On the occasion of this year’s edition of the Swiss Digital Day, on November 10, Franklin University Switzerland’s Master of Science and Arts students had the opportunity to present their technical innovation and digitalization business ideas to an attentive crowd of journalists, management, and communication specialists. This was just one of the stages of an extra-curricula project where Franklin and other Lugano-based university students expanded their digital horizons and engaged with professionals as their mentors. The Speakers’ Corner Workshop aims to promote increasingly valuable opportunities for in-depth study and discovery of digitalization and tech issues while offering students a space to be creative and ingenious, plus the opportunity to sharpen their public speaking skills. The event was offered and coordinated by both the City of Lugano and Lugano Living Lab.

Eager to learn more and expand their digital horizons, Franklin graduate students were previously assigned a mentor with whom to discuss best practices and train on the presentation of their research to the public. They later went on to become protagonists and pitch their ideas at the Lugano Arte and Cultura (LACLugano) center. During this venue, the students gave a 2 minutes presentation on the following ideas:

  • BigFoot, a motivating consumption auditing system – reducing consumption by measuring the use of water, electricity, and more through a digital time tracker and rewarding for less waste through practical incentives;
  • Amafruit, the one marketplace for fruits and vegetables – pioneering the digital transformation of the wholesale fruit and vegetable market sector by creating a digital platform to incentivize and support both buyers and sellers;
  • Vivido, grow food in cities and connect with nature – designing cities with nature by creating vertical gardening kits easily installable on any wall service, with added digital services and 3D printing technology;
  • Move.me, the Uber of personal trainers – bringing personal trainers to your home and making fitness digitally accessible through an easy app connect to trainers.

Master student Giovanni Desiderio explains "the development of certain soft skills cannot be done with books, papers or inside a classroom. Presenting an idea in front of an audience is not something you pick up easily, and this was the main strength of the Speakers’ Corner event. Moreover, the event organization was well set, the presentions were long enough to maintain everyone’s attention, and there was the opportunity to give feedback to the presenters, allowing us to reflect on our pitch. Last but not least, the networking at the end of the venue, held in an inspiring location, was incredibly helpful in creating new connections."

As a follow-up, the participants are scheduled to be video recorded in a professional studio where they will once again present their innovative and out-of-the-box ideas, supported by media professionals. These will later be posted to Franklin's and Lugano Living Lab's YouTube channels.  

View the Swiss Digital Day event recording here.