GeneVibe · anniversary edition · 2026
Fifteen years of people turning Geneva's global vantage point into local action, one conversation, cleanup, prototype and friendship at a time.
00 / A living archive
Fifteen years of young people working together for Geneva. Local action, global connections, and a community that shapes change together.
2011—13
The first circle
The Geneva Hub is founded in 2011, with Scott Weber as founding curator and Isotta Cleps as vice-curator.
Archive note Nº 01
Our recovered archive has fewer photographs from the earliest years. Founding memories and images are still welcome.
View the published leadership record ↗2014—16
Finding momentum
Alumni remember 2014 as a culture reset. By February 2015, Geneva was welcoming Shapers from 13 hubs for a weekend that reached from team-building tables to CERN.
Reading for Change wins a USD 10,000 grant. The project later delivers 35 devices to Espace Solidaire Pâquis, helping restart free multimedia language and IT courses.
Published source ↗Geneva Peace Talks. Hub reporting records support to the third edition at the Palais des Nations, with approximately 600 participants.
Archive correction: Reading for Change won the 2015 award. Re-Use was a related, but distinct, later initiative.
2017—19
A hub of hubs
A three-year strategy gives the Hub a longer horizon. Shapers Got Talent brings the network together in Geneva. Back home, projects stretch from financial literacy and trade policy to refugee mentoring, social entrepreneurship and weekly cooking with Accueil de Nuit.
2019
A boat gathering at SHAPE Europe & Eurasia in Istanbul. One alumnus chose this as one of his three favourite Hub memories.
2019 is visible on the event frame
Alumni contribution
2019 · archive label
An alumni photograph from the Annual Summit captures a room full of Shapers exchanging ideas.
Year supplied in the original filename
Alumni contribution
October 2019
At the WTO Public Forum, Geneva Hub hosts a workshop on youth perspectives on the future of trade.
This chapter combines archived project records with alumni oral history; event details remain open for alumni confirmation.
2020—22
Action through disruption
#EUNITE, emergency food vouchers, tree planting, Aigues Vertes, SINGA, La Virgule, Partage and Lake Cleanup: the portfolio becomes a way to stay useful through uncertainty.
The 2021–22 impact records capture practical support, from building beds to mentoring entrepreneurs and caring for the lake.
Browse published impact reports ↗
Covid years · exact date unconfirmed
An alumnus remembers planting trees during Covid as a favourite moment. His photograph shows the group at work in woodland.
Event identified by the contributor; no camera date retained
Alumni contribution
04 / Receipts, not slogans
Selected outcomes documented for 2021–22.
2022—24
Scale with purpose
Spring 2022
Global Shapers gather at the Annual Meeting, exceptionally held in spring. A memory shared by Arno Ratzinger.
Contributor-dated; year also visible in photograph
June 2022
Charlotte Qin raises awareness of ocean pollution through a public art performance supported by Geneva Shapers.
Event and month supplied in the contributor caption
PuffCycle tackles a new waste stream. Shaping Food Systems convenes a citywide conversation. Voyage Numérique opens a route into digital inclusion. In 2024, Geneva hosts the global Community—and turns the city itself into part of the programme.
Read about the 2024 Annual Summit ↗2025—26
The living chapter
All Write, Digital Cleanup, EnGErMé, Voyage Numérique, Innovation Catalyst and Lake Cleanup carry the story forward. GeneVibe becomes the moment to reconnect the people behind fifteen years of action—and ask what the next fifteen should hold.
2025
Board games, deep conversations and time in the snow. Aletta remembers a retreat spent planning the year ahead together.
07 / The project constellation
Listen locally. Build with partners. Share what works. The Hub's portfolio has changed with Geneva, but a few patterns keep returning: inclusion, dignity, learning and the planet.
Browse the Hub's past projects ↗Inclusion · 2015
Peace · 2015–16
Solidarity · 2019
Entrepreneurship · 2019+
Solidarity · 2020–21
Planet · 2020+
Inclusion · 2021–22
Equity · 2021–22
Circularity · 2022+
Food · 2023
Digital inclusion · 2024+
Education · 2025+
08 / Passed forward
Curator · vice-curator
Zineb El Ouazzani’s 2018–19 curatorship follows Albina’s alumni correction, shared by Aletta. Christos Tsagkalidis is listed as vice-curator in the Hub’s leadership history. The published role labels for 2017–18 remain inconsistent and are still under review.
Help recover the frame behind the project: a founding photo, a handover, a lesson, a person we should name, or the moment a small idea became real.
Founding photographs and the story of the first meeting.
Names, project endings, and the Shapers Got Talent story.
One memory that captures the Hub better than a metric can.
Please include the year, people pictured, photographer/source and permission to publish.
09 / How this was made
This edition draws on public Hub pages, World Economic Forum sources, internal project reports, impact trackers, the historical Drive and alumni photographs, including memories compiled by Aletta Steynberg and Arno Ratzinger on Kudoboard. Published facts, internal records and oral history are kept distinct in the working archive.
Included
Public event, project, leadership and community material with a clear storytelling purpose.
Excluded
Applications, CVs, candidate videos, contact lists, budgets and confidential meeting material.