swissnex Boston launches its first “swissnex café”
swissnex Boston launches its first “swissnex café”
It’s spring break at Harvard so the swissnex café, a new initiative of Boston’s Swiss Consulate, seems like the perfect place to settle in for an afternoon of cappuccino and conversation. The atmosphere at the unorthodox consulate is at the same time warm and chromy, clean and cozy. It has the tone of its Consul, Pascal Marmier – fresh, healthy and buoyant. An eclectic gathering of entrepreneurs, technology experts and students work casually on their laptops, amid the bowlfuls of apples and urns of orange juice that grace the tables. A world music playlist mingles with the multilingual conversations as we engage in the connecting of dots and picking of brains. I’ve come to expect this esprit of openness, collaboration and fun as standard fare at 420 Broadway in Cambridge.
The Consulate is bridging knowledge and competencies in science, education, art and innovation and we got a taste of the third component this week at its first edition of the swissnex café. The doors were open for business at 8:00 am and as the sun was setting, the room transformed into a performance space as a new audience poured in for an a capella concert featuring Switzerland’s unconventional “band without instruments”, The Glue. The recipient of numerous global honors and awards, the group graced us with two sets of mostly their own music, with one unique cover of Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire. The five young, energetic and talented singers wowed the crowd who brought them back for two encores. We wish the band the best and look forward to many more cafés and concerts!
Blog written by
Michèle Stanners,BA, MBA, LLB
Harvard Divinity School
