SKMF Swiss Knowledge Management Forum

Geneva

Past Events

17.10.2025 | From Creative Friction to Living Ecosystems

What happens when your best experts retire, your teams work in isolation, and breakthrough ideas die in meeting rooms, or worse, in forgotten databases?

Most organizations treat knowledge as something to protect and control, yet the companies creating real innovation today do the opposite - they turn knowledge into a living ecosystem where ideas flow freely and multiply through collaboration. This session, inspired by the most compelling insights from the KMGN - Knowledge Management Global Network 2025 Course, will reveal to participants how sustainable competitive advantage comes from connection, not protection.

Drawing from KMGN's breakthrough frameworks, we explore Arthur Shelley's Creative Friction model showing how controlled collision between different expertise domains sparks innovation. You will discover three powerful methods for transformation: KISMET (how Knowledge, Intelligence, Skills, Motivation, Environment, and Tenacity combine for innovation), the One Degree of Separation approach (connecting everyone in your organization directly), and Deliberating Structures that turn conflict into creative solutions.

We examine two transformative cases: Bergen's Hanseatic traders who created Europe's most successful trading network through radical openness, and Krasnoyarsk's restaurant community where competitors discovered that sharing their best recipes and techniques elevated the entire regional cuisine, attracting more customers for everyone. In structured table workshops, you will select and apply one of these methods to your organization's actual challenges, evaluating both the opportunities and the realistic barriers to implementation in your specific context.

Facilitator

Gianguglielmo Calvi (aka Giangu) and Paweł Szymik-Kozaczko

17.10.2024 | Knowledge Management & Human Rights: a policy round table

In today's complex world, effective human rights policies are more crucial than ever. Yet, how can we ensure these policies are built on a solid foundation of knowledge and evidence, and implemented taking into account all the relevant local perspectives?

This pressing question is at the heart of the conversation hosted by the latest Swiss Knowledge Management Forum (SKMF) Round Table in Geneva and promoted by Diego Costa Fernandes, Founder of Planetary Collaboration.

Drawing from his wealth of experience, Diego will guide us through the labyrinth of modern policy-making, showing how knowledge management can be the compass we need to craft more effective, evidence-based policies.

With the help of two facilitators, the participants will engage in rich discussions and interactive "policy making" games, sharing their own experiences and challenges.

Facilitator

Calvi Gianguglielmo, Vera Nunez Martinez

13.06.2024 | Forgetful knowledge: how memory rewrites what we know

Under the guidance of distinguished neuroscientist Dr Marc Turiault, the roundtable will take participants on a journey through the fascinating intersections of memory, creativity, and knowledge management.

We will explore the impact of memory’s malleability on our understanding of the world as revealed by groundbreaking experiments and dig deeper into how memories shape and reshape our knowledge and perception.

Seize this chance to be part of a critical conversation that bridges theory and practice, illuminating the pathways through which memory continuously rewrites what we know.

Facilitator

Gianguglielmo Calvi (aka Giangu) and Marc Turiault