Thanks Nir for the excellent idea and organizing such an interesting event. I hope there's more (with other interesting topics) to come.



Judging by the turn out, next time I think you would need a bigger room (or stadium) and maybe a wee bit longer too (we still had plenty of questions:)).
tigre, Feb 27, 2009 @ 17:08

Hi Nir,
 
Thanks for the seminar, it was interesting and make me understand better the way Swiss Politics are.  Thanks to Jordan too, I agree with you:  he's a great speaker.
 
Hope you organise other seminars with subjects as interesting as this one.
 
Have a nice weekend :)

Friendly, Feb 27, 2009 @ 17:52

Hi Near, and the people I met yesterday. Thanks again for a very good evening. I have a comment and a question.



The comment is that I would have liked a bit more structured approach. We turned too quick into Q/A mode of work, so we missed to get the view on the systems as a whole: from the top to the base (or other way around).



The Question: Jordan showed the book . I tried to find it on the web, but couldn't track it. Can we get an advice how to get one?



Regards,



Milutin
milmil, Feb 27, 2009 @ 19:45

Hi Nir,

Thank you for organizing such a  highly needed and intersting seminar. The speaker was great and the whole set up was quite good. I liked very much you standing outside receiving people! That was realy nice:), especially for people who arrived very recently to Geneva and don't know much about directions and places. Warm welcome and friendliness works magic!
raboshka, Feb 28, 2009 @ 13:18

Thanks for a great and very interesting seminar.

It gave me a great insight into the political minefield that is Switzerland! For someone who knows absolutely nothing about politics, it was perfect.

I guess it would have been nice to have a slightly larger room as we were all a little squished at the back but it just shows how popular this subject is!                                                                                                                Jourdan was also a very good speaker and you should use him for more of the same thing.

Thanks again:)
chloerimmer, Mar 2, 2009 @ 10:52

I've seen this book in "La Poste" and in FNAC.  In fact, there are books for different Swiss topics:  Swiss history, politics, etc. in the same format but in different colors.  Hope that helps.
Friendly, Mar 2, 2009 @ 10:53

Thanks a lot for this. Just to propose another good reading:



http://www.bergli.ch/shop/detail/ISBN-9783905252125

milmil, Mar 2, 2009 @ 12:53

Another big thank you to you Nir, Jordan and the Geneva Welcome Center. It was a very good evening.
However, I agree with milmil that a structured approach for a little longer would have been nice. Although who can vote, how often, to what, where and why might seem boring, it really provides a much better foundation for understanding singular issues. Obviously the Q&A is necessary too so maybe it boils down to for how long the speaker can stand being in the spotlight.

Finally I have another idea for a similar seminar: Swiss culture and traditions - I'm sure there must be more to it than fondue, l'escalade and watches!
E.g. Christmas and New Year's traditions; how do the Swiss feel coherence as a federal state; trends in recent film and literature; societal structure with regards to gender... -perhaps several seminars are needed...
Ronine, Mar 3, 2009 @ 22:28

All,

Big thanks for taking the time to share the feedback - much appreciated.

Below are the key points I picked up on from the feedback. I'll share these points with Jordan, and we will action them for future seminars. Pls let me know if any more key points...

1. Overall, the idea of 'Swiss Politics for Dummies' is good.
2. The seminar delivered good base info, and Jordan is a good presenter.
3. The key imporovement opportunities for next time are:
• More structured format
• Focus on less topics, and go deeper into each one
• Go for longer than 1 hour
4. There are other GREAT ideas for future seminars from many folks (I personally love the Swiss Culture & Traditions one!).

Thanks again to everyone for the feedback!

Nir
Nir Ofek, Mar 3, 2009 @ 23:07

Also, being a free seminar is a big added bonus :)
tigre, Mar 4, 2009 @ 10:57