# Geneva learning expedition: radical neutralities

- URL : https://www.inexpeditions.com/en/learningexpedition/geneve
- Language : English
- Publisher : in:Expeditions SAS, 8 rue Lacépède, 75005 Paris, bonjour@inexpeditions.com
- Country : Switzerland
- Duration : from 1 to 4 days
- Price : Starting from €4,000 excl. VAT per person (10 people minimum)

> In Geneva, students at HEAD, the city’s university of art and design, take on live briefs for clients from their first year.

## Geneva learning expedition : radical neutralities

### At a glance

€4,000

- Developing and sharing a strategic vision
- Committing to others

ThemesNeutralities · Governances · Research and innovation

in:Expeditions designs and leads the learning expedition. Accommodation and transport are booked separately, in your name or through a registered travel operator.

### A ski resort gives up skiing, a watch supplier recycles its steel

In Geneva, students at HEAD, the city’s university of art and design, take on live briefs for clients from their first year. Across the French border, the Métabief ski resort has stopped investing in downhill skiing and in 2024 closed nearly 30% of its slopes to become a year-round destination. In La Chaux-de-Fonds, the Jura company Panatere has been melting down watchmaking steel scrap in two solar furnaces since October 2025. Leadership teams face one decision here: when to give up the business that built the company.

### Three immersions for a Geneva learning expedition

IMMERSION 1

#### An art school in the old Elna sewing machine plant

Formed in 2006 by merging the École supérieure des beaux-arts and the Haute école d’arts appliqués, HEAD Geneva offers seven bachelor’s and eight master’s programmes, from visual arts to fashion design. Its students work on the Charmilles campus, in former factories; since 2017 the school has occupied building H, the old Tavaro plant where Elna sewing machines were assembled.

IMMERSION 2

#### Five lifts stopped, a resort for all seasons

At Métabief, in the Doubs near the Swiss border, the Syndicat mixte du Mont d’Or expects downhill skiing to end around 2030 to 2035. The first outlines of its transition plan date from 2022. In September 2024 it announced the closure of 30% of the ski area, five lifts in all, from 2025, and the département voted to speed up the shift to a year-round resort.

IMMERSION 3

#### Two solar furnaces for watchmaking steel

Panatere, a metal recycling company from the Swiss Jura, remelts stainless steel offcuts from watchmaking, medical devices and aerospace. On 3 October 2025 it opened two concentrated solar furnaces in La Chaux-de-Fonds, which reach almost 2,000°C using 500 mirrors, for about 50 tonnes of recycled steel a year. It aims for 1,000 tonnes a year by 2028.

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Source : https://www.inexpeditions.com/en/learningexpedition/geneve · in:Expeditions, learning expeditions and impact retreats since 2015.