By Tobias Bolli, Junior Project Manager - Academic Relations
The world was still whole when, back in January, I started working at swissnex. No temperature controls, no health codes, no masks required. Looking back, it seems like a different era, a distant past. Nevertheless, I can still vividly remember touring the swissnex office for the first time and the iconic swissnex panda welcoming me at my desk. Even though the airflow directed towards that desk was sending a chilly feeling down my spine, the reception was all but chilly with a welcoming workplace atmosphere engulfing me. I appreciated quickly becoming an integral part of the team and, frankly, being thrown into cold water on a couple of occasions. The pace was fast, things needed to get done, and in my second week I already executed my first event – a physical one with actual people turning up. Revolving around satellites capturing space debris, it couldn’t have been much cooler.
Soon everything changed, and an invisible thing started to take over the world. This meant a lot of home office, and Shanghai turning into a ghost town with deserted streets and no people to be seen even in the busiest of places (I will never forget riding the subway during rush hour with literally nobody but me on the train). As case numbers rose, we adapted quickly and switched our events from offline to online. The pandemic had its good sides too. All of a sudden, we had access not just to speakers near our venue, but to people from all over the world, being able to cherry-pick the best. It was fun organizing and conducting these events, I got to start a new webinar series and served as the moderator for a webinar almost entirely of my own making.
And then there was the trend reports – so many trend reports. I appreciate being given the space to suggest and explore topics of my own and immerse myself in distributed work, meat alternatives, and, just to name another one, the outright revolution China´s digital currency will trigger. Oh, and I more than enjoyed talking to my fellow interns, indulging in topics as obscure as the flatness of the universe and the mysteries of consciousness – doesn´t get much better than that. (Or maybe it does, considering that I also got to discuss mechanical watches and managed to force at least two interns to listen to Bach, which certainly ranks among my proudest achievements).
Pandemic of a lifetime notwithstanding, it has been an experience I enjoyed a lot and a very instructive and enriching one. Leaving Shanghai won´t be easy, but I know that it hasn´t been the last time. 再见swissnex, 再见上海！
