Pop-up House of Switzerland - Stuttgart 2021

After successful premiere in Stuttgart: Pop-up House of Switzerland closes, plans to reopen in Milan next year

The hugely successful Pop-up House of Switzerland in Stuttgart city centre is moving on to a new location. Hosting events attended by industry leaders and important political figures from Switzerland and Baden-Württemberg, the venue proved highly popular with visitors and received a great deal of positive feedback.

Successful premiere in Stuttgart
Switzerland's first ever pop-up House of Switzerland has been show-casing Switzerland in neighbouring Germany since 1 July. In four months, over 20,000 people visited the 2,000m2 venue in Stuttgart's city centre to experience Switzerland first hand and network.The pop-up House of Switzerland had the pleasure of welcoming distinguished visitors includingthe president of the Swiss Confederation, Guy Parmelin, and Baden-Württemberg's state premier, Winfried Kretschmann. The two met at the pop-up venue on 6 October to talk with industry leaders about the Baden-Württemberg–Switzerland economic region. Other prominent politicians from Baden-Württemberg to visit the House of Switzerland in the four months included the ministers of transport and economic affairs, Winfried Hermann and Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut, the state secretaries for Europe and transport, Florian Hassler and Elke Zimmer, and the city's mayor, Peter Pätzold.

"We consider the Pop-up House of Switzerland a success. We're delighted at the hospitality shown by the people of Stuttgart and are very grateful," said Switzerland’s ambassador to Germany, Paul Seger.

The pop-up HoS is a pilot project organised by Presence Switzerland. It was launched in Stuttgart to help important neighbouring regions reconnect following the lull imposed by the COVID pandemic. Presence Switzerland is the FDFA office responsible for nation branding, in close cooperation with its partners Switzerland Tourism and Switzerland Global Enterprise (S-GE).

“The Pop-up House of Switzerland has proven an ideal platform to showcase the innovative, creative and also surprising sides of Switzerland. It has also been a place to meet and discuss matters of shared interest, cooperation models and future prospects,” added Seger.

A door-opener for new collaborations

The Pop-up House of Switzerland hosted over one hundred successful events including a large number of industry gatherings with partners from business, science, culture and politics on forward-looking topics of shared interest. The venue saw the launch of new projects and paved the way for further strong cross-border ties. Now that the pop-up House of Switzerland has moved on, the Swiss representations in Germany will pick up the baton of the 'So Schweiz' campaign, and continue to promote cross-border cooperation.

The Pop-up House of Switzerland also featured a business networking area where Swiss Business Hub Germany, based at the Swiss Consulate General in Stuttgart, promoted new collaborations between Switzerland and Baden-Württemberg.

 "The similarities between our two countries are greater than the differences. Both are leaders in technology and have artificial intelligence, sustainability, blockchain and personalised healthcare high on their agendas," said Britta Thiele-Klapproth, who heads the Swiss Business Hub Germany. "Through these events and debates, we created many opportunities for one-on-one meetings, in addition to high-quality content and leading panels – all of which we will now build on."

Switzerland and tourism

In the Swiss Lounge by partner Switzerland Tourism, visitors had the chance to discover their neighbouring country as a unique travel destination.The 200m2 interactive space show-cased Switzerland's romantic towns, crystalline lakes, mountains boasting forty-eight 4,000-metre peaks, and the 1,600k Grand Tour of Switzerland tourist route. Themed weeks were dedicated to the popular holiday destination cantons of Ticino, Valais, Graubünden and Vaud. The well-known Swiss singer Beatrice Egli also came to Stuttgart to talk about her planned, and later successful, ascent of the Matterhorn and Switzerland Tourism's 100%Women Peak Challenge. Jörg Peter Krebs, Director of Switzerland Tourism Germany, was delighted."Our Swiss Lounge has definitely been the main attraction for the last four months. We and our partners were pleased to see so many guests in our lounge, all of whom we hope to welcome back to Switzerland soon."

The canton of Basel-Stadt took the opportunity to highlight the interconnectedness of the border region between Basel and the state of Baden-Württemberg.

Following its successful launch in Stuttgart, the Pop-up House of Switzerland is scheduled to visit locations around Europe. The next stop on the roadshow's itinerary will be Milan in Italy, another important neighbouring region for Switzerland.

Useful links

Website: www.so-schweiz.de

LinkedIn Switzerland in Germany

Photos:Flickr (Images are free of charge, please cite: 'FDFA, Presence Switzerland')