Mathias Rinka
"Smart City - opportunities and risks" was the topic of the panel discussion at this year's FIABCI-SUISSE General Assembly. The venue was the Hotel Royal Savoy in Lausanne, which is part of the Bürgenstock Selection. The discussion chaired by Laurent Buschini (24heures) between Jonas Schmid (Head of Business Development at Hivemind) and former SP National Councillor Jean Christophe Schwaab focused on current wishes and visions, but also the dangers of a smart city. General data security and sovereignty and biometric recognition in public spaces are particularly controversial issues. How far can the state and its institutions go? What information may private companies collect, analyze and use for their business operations? The unanimous opinion at the FIABCI SUISSE event was that legislation is required to provide clear guidelines and, if necessary, sanction data misuse.
The FIABCI- SUISSE Annual General Meeting took place before the panel discussion. Past-President Nicolas Gerber and Jonas Fatio stepped down from the Board and Roland Munz resigned as Treasurer.
The members present re-elected Thomas H. Henle as President and Michele Giambonini as Vice President for the 2019-2020 term without a dissenting vote. Nicolas Michel was confirmed as a member of the Board for a further 3-year term. There are also two new additions to the Swiss FIABCI Board: Vitali Bekker, investment and transaction specialist with responsibility for the French-speaking Swiss market at immoveris sa in Geneva, and Paul-Alexandre Goumaz, Vice Director at Régie Marmillod SA in Lausanne. In addition, the cash report was presented and approved, and the actions of the Board of Directors for the past financial year were ratified.
The next opportunity to network in Switzerland will be the upcoming "Case Study" on September 13, 2019 in Zurich. The newly built headquarters of Zurich Insurance on Mythenquai will be visited. Participants can look forward to an informative and interesting event!
FIABCI-SUISSE acts as an important interface for networking real estate experts and associations within and outside Switzerland, works together with UN-HABITAT and is accredited as an NGO with special consultative status by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations.