A study tour to Silicon Valley for Communication and Social Media professional Alice Baumann gets her outside of her comfort zone, where magic happens.
My friends asked me why I was trading in a nice relaxing Easter holiday for a study tour (basically a working vacation) in the Silicon Valley, organized and guided by swissnex San Francisco. Why would I fly 12 hours from Switzerland to the USA to spend an intense week and suffer jetlag on both sides of the trip? Why would I pay for my flight, the stay, and the programming? Could the experience possibly be worth it?
The simple answer is yes! The adventure was unique, interesting, and only positive. My goal from the start—to gain marketing and communication insights through targeted visits with startups and established companies—was more than fulfilled.
Road warriors take in the view of the Golden Gate. From left to right: Peter Buri, spokesperson for the Canton of Aargau; Chris Luschair, Tech reporter, Tages Anzeiger; Gabriele Ottino, Business Development at TA Media; Alice Baumann, CEO at consign; Annina Flückiger, Head of Marketing at 20 Minuten AG; and Martin Seidler, Front End Engineer at Centralway.
Silicon Valley is not a valley, but a region and a mentality. Everyone wants—and expects—to succeed. Sean Randolph, President of the Bay Area Economic Council, provides study tour participants with a detailed picture of the main economic drivers of the San Francisco Bay Area.
Road warriors take in the view of the Golden Gate. From left to right: Peter Buri, spokesperson for the Canton of Aargau; Chris Luschair, Tech reporter, Tages Anzeiger; Gabriele Ottino, Business Development at TA Media; Alice Baumann, CEO at consign; Annina Flückiger, Head of Marketing at 20 Minuten AG; and Martin Seidler, Front End Engineer at Centralway.
At Storify, the tour meets co-founder Burt Herman, a former newspaper journalist. He explains the fundamentals of the platform and its future. His candid conversation also touches on the challenges facing news media today to remain relevant and competitive.
Silicon Valley is not a valley, but a region and a mentality. Everyone wants—and expects—to succeed. Sean Randolph, President of the Bay Area Economic Council, provides study tour participants with a detailed picture of the main economic drivers of the San Francisco Bay Area.
At UC Berkeley, Ram Kapoor, Executive Director of Digital Communications, discusses the process of rebranding the institution and explains how they manage reputation and engage the student community through social media.
At Storify, the tour meets co-founder Burt Herman, a former newspaper journalist. He explains the fundamentals of the platform and its future. His candid conversation also touches on the challenges facing news media today to remain relevant and competitive.
UBER is a startup disrupting the personal mobility landscape with their on-demand car service. The company, founded in 2009, operates in 28 cities around the world—and it’s coming to Zurich soon! They share their strategy for entering new markets, involving a dedicated launch team whose role is to drum up engagement with movers and shakers.
At UC Berkeley, Ram Kapoor, Executive Director of Digital Communications, discusses the process of rebranding the institution and explains how they manage reputation and engage the student community through social media.
Talking content with Social Media Strategist Staci Baird of Stanford University’s School of Engineering. She describes the benefits of working with student interns and points out the importance of video content.
UBER is a startup disrupting the personal mobility landscape with their on-demand car service. The company, founded in 2009, operates in 28 cities around the world—and it’s coming to Zurich soon! They share their strategy for entering new markets, involving a dedicated launch team whose role is to drum up engagement with movers and shakers.
One of the advantages of being in Silicon Valley is the abundance of interesting events, like the VLAB event we attend with Chris Anderson, the former editor of Wired and co-founder and CEO of 3DRobotics, a drone manufacturing company.
UBER is a startup disrupting the personal mobility landscape with their on-demand car service. The company, founded in 2009, operates in 28 cities around the world—and it’s coming to Zurich soon! They share their strategy for entering new markets, involving a dedicated launch team whose role is to drum up engagement with movers and shakers.
One of the advantages of being in Silicon Valley is the abundance of interesting events, like the VLAB event we attend with Chris Anderson, the former editor of Wired and co-founder and CEO of 3DRobotics, a drone manufacturing company.
An early morning visit to Metaio opens a window into the future, where all of us can turn the two-dimensional into the three-dimensional through Augmented Reality (AR), set to become ubiquitous on personal devices within a year. Curious to see what that air conditioner would look like in your room? Now you can find out before installing it.
An early morning visit to Metaio opens a window into the future, where all of us can turn the two-dimensional into the three-dimensional through Augmented Reality (AR), set to become ubiquitous on personal devices within a year. Curious to see what that air conditioner would look like in your room? Now you can find out before installing it.
Although Zuckerberg has to cancel our private meeting at the last minute 🙂 we still get to tour Facebook’s impressive headquarters. A casual lunch with some Swiss engineers provides us with an opportunity to learn what it’s like to work at the social media giant as well as its culture and values.
Although Zuckerberg has to cancel our private meeting at the last minute 🙂 we still get to tour Facebook’s impressive headquarters. A casual lunch with some Swiss engineers provides us with an opportunity to learn what it’s like to work at the social media giant as well as its culture and values.
Evernote, with new offices in Zurich, helps you “remember everything,” from the people you meet to the food you ate. The executive team shares an example of their crisis communication strategy: be transparent. They put this philosophy to use recently when they were hacked they immediately told users and asked them to change their passwords.
Evernote, with new offices in Zurich, helps you “remember everything,” from the people you meet to the food you ate. The executive team shares an example of their crisis communication strategy: be transparent. They put this philosophy to use recently when they were hacked they immediately told users and asked them to change their passwords.
The CBS network’s local TV station, KPIX, has one social media manager overseeing all of their social media activities. It’s a non stop job and her stamina and willingness to be connected 24/7 are impressive.
The CBS network’s local TV station, KPIX, has one social media manager overseeing all of their social media activities. It’s a non stop job and her stamina and willingness to be connected 24/7 are impressive.
My personal conclusions from the tour are:
- Silicon Valley is not a valley, but a region and a mentality. Everyone wants—and expects—to succeed
- As a visitor, the smaller the company, the more open-minded and interested in an honest exchange of opinions people seem to be.
- Switzerland is not so far behind. Most major developments in the use of social media and other marketing strategies are being utilized at home, too. And perhaps Switzerland could share some of its our core values, for example quality, reliability, perfection, and punctuality.
- swissnex San Francisco does a great job of connecting Swiss experts with American entrepreneurs. I can’t think of a better way to learn so much about a country, a state, and their companies. We got inspired leaving our comfort zone and moving into a landscape where magic happens!
Read what another member of this study tour, Gabriele Ottino, had to say about his time in Silicon Valley.
More on the University of Applied Sciences in Business Administration Zurich (HWZ) study tour to Silicon Valley in March (in German only).
