Concept

As indicated in the section "history", the basic concept of a real exchange between business from Switzerland and Africa will remain. And with it the basic structure of the 2-days-programme, i.e. the first day dedicated to very concrete business projects and the second day used for one-on-one meetings between presenters and participants. Learning from feedback on the 2009-event and based on the results of the evaluation after the event, the edition in 2010 will be better adjusted to the needs of the different categories of participants. The two first editions saw a mixture of entrepreneurs – mainly looking for sector- and/or country-specific information and possible partners – and financial investors – on the outlook for investment opportunities for their or their client’s capital.

The Swiss-African Business exchange focuses on the economic sectors with the highest relevance for Swiss-African business relations (namely health development & life sciences, infrastructure, energy, agriculture and agri-business, financial services). Further there will each year be a spotlight on 3-4 selected countries / regions. 

The second part of the programme on day 1 (see also section "programme structure") will be split up into breakout sessions which better correspond to the participant groups mentioned above. The new structure will follow the logic of a funnel canalising the information from the first very general presentation at the beginning of day 1 down to the individual encounter between businessmen during the one-on-one meetings of day 2.