Geneva and the continental capitals of the Geneva Forum are the global laboratory for tomorrow’s solutions.
Concept and Specificities
The Geneva Forum is designed as a dynamic and interactive platform, combining conferences, workshops, and networking opportunities in a unique format. Unlike traditional events, it is not limited to a one-way transmission of knowledge or a formal framework. Here are its main features that set it apart:
Collaborative Model: The Forum places particular emphasis on interactivity and co-construction. For instance, participants are not mere passive listeners but actively engage in discussions, workshops, and group work, fostering active involvement and tangible outcomes.
Targeted Networking: The organization structures its events around strategic moments such as networking meals and professional network crossover sessions. This approach breaks down sectoral silos and encourages intersectoral collaborations, which are often absent in traditional conferences.
Focus on Concrete Impact: The Forum goes beyond debates and theories by focusing on concrete projects and their economic viability. For example, the "Blended Finance Party" facilitates connections between project leaders and investors, ensuring sustainable impact.
Modern and Dynamic Formats: With formats such as pitch series, immediately followed by interactive discussions and feedback, the Forum seeks to maximize the efficiency of exchanges while reducing the duration of events to maintain a high level of attention and engagement.
Inclusive and Multidimensional Access: The Geneva Forum targets professionals, students who represent the next generation of stakeholders, and citizens, fostering transparency and full accessibility. This inclusive dimension significantly enriches exchanges by bringing diverse perspectives, which professionals take away as valuable resources.
7 leverage themes bring together members of key professional communities:
- Impact Finance - Philanthropy, Investment, and Blended Finance
- Ethical Currencies
- Resilient and Responsible Tourism
- Citizen and Participatory Science
- Education and Project-Based Pedagogy
- Conflict Mediation for Peace
- Rights of Nature
9 transversal axes allow the composition of overarching themes throughout the week:
- Philosophy and Ethics
- Research and Science
- Business Creation and Development
- Gender Equality and Women Empowerment
- Transport and Energy
- Agriculture and Food
- Health
- Smart Cities, Habitats, and Architecture
- Training Youth for Excellence
Finally, numerous calls for breakthrough technology are issued by the Geneva Forum, aimed at fueling the economy with innovative solutions to existing problems, based on other axes and proposals.
| To take part in the Continental or World Geneva Forums, you have a wide choice of memberships. |
Strengths and Differences Compared to Other International Events
Compared to organizations such as the Davos Forum or the Porto Alegre Forum, the Geneva Forum positions itself as a bridge between academic reflection and concrete action, while integrating a strong collaborative dimension. Its main strengths lie in:
The balance between innovation and pragmatism: While Davos often focuses on high-level strategic discussions and Porto Alegre on social movements, the Geneva Forum combines intellectual debates, practical workshops, mechanisms to accelerate project implementation, and the pursuit of their viability to ensure impactful projects thrive and endure over time.
Active participant involvement: Unlike other events that prioritize top-down interventions, the Geneva Forum encourages participants to contribute to the creation and evaluation of solutions.
A thematic and multidisciplinary approach: The Forum integrates major contemporary themes (ecological transition, ethical finance, artificial intelligence, human rights) with contributions from experts, citizen organizations, and opinion leaders.
The Geneva Forum stands out for its practical orientation, collaborative spirit, and focus on measurable impact, making it a unique platform for stakeholders aiming to combine strategic thinking with concrete implementation.
| To take part in the Continental or World Geneva Forums, you have a wide choice of memberships. |
Typical Day
A typical day at the Geneva Forum is structured to maximize interactions, co-creation, and concrete impact while balancing time for reflection, collaborative work, and networking.
The Geneva Forum prioritizes inspiration, concrete action, and strategic networking while maintaining a strong collaborative dynamic.
Here is how a typical day unfolds, year after year, and across continents, combining stimulating reflections, hands-on work, and enriching encounters, all oriented toward creating real impact.
Morning: Interactive Conferences and Debates
1. Participant Welcome:
- Registration, badge distribution, and logistical information.
- Informal socialization time to meet other participants.
2. Official Opening:
- Introductory speeches by organizers or key speakers.
- Presentation of the day’s objectives and main themes.
3. Round of Short Presentations (Round of Pitches):
- Each speaker has 6 to 10 minutes to present a project, issue, or research findings.
- This format is designed to spark interest and lay the groundwork for discussions.
4. Roundtable and Group Discussions:
- Following the presentations, an interactive roundtable allows ideas to converge.
- Participants are then divided into smaller groups to work on solutions or delve deeper into the topics discussed.
- Moderated discussions ensure collaborative output.
Afternoon: Practical Workshops and Collaboration
5. Thematic Workshops:
- These workshops focus on specific challenges, such as ecological transition, impact finance, or citizen science.
- Interactive format where participants co-create tangible solutions, supported by modern methodologies (design thinking, agile management).
- Expected outcomes: project outlines, action plans, or idea prototypes.
6. Feedback Session:
- Plenary session to share group work results.
- Critical discussions and constructive debates to refine ideas.
- Often, a *statement* or synthesis is drafted to document conclusions.
End of Day: Networking and Partnerships
7. Informal Networking:
- Dedicated time for participant exchanges, often over coffee or in a designated area.
- Opportunity to deepen discussions initiated during workshops or conferences.
8. Networking Dinner:
- Held in a relaxed setting, it allows for building personal relationships with opinion leaders, experts, and potential partners.
- Strategic discussions and collaboration opportunities often emerge in this informal context.
All Day: Resources and Side Activities
Access to Stands and Exhibitions:
- Participants can view scientific posters, project presentations, or technology demonstrations.
Mentorship or Consultations:
- Meetings between project leaders and experts or investors for personalized advice.
Documentation and Publication:
- Discussions, results, and key ideas are compiled in real-time by organizers to be shared online or in reports.
| To take part in the Continental or World Geneva Forums, you have a wide choice of memberships. |
What is the Geneva Forum?
The Geneva Forum is an international platform founded in 2001 that connects actors from finance, research, NGOs, businesses, and public organizations across all sectors. Its objective is to transform fragmented ideas and programs into portfolios of impact projects that are measurable and financeable — in quantity, quality, scale, and depth.
Why is the Geneva Forum necessary today?
Because there is a gap in project engineering between initiative-holders at all logical levels and investors or philanthropists. While financing needs for the Sustainable Development Goals exceed USD 4 trillion annually, impact finance already manages over USD 1.5 trillion but struggles to identify solid, clear projects. The Forum fills this gap by creating a neutral space for intermediation.
What is the main fundamental problem the Forum seeks to solve?
The primary issue addressed by the Forum is the fragmentation of initiatives and institutions, which hinders the creation of interconnected and bankable projects. Stakeholders still work too often in silos, with unaligned indicators, governance structures, and economic models. The goal is not to make them identical, as each is tied to specific professional processes, but rather to foster mutual understanding among them.
Who are the main stakeholders involved?
UN agencies and public institutions, NGOs, impact investors, public authorities, companies, industries, start-ups, and of course knowledge actors such as universities, research centers, students, associations, and journalists. Each has different incentives, but all benefit from improved clarity, sustainability, and mobilization of their projects.
What are the key systemic barriers identified?
Institutional silos, a diversity of uncombined financial instruments, non-standardized impact measurement, information asymmetries between field and finance, and a low number of truly investment-ready projects.
What data illustrates this observation?
The USD 4 trillion annual investment gap, the USD 1.571 trillion in impact finance assets, the limited public mobilization of USD 70 billion, the historic decline in foreign direct investment in developing countries, and the current drastic drop in multilateral financing all demonstrate the need for the impact sector to reinvent its working and funding habits.
What are the Forum’s action priorities?
Three priorities guide its approach: standardizing a method for project engineering, structuring transversal value chains turned into investment products, and establishing a pipeline of projects that are finance-ready, measurable, and cross-sectoral. Such a service could be dry — which we have never wanted throughout the Forum’s history. That’s why the atmosphere is always simple, warm, and effectively action-oriented, with a friendly, technically accessible, and open tone.
How does the Geneva Forum operate in practice?
It organizes thematic sessions and cross-silo workshops, called Deal-Factories, where project holders, investors, and institutions co-develop complete investment cases. These projects then follow a maturation path until their first funding round.
What types of solutions already exist in the market?
On the financial side, coalitions like Building Bridges, OECD-backed blended finance mechanisms, structured impact funds, measurement standards such as IRIS+, and regenerative approaches promoted by the World Tourism Organization. In each of the Geneva Forum’s major thematic areas (Health, Peace...), there’s a flagship conference (Geneva Health Forum, Geneva Peace Week...). The Forum aims to connect these initiatives in a coherent chain, by providing the “transform’action” link that turns ideas into directly bankable projects.
What areas remain uncovered?
Cross-silo products that connect themes such as ocean, forests, tourism, education... accessible impact measurement tools for citizens, translating rights of nature into financial clauses, and replicating successful models through replication funds.
What “no-regret” actions is the Forum implementing?
Three key actions: the quarterly Deal-Factory to generate investment-ready project portfolios, the creation of a common KPI framework combining AGILE and IRIS+, and the implementation of blended finance windows involving both public and private capital.
What are the 24-month success indicators?
The number of investment-ready projects, the volume of capital mobilized, the rate of public-private co-financing, the share of cross-silo projects, and the full standardization of impact indicators.
What lessons have been learned from existing experiences?
Successful initiatives combine visibility, project engineering, and metric standardization. Those that fail tend to remain locked in thematic or institutional silos without clear financial articulation.
How does the Forum measure the impact of its actions?
Through continuous learning loops, monthly project reviews, comparative testing across project cohorts, and measuring the leverage effect of public and private funding. Indicators cover social, environmental, and financial impact.
What trends reinforce this approach?
The continued growth of impact finance, the international standardization of KPIs, the rise of regenerative tourism and citizen science, and the gradual integration of the rights of nature into economic models.
What innovations does the Forum want to test?
Projects in the pipeline include the development of a Blue-Green portfolio connecting oceans and forests, the creation of an Impact Lab Geneva Forum to accelerate deal preparation, and the setup of a Citizen-MRV kit linking citizen science to performance-based finance.
What is Geneva’s role in this dynamic?
Geneva is a unique, neutral, and international ecosystem where diplomacy, finance, and innovation converge. The Forum aims to increasingly make it a living platform for turning global discussions into concrete, measurable, and financeable achievements.
What is the main message from Thomas Egli, Founder of the Geneva Forum?
Given the current context, International Geneva has a unique opportunity — one that may not return — to reinvent itself as the center of gravity for impact finance and regenerative economic diplomacy, by making projects clear, cooperative, and profitable for people and the planet.
Created in 2001, the Geneva Forum, piloted for several years including in Africa and Latin America, and held annually since 2014, will enter its 17th edition in 2025.
Born from a simple observation — the fragmentation between finance, innovation, and the field — it positions itself as a space where international organizations, businesses, and citizen actors can co-create truly financeable impact projects.
Today, the world faces a paradox: investment needs for the Sustainable Development Goals exceed USD 4 trillion annually, while private capital for impact has never been more abundant. Yet, money and projects pass each other without connecting. It is not a lack of resources, but rather a deficit in project engineering — in design, governance, and measurement.
The Geneva Forum offers a concrete response: an economic and diplomatic engineering approach that transforms ideas, programs, or fragmented initiatives into cross-silo, legible, and financeable portfolios aligned with international impact finance standards.
Each year, the Forum’s conferences gather over a hundred stakeholders from the multilateral system, institutional and philanthropic investors, foundations, universities, and businesses. Together, they form an ecosystem capable of connecting finance to real territorial transformation.
Logical Framework / BMC / Lean Model Canvas
| Logical Framework |
Business Model Canvas |
Lean Model Canvas |
Consolidated and Enriched Information |
| Sought societal transformation |
Core value proposition |
Main problem solved |
The Geneva Forum reconnects global finance, industry, and start-ups with impact projects originating from international organizations, NGOs, and territories. It turns intentions into viable, measurable, and scalable economic models. |
| General objectives |
Detailed value proposition |
Unique Value Proposition |
To create a platform for economic engineering and diplomacy that structures financeable cross-sector projects, improves the visibility of SDG initiatives, and generates new capital flows aimed at systemic transformation. |
| Specific objectives |
Client/beneficiary segments |
Customer segments + proposed solutions |
Beneficiaries: international organizations, NGOs, governments, impact investors, regenerative businesses. Solutions: project engineering, AGILE due diligence, finance–field matchmaking, co-modeling workshops. |
| Expected results |
Client benefits / impact |
Measurable results / Key KPIs |
Creation of a pipeline of 25 “deal-ready” projects; mobilization of USD 50–100M; standardization of shared impact measurement frameworks (AGILE x IRIS+). |
| Intermediate results |
Channels / Key activities |
Key indicators |
Three quarterly “Deal Factory” workshops in Geneva as part of the Sustainable Management Workshops; 100% adoption of the AGILE engineering framework among supported projects; operational blended finance windows implemented. |
| Outputs / Deliverables |
Value proposition + Channels |
Concrete solution |
Bankable project files, investment briefs, matchmaking sessions, shared evaluation frameworks, stakeholder training in impact engineering. |
| Activities / Missions / Tasks |
Key activities |
Solution + Channels |
Identification and support of projects; organization of sectoral conferences (impact finance, rights of nature, participatory science, regenerative tourism, etc.); creation of financing coalitions. |
| Resources and inputs |
Key resources and partners |
Cost structure + Unfair advantage |
Resources: finance/impact experts, UN ambassador network, AGILE platform. Partners: OECD, GIIN, Convergence, DFIs, UN agencies. Advantage: diplomatic neutrality and International Geneva’s legitimacy as an impact platform. |
| Indicators and monitoring |
Performance KPIs |
Key Metrics |
Conversion rate from project to term sheet, capital mobilized, public/private ratio, % of projects with standardized KPIs, investor/project holder satisfaction. |
| Outcomes / Virtuous cycle |
Partner/client relations |
Long-term effects |
Strengthening trust between funders and field actors; momentum for international cooperation; replicable regenerative economic models. |
| Financial flows |
Revenues + Cost structure |
Revenue Streams + Cost Structure |
Geneva Forum revenues: institutional partnerships, memberships, licenses, workshop sponsorships, deal-flow commissions. Costs: facilitation, monitoring, engineering, coordination, communication, research and evaluation, high-level matchmaking, intelligence and opportunity scouting. |
Since 2001 – The oldest global platform dedicated to the economic development of impact projects
For over twenty years, the Geneva Forum has acted as a unique space where diplomacy, finance, and civil society work together to build concrete bridges.
Each project hosted moves from concept to action: from a changemaker’s idea to a structured impact project, then to scaling via adapted financial instruments.
This process relies on a central principle: money is not the problem — visibility is.
Impact capital exists, but struggles to identify projects that are solid, measurable, and governable. That’s why the Forum creates co-modeling spaces where investors, NGOs, and public institutions together translate field initiatives into investment portfolios.
The Forum’s annual conferences are structured around seven strategic levers: Impact Finance, Rights of Nature, Participatory Science, Regenerative Tourism, Project-Based Education, Ethical Currencies, and Conflict Mediation, Peace and Security.
Each session is both a crossroads of ideas and a “Deal Factory” where coalitions are born capable of mobilizing hundreds of millions around measurable projects.
The ambition is not only to build bridges between public and private sectors, but also to invent a new way of acting: bringing financial rigor into dialogue with the logic of the common good.
In doing so, Geneva can once again become what it has always been: a place where the world learns to cooperate differently.
“Finance only has real meaning when it meets the real world. It is in that meeting that impact can be born.” — Thomas Egli, Founder of the Geneva Forum
For the 2025–2030 period, the Geneva Forum proposes a scaling up for International Geneva: turning cooperation into an economic engine, and impact into a new measure of shared prosperity.
