• on public transport, at train platforms, train stations, airports, bus stops, tram stops and other public transport access points;
• in publicly accessible interiors including all shops, shopping centers, banks, post offices, museums, libraries, cinemas, theaters, concert halls, zoological and botanical gardens, animal parks, restaurants, bars, discos, dance halls, gaming rooms, hotels (not guest rooms), entrances, receptions and dressing rooms of swimming pools, sports facilities and fitness centers, in medical practices, hospitals, retirement homes, nursing homes, churches and religious institutions, advice centers and quarters, publicly accessible public administration buildings, businesses with personal services with physical contact such as hairdressers and massages;
• in primary, secondary and tertiary schools, in institutions providing additional childcare; also applicable to extracurricular use of school premises, for example sports or music clubs and carnival groups (if still relevant to be held);
  • As soon as people are in class or meeting rooms where the distance rules can be observed, the mask can be removed
• in general if the required distance of at least 1.5m cannot be maintained and protective measures cannot be taken;
• in Basel-Stadt until at least 31.12.2020 for restaurants, public and private events;
• except for:
  • anyone 12 years old and younger and anyone who cannot wear a mask for medical reasons,
  • guests in restaurants, bars, clubs, discos and dance halls sitting and consuming at the table,
  • and people performing such as speakers, artists, athletes or clergy

Public events:

• In indoor spaces there is a legal requirement to wear a mask at all public events.
• In all cases, contact details must be collected.
• At public events with up to 1’000 people in outdoor spaces, the relevant set of precautionary measures must include the necessary protective safeguards (depending on the circumstances distancing, face masks and/or contact details).
• At public events with more than 100 people sectors must be created. There is thus no general requirement to wear a mask. However, it can be assumed that at events where social distancing cannot be assured, protective masks will be part of the precautionary measures.
• Food and drink must be consumed sitting down.

Private events:

• Many people become infected with the coronavirus when families and friends gather. Gatherings should be avoided where possible.
• Private events up to 15 people must apply distancing rules or must wear masks.
• At private events attended by 16-100 people,
  • food and drink may only be consumed and no need to wear a mask while seated;
  • anyone standing up must wear a mask.
  • Furthermore, hygiene rules must be observed at all times and contact details must be recorded.
• For private events of more than 100 people there must be a set of precautionary measures (as for public events) and may only be held in publicly accessible venues.

Spontaneous gatherings:

• Spontaneous gatherings of more than 15 persons are not permitted in public spaces such as town squares, streets, paths and parks. The aim is to prevent private events moving outdoors.
• Gatherings of up to 15 people must apply distancing rules or must wear masks.
• Organized outdoor events such as political and civil society demonstrations are permitted provided precautionary measures are observed.

Bars, clubs and restaurants:

• Restaurants:
  • Number of consuming guests limited to a maximum of 100 per room (a restaurant can still operate different rooms at max. 100 each).
  • Consumption in standing areas is now prohibited.
  • The required distance must be maintained between the groups of guests sitting at the tables or special protective devices must be provided.
• Clubs, discos, dance halls: a maximum of 300 people may be present at the same time.
• Food and drinks may only be consumed while seated, both indoors and outdoors.
• Contact details are to be collected in all restaurants, including bars and clubs, discos and dance halls.

Home office recommendation:

• The Federal Council has added a paragraph on working from home to the Special Situation COVID-19 Ordinance.
• Employers are now required to observe the recommendation by the Federal Office of Public Health for employees to work from home.
• This will prevent large numbers of people coming together, particularly at peak times, and reduce close contact in the workplace.
• It will also reduce the risk of a whole work team having to go into quarantine if one member becomes infected with COVID-19.

IMPLICATIONS FOR IMPACT HUB BASEL

Coworking Space

• Impact Hub Basel will stay open for members and public;
• Food and drinks may only be consumed while seated, both indoors and outdoors;
• Contact details must be given at the host desk.

Café spurlos

• Our Zero Waste Café will stay open for members and for public;
• Food and drinks may only be consumed while seated, both indoors and outdoors;
• Contact details must be given to the Café.

Events

• Our planned events are being evaluated case by case if they will be in-person, hybrid or completely online;
• All events taking place in-person or hybrid follow our strict Events Safety Concept;
• In all cases of in-person or hybrid events, contact details of all participants will be collected.

Face masks

• are mandatory:
  • on the whole of the ground floor, including the main entrance, Café spurlos inside and outside space and gallery
• are not mandatory:
  • on the 1st and 2nd floor if distance can be maintained while sitting, standing and walking.

In September 2020, KLEIHD by SHAREaLOOK will open its doors to Zurich residents. The ongoing crowdfunding campaign #sustainkleihd should contribute to a successful start and make the boutique the first Swiss rental fashion hub. In addition to the borrowable women’s clothing, women will also find baby clothing there, as well as sustainable premium labels, and can use the boutique as a station for peer-to-peer fashion exchange.

Why fashion rental makes sense – The fashion industry produces up to 150 billion items of clothing a year. According to the Global Fashion Agenda, the global volume of clothing and shoes produced is expected to increase by 81 percent to 102 million tons a year by 2030. Such growth does not come without consequences. According to the United Nations Environment Program, greenhouse gas emissions from the fashion industry will increase by more than 50 percent over the same period. So while consumers buy more and more clothes, they wear the individual items of clothing less and less often. The clothing industry is already responsible for around eight percent of global C02 emissions. The year 2030 is crucial here, because it is set as the deadline of the Paris Agreement in order to keep global warming from rising by 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The fashion rental boutique KLEIHD was founded in 2016 as an association of committed volunteers. After four years the association decided to hand over the project to the partner company SHAREaLOOK in order to facilitate further growth. “The founders of SHAREaLOOK pursue the same mission as we do and have the energy to drive the project forward,” sais Alena Zehr, club president of KLEIHD.

“We believe in the power of consumers and would like to work with them to establish a new understanding for fashion. The disposable culture of the fast fashion industry is harmful to the environment and disrespectful to the textile workers who make our clothes,” stated Natalia Marassi and Pia-Maria Laux, founders of SHAREaLOOK.

How Fashion Rental works

The fashion rental boutique has a range of around 1000 high-quality items of clothing, from business and everyday clothing to evening dresses. Through new collaborations, the range is expanded and geared towards higher quality. The SHAREaLOOK team also plans to strengthen the KLEIHD boutique with a seamless online & offline presence. Customers can sign-up for monthly memberships and borrow up to five items of clothing per month for CHF 60. At sharealook.com styling appointments and outfits can be booked to the day. Women can then pick them up at the boutique or have them sent home.

In addition to the KLEIHD range, members can create their own profile on sharealook.com, upload pictures of their clothing and offer it to others to borrow. Just like you can do with your own apartment on Airbnb. The boutique serves as a meeting point for picking up and returning the borrowed looks.

About the current Crowdfunding

The crowdfunding project #sustainkleihd was started in late June to ensure a smooth restart of the boutique. Special memberships are offered during the crowdfunding campaign. Instead of only 5 items per month, members have unlimited access to the more than 1000 looks in the rental collection by signing up at a monthly rate of CHF 60. The money collected is used to refresh the range and take over the inventory of the predecessors. To support the project, go to Sustain Kleihd’s project page on crowdify.

About SHAREaLOOK

SHAREaLOOK is a fashion tech startup, which has made it its mission to enable the transition of fashion into a circular industry. The company was founded in April 2019 as part of the Circular Economy Incubator of the Swiss Impact Hub. On sharealook.com, individual consumers, as well as brands or shops, can offer their garments to lend or rent looks from others.

Pia-Maria Laux

Tired after a long day working in our coworking space at Dreispitz, Basel? Hungry and want to explore offers around our space? Impact Hub Basel has you covered with the best options for everything food, fun and fashion in Dreispitz.

A: Auf dem Wolf for some bargain second-hand finds – clothes, furniture and more!

B: Bowling Center Basel to rock some stylish shoes and have fun with friends

C: Café spurlos for some guilt-free drinks and food, spacious terrace, as well as groovy Afterwork beats

D: Delinat to pick up some great wine from producers who care about sustainability (some are even vegan too!)

E: Elysia to listen and dance to some sick beats

F: Fachhochschule Nordwest Schweiz to meet for lunch and learn about all things digital and design

G: Garage Basilisk in case your car needs some tender love and care

H: HEK to interact with electronic art

I: iart to visit a local design agency dealing with digital technology

J: Jobfactory for a quick meal or gift – they have everything from clothes to baby products to musical instruments

K: Kunsthaus Baselland to explore regional contemporary art

L: Laurenz-Stiftung Schaulager for multi-sensory contemporary projects

M: Merian Gärten for a dose of greenery and beautiful flowers

N: Crazy Nails because you might want to feel dressed up even when you’re naked!

O: Offcut to bring and/or buy unconventional materials

P: Point de vue so you can rent equipment to make all your filmmaker dreams come true

Q: Qualipet because our pets need food and fun (and sometimes fashion) too!

R: Alterna Recording Studios for all your rockin’ musical production needs

S: Sport Museum to learn more about sports equipment, and experience the “mobile museum”

T: Thüring AG, flooring store if you’re in the midst of a fabulous home make-over project

U: “Unglaublich gross Auswahl” of second-hand goods at Heilsarmee Brocki

V: Viertel for some after-afterwork festivities

W: Werner Druck & Medien to print out the posters for that film you’re making (see P)

X: Radio X to hear some great music, and a segment featuring Impact Hub Basel’s very own Carrie Aikman

Y: TanzStudio You Dance, put on your dancing shoes!

Z: Basel DreispitZ, the tram/bus stop to use for all this exploration…have fun!

Caroline Steiblin & Carrie Aikman

Ever wonder how Impact Hub Basel team members are collaborating? While we would very often write about what we do, this blog post might give you a glimpse into how we do…

Teal Journey

In the early days, while our Co-Founders were defining what Impact Hub Basel would stand for and exploring how they wanted to work, Frederic Laloux’s book, Reinventing Organizations, inspired them and so the journey began. Frederic Laloux describes in his book the different paradigms of the human organizations through the ages and sheds light on a new one: the Teal organization.

Drawing on the Integral Theory and framework of the philosopher Ken Wilber, Frederic Laloux refers to something much larger than a new organizational model. It relates to the subsequent stages in the development of human consciousness, which are mirrored in how we manage our organizations.

As we evolve and grow, Impact Hub Basel uses the three Teal breakthroughs as guiding stars for developing our future of work, a workplace that is different from what we know as a “company”:

Self-Management
Where everyone takes responsibility for his/her actions and very few rules and control mechanisms are needed – not to be confused with lack of structure!

Wholeness
Bringing all of who we are to work.

Evolutionary Purpose
An organization that has its own calling and a powerful drive to move toward that calling.

Our Teal journey might prove long, arduous, and take many years – we might even never “reach” our final destination! But rooted in who we are, these principles are reflected in our Mantra and Co-Manifesto, and we continue uncovering better ways of working together and delivering valuable and sustainable products and services by doing it and helping others do it.

Teal Sessions

Rather than being strictly dedicated by a book or a single person, our structure and practices are discussed, designed, and constructed as we progress through our Teal journey during specific team workshops, aka our Teal sessions.

Whenever a team member senses a need, he or she takes the initiative and leads the next Teal session. From decision-making to onboarding or meeting facilitation, each of our practices is transparently set up, with an emphasis on the why – and how this is serving our purpose.

Friday, 12 June 2020, was kind of a special day for the Impact Hub Basel team. For the first time, after three months of Corona-related work-from-home restrictions were eased, everyone was there – in-person – in our beloved coworking space.

Thanks to our big event venue, the Impact Factory, we could hold our team meetings on that day, face-to-face (with the necessary distancing measures) and no virtual technology between us.

Perfect timing for a Teal session! So leaving our desks for a couple of hours, we looked at our communication and feedback culture, with the support and intervention of IntegralWorks.

The session started with a walk-through of the stages of consciousness development by Silas from IntegralWorks. IntegralWorks developed two maps of evolution, building on the Integral Theory and Ken Wilber’s AQAL framework that helps to explain people’s paradigm.

An inspiring and (self-)challenging exploration of how to better communicate

What are the essentials of communication from a Teal perspective? Together with Silas, we particularly looked into the communication line and how each worldview is associated with a different communication style.

The Orange meme is rational, empirical with little attention given to feelings. The pluralistic Green meme is communicating in a friendly and rather indirect way, showing empathy, and relativizing all differences in perception and consideration. The Teal meme is looking for authentic and more direct communication.

The discussion that followed revealed very different perspectives and we naturally engaged in a reflection on our organizational and individual needs. Fortunately, everyone in the team is looking for meaningful and satisfying communication and feedback – signs of good recruitment I believe! But what means “satisfying” for me and what means “satisfying” for my colleague? Is each of us daring to be fully ourselves on the spot when an emotion arises, or do we require a particular setup? Is our safe space really safe?

When we have been told for so long what is “politically correct” at the workplace, when we have learned to control our emotions, or display a more appropriate emotion or not at all… How to create and maintain a space where we share emotions, stories, and opinions, as well as have hard conversations that can help solve challenges and help each other to grow and be better?

We all agreed that emotions are an essential part of being human and there is no question on recognizing that the whole spectrum of feelings is important. Emotions are important indicators, giving us vital information about what matters to us, hence emotions matter!

Sessions Laloux acknowledges it, “showing up whole feels risky”

But then, how do we become more aware and curious about our feelings and emotions and investigate where they are coming from so that we can fully show up and be present in every setting, every role, every context in which we participate?

As a first practical step, we experimented with “circling”, an authentic relating practice helping to focus inward on our emotions and feelings, get in touch with “here and now” and paying attention to what is happening to our body and mind. We then shared how the exercise made us feel. Next step(s) to be revealed by our next Teal session! For now, the circling practice will be tested in the coming weeks and we will be scheduling reminders for ongoing conversations.

Working with our feelings is an integral part of our Teal journey and the team is dedicated to it. We do have frictions, but they are an invitation to constantly review, evolve, and improve how we work together, which we know is as important as what we work on.

I am proud of our Hub, enjoy working there, and wish that people everywhere could work in such conditions if they choose to.

Céline Bedu

PS: Want to know more about conscious business, the integral model, and stages of development? Join the free webinar offered by IntegralWorks on the maps of evolution on Friday, 17 July 2020.

PPS: Want to know more about Impact Hub Basel and its culture? Just pass by! Or sign up for one of our events.

SwissCovid, Switzerland’s COVID-19 contact tracing App is now launched! Impact Hub Basel would highly encourage all of you to download the SwissCovid App today.

As an impact-focused organization, solidarity in the efforts to curtail the 2nd wave is crucial to us. Why should we all download the SwissCovid App?

1. The app’s effectiveness increases as more people install it, so we are actively encouraging everyone in the Impact Hub Basel community to support this important initiative. We need more than 60% of the entire population to install the App in order for it to be truly effective.
2. This App has very high data protection. It is a decentralized system and the data is deleted after 3 weeks. It is completely free, secure and doesn’t collect or send any personal or location data.
3. It is an effort to protect yourself and everyone you may encounter. It limits the pandemic and helps the economy and society to recover as soon as possible.

You can download the SwissCovid App via:

• Google Play Store for Android
• Apple Store for iOS

You can read more about the App, how it works and how to use it online or in the poster from the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health below.

Stay healthy and positive,

Impact Hub Basel team

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WE ARE REOPENING!

Yes, you are reading this right! As of next Tuesday, 2 June, we will be reopening our coworking space, meeting rooms, event venue, community kitchen and Café spurlos to the public. 🙂

11 weeks! Can you believe that during this time, a global pandemic has descended upon us to a point that we closed our doors, started working from home everyday and became digital geniuses? We have achieved a lot during this time together but we are certainly incredibly happy to finally get back to a new “normal”.

Impact Hub Basel coworking,meeting rooms and event venues: The opening hours for the Impact Hub Basel coworking space, including meeting rooms, event venue and the community kitchen are Monday to Friday, 09.00-17.00.

Café spurlos: The opening hours for Café spurlos are Monday to Friday, 11.30-20.00.

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IMPACT HUB BASEL HYGIENE MEASURES

Your health is of utmost importance to us!

• A new safety concept has been developed to follow the hygiene recommendations from BAG.
• The entire space, including Café spurlos, has been prepared to comply to our safety concept to ensure those in our space are as safe as possible.
• The Café is strictly following Gastrosuisse’s Corona specifications (we even did a ‘test run’ with the Impact Hub Basel team last week to ensure a smooth experience).
• We will continue to track attendance of all community members and guests daily.
• All team members, coworking members and guests are being asked to follow the hygiene measures as part of our new safety concept.
• In general, please maintain a 2 meter distance with others when you are at the Hub and wash your hands regularly.
• You will see the other instructions and measures directly in the space.

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GOVERNMENTAL PHASED MEASURES

Based on the Phase 1 and 2 reopening since April 27, the national government has updated their guidance for Phase 3 which is applicable as of June 6. The picture below summarizes the new measures very nicely, a few measures have been highlighted below that have implications for you and the Hub.

As of 30 May (Phase 3)

• In public spaces, groups of up to 30 people are allowed to meet safely.

As of 6 June (Phase 3)

• Date changed from 8 June to 6 June so that businesses related to tourism can take advantage of opening already at the weekend.
• Restaurants: the limit of 4 people will be lifted. However, they must ensure contact tracing. For groups of more than 4 people (>=5), it is required to collect the contact details of one guest per table. Customers may still only be served when seated. The 2 meter distance measure between tables remain.
• Events and rallies up to maximum 300 people are allowed.
• All facilities (no matter what type) have to have a safety concept to reopen.
• According to Swiss Confederation President Simonetta Sommaruga: “From June 6 onwards, the question will no longer be whether you can celebrate your birthday, organize a jazz party with friends or take part in a birthday party, but how to do it safely.”
• Still forbidden:
  • gatherings of more than 30 people in public places
  • events involving more than 300 people
  • sports competitions with close physical contact

Upcoming measures

• From 15 June, freedom of movement will be restored between Switzerland, Germany, Austria and France, with passage under pre-Covid-19 border control norms.
• From 6 July, the Federal Council also intends to re-establish the free movement of people between Switzerland and most other countries of the Schengen zone.

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CONTINUED GOVERNMENTAL MEASURES

Health

• If you have a fever and a cough, please stay at home and call your doctor or the Corona hotline: +41 58 463 00 00. Please save this number to your phone.
• Always call ahead before going to the doctor’s or the emergency department.
• Practice self quarantine for 10 days if you show first symptoms or at least for 5 days if your co-habitants show symptoms
• There is no general rule for the public to wear masks but are recommended for healthcare professionals and people at risk.
• The government still recommends that all citizens stay home, especially those who are ill, over 65 or in a risk group:
  • low immune systems
  • high blood pressure
  • diabetes
  • Cardiovascular diseases
  • Chronic respiratory diseases
  • Diseases and therapies that weaken the immune system
  • cancer
• The new COVID-19 disease can run very differently than the seasonal flu. Some people have mild symptoms and hardly notice that they are sick. Others need intensive hospital treatment.

Personal Hygiene and Social Distancing

• Keep your distance (at least 2 meter)
• Avoid travelling by public transport during rush hours
• Wash your hands regularly and thoroughly
• Avoid shaking hands, hugs or kisses; try waving or double foot taps
• Cough and sneeze in a tissue or bend of the arm, not into your hands
• There is no need to wear a face mask in public if you are in good health. However, we recommend you do so in the following situations:
  • If you are unable to maintain a distance of 2 metres from other people when using public transport, for example.
  • You are using a service for which the wearing of a mask is one of the required precautionary measures.

It has been 5 weeks since we’ve started working from home and closed our Hub to the public. It was and still is a turbulent time full of new challenges. At Impact Hub Basel, we do our best to #FightCovid19 and at the same time continue to #InspireAndCreateChange.

We’d like to take a moment to reflect on what we have achieved as a community and update you on what has happened in the world of Impact Hub Basel:

• We keep engaging and supporting our Community in the virtual world through our weekly Community Calls like the z’Nüni Catch-Ups, the Digital Afterworks, Morning Mediations and new Online Courses.
• We transitioned our Impact Hub Basel Incubator online and hosted an all-day Business Model and Sales Workshop for our Impact Hub Basel Incubator startups.
• We spearheaded a national-wide #VersusVirus Online Hackathon! 5000+ people participated, including 500 mentors, 260+ projects were submitted and 42 Highlight teams were selected; all in a joint effort to come up with solutions to tackle the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• We successfully hosted an online pitch session with our 6 Lafiya Innovators startups, with near zero technical issues 😉

Next at Impact Hub Basel for you:

• Tomorrow, 21 April 2020 will be our first Swiss-wide public Circular Economy Transition online event: impacthubbasel-zerowaste-gastronomy.eventbrite.com
• On 27 April, we have Janene Liston – the Pricing Lady – giving you “Pricing Know-How for Startups”: pricing-knowhow-for-startups-impacthubbasel.eventbrite.com
• On 30 April, we have a Sustainable Speed Networking online event: sustainable-speed-networking-impacthubbasel.eventbrite.com

As a team, we agreed on where we want to go with Impact Hub Basel, and we’ll keep moving ahead with social innovation and sustainable entrepreneurship! It is certainly not easy to stay motivated and be innovative during these times, but we have proven we can do it! So as we look ahead to an uncertain future on the surface, we stay creative, positive and proactive. Inspired by VersusVirus, we have decided to embark on our own Hubathon in May to tackle our Impact Hub Basel strategic directions.

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IMPACT HUB BASEL MEASURES

Effective since 16 March 2020 until at least 31 May 2020:

• Our Coworking space, meeting rooms, Impact Factory and Café spurlos will remain closed to the public, including external guests of members.
• As we understand some of our members themselves are facing income shortages, we’d like to offer you to freeze your membership with us starting May until we reopen again fully. To do so, please send us an email to [email protected] by 24 April 2020. We appreciate your support and the engagement you show also while working from home.
• Impact Hub Basel coworking members can continue to access our Coworking space, although we strongly advise them to do Home Office and to follow the recommendations of the BAG. We will ensure their continued access and carry out the cleaning as usual.
• To protect our hosting team, hosting will remain at an absolute minimum. 1 host from the core team will continue to rotate weekly instead of daily to minimize the spread. The host will continue to track attendance daily.
• All team members to work from home at least until end of May.
• All meetings and events to continue online or be postponed or cancelled.

Pandemic Team

• Our pandemic team has been formed in the beginning of March and stays active.
• We are in contact with the other Swiss Impact Hubs to ensure we are aligned.
• We will evaluate the situation after every press conference from the national government and you will be informed regularly via this blog as well as our newsletter.

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NEW GOVERNMENTAL MEASURES

The national government has provided their guidance for reopening in the following 3 phases.

27 April

• Small businesses providing personal services such as hairdressers, dentists, garden centers, florists can reopen with a safety concept that has to be approved (nobody knows by whom)
• There are no more limitations on funerals.
• Hospitals can restart non-urgent procedures;
• Rules of 2 meter distancing, no shaking hands and no gatherings more than 5 stay.

11 May

• Schools (for compulsory education) and shops can reopen; which means transportation needs to be back in place; they are aware that kids cannot keep distance but there will be solutions like no shaking hands or go wash your hands.

08 June

• Other schools (everything after 10th grade) and entertainment facilities such as museums, zoos, botanical gardens and pretty much everything else can reopen
• The rule of no more than 5 should be lifted by then but they will be decide later.

General measures

• Depending on how the corona spread go, they may or may not cancel the phases as they come.
• Main priority is to keep the spread low.
• All facilities (no matter what type) have to have a safety concept to reopen.
• There is no general rule for the public to wear masks but maybe the employees in shops will as part of their safety concept, due to availability and the efficacy).
• Big events like football games or messes will not be allowed and likely the last category to reopen.
• So far, gastro has not been decided at all. They want the gastro associations to come up with safety concepts first. It sounded like that the concept from the gastro associations needs to be reviewed by the BAG and then still leave it up to the cantons.
• For all other types of facilities that were not mentioned are assumed to not be allowed to reopen as of now.
• Federal government never issued a ban on Kitas but they left it to the cantons so they also cannot lift it. It therefore depends on the cantons. Try not to send your kids to your grandparents (although not officially mentioned).

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CONTINUED GOVERNMENTAL MEASURES

Health

• If you have a fever and a cough, please stay at home and call your doctor or the Corona hotline: +41 58 463 00 00. Please save this number to your phone.
• Practice self quarantine for 10 days if you show first symptoms or at least for 5 days if your co-habitants show symptoms
• There is no general rule for the public to wear masks but are recommended for healthcare professionals and people at risk.
• At-risk group currently include people who are aged 65+ or have
  • low immune systems
  • high blood pressure
  • diabetes
  • Cardiovascular diseases
  • Chronic respiratory diseases
  • Diseases and therapies that weaken the immune system
  • cancer
• The new COVID-19 disease can run very differently than the seasonal flu. Some people have mild symptoms and hardly notice that they are sick. Others need intensive hospital treatment.

Personal Hygiene and Social Distancing

• Wash your hands regularly and thoroughly
• Cough and sneeze in a tissue or bend of the arm, not into your hands
• avoid shaking hands, hugs or kisses; try waving or double foot taps
• avoid travelling by public transport
• avoid places with groups of people
• avoid contact with infected people
• avoid gatherings with more than 5 people; if less than 5 people, the 2 meter distancing rule still applies
• try to stay at home

Hygiene in Shared Space

• the latest hygiene recommendations from BAG have been hung up in our space
• single-use paper towels are now in the bathrooms
• closed bins have replaced open ones, especially for used tissues
• increase of cleaning of the surfaces and door handles/knobs by cleaning company and hosts

Schools and Childcare

• Daycare Centres are being regulated by cantons and there are still different rules.

Impact Hub Basel team

If you would have asked me a couple of months ago if I would participate in a hackathon and lock myself up during a weekend when it would be more than twenty degrees outside, I probably would have said “Let me think about it”. But after sitting at home for almost 3 weeks, where a shower is basically my most exciting part of the day, I was in desperate need of a challenge. So, when someone told me about the Versus Virus initiative a few hours before the registration deadline, I quickly decided to embark on the journey. And what a journey it turned out to be.

What became clear when the hack started on Friday afternoon, is how similar the digital world can be to our everyday life. Just as in the real world, there were technological struggles, and just as in the real world, it was hard to form a team of like-minded and motivated people. Kudos to the Versus Virus organization for keeping a cool head whilst managing a Slack channel of almost 5,000 people posting questions, comments and pictures of their cats.

It was late Friday evening when I finally found a challenge that spoke to me and a team of about 5 active people that I aligned with. Our team chose the challenge called “True Heroes“, which was asking for a way we could systemically rethink the value we appoint to different professions. Why do some soccer players make a thousand times more than a cashier in a supermarket? How can we value and protect our most essential workers during and after a crisis like Corona? We decided to focus on heroes often taken for granted, the people working in the food sector from farm to table.

When we got to work Saturday morning, we were reminded again of why we were spending our time on this hackathon, with one member of our teaming dropping out due to a problem with his lungs. It was a stark reminder that Corona is just around the corner for all of us, and that we should combat this disease whichever way we can. Over the hours that followed, our team ended up downscaling to 3 people who took the project and ran with it.

It’s difficult to describe the 30’ish hours that followed because they went by so fast but were so dense with connections, ideas and an amazing energy. I saw people helping each other left and right, mentors reaching out to different groups when they had some down-time, and a hackathon that constantly developed in those 48 hours, being a prime example of an agile project, learning at lightning speed.

But if I had to choose one word to describe my experience it would be exhilarating. Because that is exactly what it felt like, constantly switching between team calls on Zoom, following online announcements and workshops by the Versus Virus team, working on the slide deck, and doing design work in Illustrator and Premiere Pro. Have I ever learned more about my skills and how I interact with people in 48 hours? Probably not. Have I ever been this focused in my life? I doubt it. Luckily, I had someone in the house to provide me food and drinks because otherwise I would have certainly been starved by Sunday evening.

And that Sunday evening brought forth many emotions. Emotions of happiness, pride and hopefulness. After the team pressed save on our submission for the last time and the deadline had passed, I remember walking into the bathroom, looking at my tired face in the mirror, and raising my arms in the air, over the moon with the work that my team and I had managed to produce over the weekend. The cherry on an already amazing cake came Monday evening, with our project being selected as one of the 42 highlights of the Hackathon. But honestly, that felt less important, as for me this was never truly about the amazing projects, many of which will certainly develop to make a big impact on society. No, Versus Virus for me was always about showing our innate capacity as human beings to connect in times of crisis. And to show that no matter what we may find along our path, as long as we keep on finding and helping each other, we will be alright in the end.

Maarten Van Winckel