head, she focuses on enabling teams to develop and market-test food and nutrition disruptive science-based solutions in only a few months to make a remarkable and positive impact in the current food industry.
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Bio
Ricardo San Martin
Director, Alt: Meat Lab, Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology, UC BerkeleyRicardo San Martin is a lifelong inventor, entrepreneur, and professor of biotechnology and plant-based ingredients used by the food industry. Since 2017 he has been the director of UC Berkeley’s Alt.Meat Lab, a unique educational hub where students learn food science and entrepreneurial principles, to develop the next generation of plant-based foods.
His fervent belief is that the shift towards plant-based foods will only truly impact our eating habits if it catalyzes a transformation in how we perceive nature—as a source not of limitless resources but as a delicate ecosystem. This endeavor is complex and challenging, lacking one-size-fits-all solutions. His role is to facilitate the discovery process for our students and the new generation, which is urgently poised to reshape our food systems.
Ricardo hold a MSc degree in chemical engineering from UC Berkeley (Fulbright Scholar) and a PhD in biotechnology from Imperial College, London (British Council Scholar).
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Bio
Robin Bertschinger
Co-Founder & Co-CEO at UMAMI AGRobin Bertschinger is Co-founder and CEO of UMAMI AG. He leads the young company together with his Co-founder Denis Weinberg. To ensure that Umami can continue to produce the purest food with exceptional taste in the future, Robin is making sure that the team has all the resources available to work towards their shared goal: to become the most sustainable producer of natural foods.
Program
- 5:00pm – Doors open
Welcome
- 5:20pm – Lauren Wildbolz, Soil to Soul
- 5:25pm – State Secretary Martina Hirayama, State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation, SERI
- 5:30pm – Emilia Pasquier, Swissnex in San Francisco
Keynote
- 5:40pm – Virtual keynote from San Francisco Bay Area speaker: Ricardo San Martin, Director Alternative Meats Lab, UC Berkley
Breakout sessions (short interactive keynotes)
- 5:50pm – Bettina Scharrer, Research Scientist, University of Bern
- 5:50pm – Robin Bertschinger, Founder and Co-CEO startup Umami
- 5:50pm – Jonelle Simunich, Urban Planner, Executive Director and Co-Founder, [y]our 2040
- 5:50pm – Mar Serra, Head Accelerator Nestle Research
Panel discussion
- 6:20pm – Panel discussion
Conclusion
- 6:45pm – Sophie Schumacher, Project Manager Innovation Office University of Basel
- 6:48pm – Jürgen Freidrich, Project Manager KLYBEQ Area - Swiss Life
Closing
- 6:50pm – Networking apéro
- 8:00pm – End of event
iCal / Outlook
Event start time
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Switzerland
5:00PM
20th Anniversary of Swissnex in San Francisco
This event is part of Metropolis: Sustainable Futures Under Construction, Swissnex in San Francisco’s anniversary programming this Fall.
Related Events
Partners
This event is a collaboration with the University of Basel Innovation Office and kühne wicki Future Stuff.