«Inspiration talk»: die Foodtrends von morgen

Christine Schäfer ist Researcher und Speaker am GDI Gottlieb Duttweiler Institut und analysiert gesellschaftliche, wirtschaftliche und technologische Veränderungen mit den Schwerpunkten Food, Konsum und Handel. Sie hat zahlreiche Trendreports verfasst und ist auch dieses Jahr verantwortlich für die Erstellung des European Food Trend Reports. Christine Schäfer studierte an den Universitäten Bern und Valencia Betriebswirtschaftslehre mit den Schwerpunkten Marketing und Consumer Behaviour. Vor ihrer Anstellung am GDI absolvierte sie das Traineeprogramm beim amerikanischer Pharmazie- und Konsumgüterhersteller Johnson & Johnson in Zug.

Damian Felchlin absolviert derzeit ein Vollzeit-MBA-Studium am Babson College mit Schwerpunkt Nachhaltigkeit und Unternehmertum. Als Assistent hat er eine Fallstudie zum Thema «Export von Lebensmitteln» entwickelt und gelehrt. Er arbeitet Teilzeit für ein weltweit tätiges Impact-Beratungsunternehmen, das globalen Marktzugang und Kapital bietet. In seiner Freizeit ist er Mentor im Food-X-Accelerator in New York.

In seiner vorherigen Position war Damian Handelskommissar des Schweizer Generalkonsulats in San Francisco. Dort beriet er Schweizer Unternehmen, die in den US-amerikanischen Markt eintreten wollten, indem er sie bei Preisfindung, Vertriebskanälen, Branding und Lieferkettenstrategien unterstützte. Damian Felchlin war auch Fachexperte für Nahrungsmittel und Getränke für Switzerland Global Enterprise. 

In seiner Freizeit hilft er gerne Social-Impact-Start-ups dabei, zu wachsen und neue Märkte zu erschliessen. Seine jüngsten Projekte umfassten die Beratung von Start-ups in folgenden Branchen: Point-of-Sale-Feedback-Lösungen, pflanzenbasierte Nahrungsmittelalternativen, Treibhaus-Lösungen für den Massenmarkt, gesunde Bio-Snacks und Bio-Kleidung aus fairem Handel.

Christina is a Food Innovation Passionista aiming to be a part of changing the food system for the better. With a core focus on Food Science and Nutrition Christina is the Managing Director of the Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley, driving collaboration between sectors to innovate better and faster. Further she is co-Director at the Founder Institute’s Swiss Chapter, supporting early stage startups to get off to a great start and on the advisory board of two startups.

Christina holds a Master degree in Food Science & Technology from University of Copenhagen and a Master in European Food Studies from Wageningen University.
She spent the first 12 years of her career at Mondelez in roles across R&D, Innovation management, Marketing and Strategy before she moved on to working with entrepreneurs and startup collaborations. She has studied and worked in 14 different countries and has a special devotion to the Ocean.

Patrick Bastin, CEO of swissmooh AG is responsible for the international business development of swiss dairy specialties under the swissmooh brand, leading cheese brand on T-Mall and jd.com e-commerce platforms in China. Being in the international food business for 23 years he always tries to create valuable and sustainable food businesses building bridges between a good offer and demanding consumers around the world. The experience of 9 years on the buying side working for a leading German retailer in Germany, Austria and Italy and 14 on the sales side working for several export oriented food production companies in Italy and Switzerland, helps him to faster understand and translate hidden needs into sales opportunities to create value added business. 

Thomas Sprenger, Head Food Service, is responsible for the domestic and international food service business at HUG, a family-owned producer of baked goods. The company offers a wide range of products under its well-known brands HUG, Wernli and DAR-VIDA. After studying economics and business administration at the University of Applied Sciences in Baden he spent more than 20 years in the Swiss food industry working for international brands like Toblerone, Philadelphia and Hero before joining the HUG family in 2015. Thomas is a passionate sales & marketing person, holds an EMBA in General Management and calls himself a B2B expert. In its current role he focuses on further growing HUG’s food service business, especially in export markets.

Roland Wyss-Aerni has been chief editor of alimenta/foodaktuell since 2011. alimenta/foodaktuell is the leading print magazine and news platform for the Swiss food business. He studied history, political science and media science at the Universities of Bern and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and graduated in 2000.

Before working for alimenta/foodaktuell, he worked as a freelance journalist and as chief editor with Agricultural Information Service Landwirtschaftlicher Informationsdienst.