Past Events

Arts & Culture

Roxana Savin

Roxana Savin is a photographic artist originally from Romania. A law graduate, Roxana left her home country together with her husband to work abroad in the legal field. While living in Moscow, she changed her career to become a full time photographer and artist.

Roxana’s award winning artist book, ‘I’ll be late tonight’, is inspired by her experience of living as a housewife and stay at home mother in a gated expatriate community in Russia.

Fransie Malherbe Frandsen

Fransie Malherbe Frandsen is a fine artist, writer and illustrator. She was born in Cape Town, but lived and studied in several countries, before settling in Geneva. Fransie’s background is in Graphic Design and Art Psychotherapy.

Fransie’s fine art work has been internationally acclaimed, exhibited throughout Europe and included in Art Anthology 2022, a book showcasing upcoming contemporary artists.

Fransie is a passionate advocate of healthy parent-child attachment, a theme explored in her children’s book series.

Senayt Santoro

Senayt is an American photographer born in Asmara, Eritrea, and raised in Ethiopia and America. She studied Liberal Art Studies at Paier College of Art and Southern Connecticut State University. She has undertaken a number of photography projects and exhibited widely including in venues such as Tate Britain and Hayward Gallery. Senayt's photographic practice focuses on representation, identity, environment, social and human rights issues. Senayt shared with us how and why she choose to focus her exhibit "The power of water" on the personal experiences of migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea.

Leticia Maciel

Leticia Maciel, director and founder of espace_L art gallery was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1973. She studied journalism and graduated with an MBA in retail. Leticia has worked in different industries such as communications and publishing, before moving to Geneva in 2006. With the creation of espace_L in 2011, Leticia's desire was to offer an original concept, a place to exchange ideas and promote encounters. Espace_L's aim is also to be a bridge between european and brazilian contemporary art.

Irene Venetsanou and Tatiana Boïko

Irene embraces natural flaws and is inspired by imperfection, fascinated with symmetry and currently obsessed by stones and pebbles, working with the curves and combining different cambers together for a result that is different to everything she imagined in the beginning.

Tatiana's work explores the relationship between form and glaze, and the way they can be used to create narratives about social dynamics that shape human behaviour. Through her ceramic sculptures, she explores the intricacies of social connections, rules, and habits that govern our lives. Her work has been notably exhibited at the London Art Biennale in 2021 and during the Parcours Céramique Carougeois last year.

Personal Growth

Paola Genovese

Paola Genovese, founder of Philanthropic Adventures shared with us her mission to empower young people to take action by giving them the inspiration, tools and practical skills they need to explore philanthropy.

Shizuka Lisa McNeill

Shizuka Lisa McNeill is a finance professional having worked in the fields of interest rates and equity investing on both Wall Street and in a London based hedge-fund.

With her extensive, specialised and global professional background, Lisa now aims, through her firm AVoyage, to share her knowledge on financial planning with groups of women

Entrepeneurship

Vanja Jocic

Bosnia-born Vanja Jocic is the sole founder of the eponymous atelier and brand based in Geneva, Switzerland since 2016.

After having had a corporate job in strategic planning and finance, Vanja decided to take a career break and learn a craft out of curiosity and became an apprentice at the world famous Prudence Millinery in London. While working in her atelier, Vanja fell in love with the craft and its deep-rooted traditions and the idea to create a couture custom hat atelier was born.

Health and Well-being

Penney Megginson

Penney, a physiotherapist and pilates/yoga instructor, discovered through her practice a missing link in healthcare. This observation led Penney to create the Megginson Method, a combination of mind training techniques which offer her clients various strategies to cope with everyday stresses and toxic situations. The method equally addresses past unresolved issues that are susceptible to generate anxiety, depression and stress in one’s daily life. A passionate health and wellness advocate, Penney teaches her techniques to empower others to take control of their own wellbeing.

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Ritika Barmecha

Ritika graduated from the Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts in 2006. She creatively integrates her culinary skills with her cultural heritage from India, and her international food experiences while living in Tel-Aviv, New York and Geneva.

Through her brand @Spice my Day, Ritika offers not only corporate and event catering but also vibrant cooking lessons and has just launched a new concept in Geneva, the Spice club lunch series.

Shima Sazegari

A graduate of the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Geneva, Shima Sazegari has worked as a pharmacist and consultant in integrative medicine for more than 25 years in Geneva (notably with a natural and alternative pharmacy). During this time, she has been interested and committed to the development of natural medicine in Switzerland and in Europe. In 2017, Shima founded Swiss Alternative Medicine (SAM), a Geneva-based company whose goal is to promote a holistic integrative approach to patient care according to Swiss quality standards.