Many guests at the economic forum and FRZ anniversary
650 guests came to Kloten at the end of November for the Economic Forum, where the tenth anniversary of FRZ Flughafenregion Zürich - Business Network & Location Development - was also celebrated.
The 22nd Economic Forum was opened by Ingold André, President FRZ Airport Region Zurich. Christoph Lang, Managing Director of FRZ Zurich Airport Region, recalled the eventful history of FRZ. This is shown by the growth in the number of members from 50 in the founding year to around 800 by the end of 2022. In his message of greeting, the President of the Government, Ernst Stocker, congratulated the FRZ on its success. He emphasized the importance of the airport region for the Canton of Zurich and Switzerland - a region that is growing at an above-average rate. This was true, for example, in terms of the number of inhabitants, the taxable income of private individuals and the net profit of companies based in the airport region.
Gian-Luca Bona, former director of EMPA, spoke about the challenge of innovation. As an example, he highlighted nanotechnology, in which Swiss achievements had played a significant role. In 1986, Heinrich Rohrer and Gerd Binnig received the Nobel Prize for the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope. Nanotechnology was an important success factor in the production of modern mRNA vaccines. Only in this way was it possible to avoid a far greater catastrophe during the Corona pandemic - such as mankind would have experienced with the Spanish flu.
Plea for entrepreneurship
"It's better to move forward pragmatically than to stand perfectly still," was the title of the speech given by keynote speaker Roland Brack, CEO and founder of Brack.ch. The corporate culture is crucial for pioneering achievements. Agility and speed must come before perfection. Brack.ch's success was not meticulously planned from the start, but the result of seizing opportunities and questioning and letting go of the established.
It is essential to take risks, he said. Failure is part of entrepreneurship. Mistakes should be seen as experiences from which one can learn. Switzerland needs this mindset. Perfection, know-it-alls and whiners, on the other hand, are more of a hindrance.
Start-ups are an important driver of innovation and new business models, according to Roland Brack. With them, we would make faster progress. Entrepreneurship should be presented as something worth striving for.
