SWISSNESS 2014

Date and place
9 December 2014
Ministry of Foreign European Affairs (premises)

Main theme
Today for tomorrow
Innovative approaches & solutions to design our future

www.swissness.sk

Slovakia is standing on the brink of a major demographic change. By 2050, up to a third of its population will be 65 and older. Business, education, health and other policies are not yet ready to tackle this challenge. Innovative approaches, which could help shape our society structure to meet the key objectives, are inevitable.

People with grey hair can no longer be considered “old" and it is certain they will have to play a much more active role in the society. Slovakia as well and Switzerland and other EU contries are yet to uncover their potential in order to create silver economy, a working environment engaging ever broader age groups.

Objective of the symposium:

• Our symposium aims to facilitate dialogue, exchange ideas and share best practices among Slovak and Swiss stakeholders. We call for innovative approaches, bridging younger startup culture with seasoned workforce.
• Create a platform for dialog related to fundamental values for sustainable development, perspective innovation concepts and effective solutions
• Present cutting-edge innovation approaches and discuss about the critical success factors for social enterprises

Our symposium will target political stakeholders – high-profile personalities of Switzerland and Slovakia. Politicians, governmental and ministerial representatives, academic and scientist community, think-tanks opinion leaders, scholars and business elite.

The symposium will be held at the occasion of V4 Summit with the participations of President of Switzerland.

The white paper with the symposium outputs will be presented to the V4 Summit representatives in the informal way.

The government of the Slovak Republic set up as a high priority to attract and support the projects and investments which bring high added value, with special focus on R&D and innovation which are crucial for the development of the knowledge-based economy.

Key challenges Slovakia faces today and Switzerland can be considered as inspiration:

• Employment: Working environment is not adjusted to various age groups and will have to make possible for older people to remain economically active.
• Education: Not only youngsters deserve accumulating advanced skills. However, further education is underestimated and most employers consider education past the age of 50 a luxury. To share how to accomodate knowledge between younger and older generation.
• Health: The average life expectancy is 72–79 years, but Slovakia’s healthy life threshold is only 52, EU’s lowest figure. This calls for a better care taken by both individuals and the healthcare system.
• Attitude: Productive age will be shifting and so will have to happen to people’s perceptions. It will be vital to promote an active approach to life in formative years and change habits across generations.

Slovakia has very vibrant startup ecosystem supporting creation and their growth from all over the country. We would like to present sustainable start-up initiatives.

Innovations are not only in the field of IT or technology industry. We would like to share the ideas how to adapt start-up products and services to become more sustainable and “user friendly” for the generation in age of 40+. Our discussion platform can focus on social entrepreneurship which can be also innovative and it overlaps with innovation in public policy and governance as well.