The Zermatt Summit 2019 took as its starting point the observation that breakthrough innovations often emerge from the periphery: from small enterprises or communities, from less-developed parts of the world, or through a combination of traditional knowledge and cutting-edge technology.
Christopher Wasserman convened the first Zermatt Summit in 2010 to promote the role of business in advancing the common good. Organizing the summit in Zermatt was a conscious choice: the village lies at the end of a deep mountain valley and can only be reached by train. In other words, it is at the periphery, the very place where innovation is born and matures until it is ready to change the world.
Participants in the 2019 joined speakers and panelists in discussing many inspiring examples of “peripheral innovation”, including revolutionary technologies to harness wind energy, address plastic pollution in the oceans, reduce food waste, empower farmers in developing countries to sell directly to consumers, support entrepreneurship and revive local economies in remote communities.
Zermatt Summit, Head Office
World Trade Center
Av. Gratta-Paille 2
CH – 1018 Lausanne
Switzerland
Harnessing the power of Business and Finance for the Common Good
