Wolfgang Amadeus Bruelhart has been Ambassador here for three years. “We wanted to target the young generation,” he explained. “We believe that if you launch a friendship platform, we wanted also to include the young generation.”
To help organize the conference and forge links with young Emiratis, the Swiss Embassy brought over Tobias Wolf, an undergraduate at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland where he is a member of the International Students Committee. Wolf came for two months to prepare this conference and to meet young Emiratis to first plan and then attend the Leaders of Tomorrow Conference in 2011 that will take place in St. Gallen. H.E. Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, is co patron of the conference with H.E. Pascal Couchepin, former President of Switzerland, and their Excellencies will welcome the participants.
Two doctoral students from Switzerland, Christoph Birkholz from the University of St. Gallen and Pierre-Alain Viquerat from the University of Geneva will make presentations on managing and preserving water resources.
Wolf said he had found it “very interesting to design a platform for intergenerational and intercultural dialogue” working with staff from the office of HCT Vice Chancellor Dr. Tayeb A. Kamali. Dr. Kamali will close the conference along with Dr. Johannes Berchtold, Vice President, St. Gallen Symposium.
Ambassador Bruelhart has high hopes for the results of the conference. “Because of our belief that water will be the issue of this generation, we expect that by their entrepreneurship, [young Emiratis and young Swiss] can find a solution to the problems,” he said. The problems are saving water, developing new technologies, and conducting research to find new products.
Wolf has been working with Abu Dhabi Men’s College and says he hopes students from there and other men’s and women’s colleges in Abu Dhabi will attend the conference on November 8. Next year in Switzerland.
