Business & Meetings
15 settlements or 10,000 square meters of commercial space brokered
Maintenance and settlements
Day-to-day business was maintained during the transition year. This included portfolio management with visits from over 20 companies in the city and region of Winterthur. House of Winterthur managed 75 of around 120 relocation inquiries, 11 of which were from international companies. Thanks in part to the active brokerage activities of House of Winterthur, 15 companies relocated to a total of 10,000 square meters of commercial space and nine companies relocated locally in 2018. The majority of location inquiries from other companies are still pending and it can be assumed that demand will remain at a high level in the future.
Evaluation of trade visit requests 2018
Our biannual company survey, which provides an insight into the order books, investment planning and job development of local companies, once again showed an upward trend. In the business climate index with a scale of 1 to 5, the evaluation achieved a score of 4.42, an improvement on the previous year's figure of 4.34. With a response rate of over 25%, the survey is representative.
In 2018, House of Winterthur and its partners once again awarded the 14th Job Creator Prize for the Winterthur region. The surprising winner was Swica with an increase of 28 jobs. Company Factory, Hutter Dynamics AG and Scewo AG won in the categories of establishment, apprenticeship growth and start-up - the latter was awarded for the first time. In total, the participating companies created 175 new jobs.
Event series on real estate development and the Economic region
In addition to these activities and regular networking events such as the Immo Lunch for real estate representatives, House of Winterthur also managed to try out and establish new formats. For example, together with the urban development department, we held the Impuls Summit for the second time with 70 guests from the business world in an industrial hall in Neuhegi, where we presented a 3D model of the entire zone in addition to a panel discussion on the opportunities for the area.
In addition, around 60 guests from the real estate and site development industry attended the new focus series in spring. The aim was to position the Winterthur region as an attractive Economic region and to convey the integrated concept of House of Winterthur.
Among other things, members benefit from the opportunity to take part in various networking events. You can find out more about membership of House of Winterthur here.
400,000 times more attention thanks to visit to San Francisco
Boost for the education location
For the third time, House of Winterthur successfully hosted the International Vocational Training Congress in Winterthur. 500 participants from 76 nations were guests in the vocational training city from June 6 to 8, 2018. They were welcomed by Federal Councillor Johann Schneider-Ammann. Numerous media outlets reported on the event. The State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) will decide on the continuation of this format, which House of Winterthur is very committed to, in 2019.
In recent years, Winterthur has developed into a center of excellence for vocational education and training, not least thanks to its commitment to the International Vocational Education and Training Congress since 2014. With this mission in mind, House of Winterthur took part in the "Zurich meets your City" event series in last year's partner city San Francisco. The seminar "Skills for Success: Apprenticeship and the Future of Work" drew the attention of Swiss and American representatives from business, education and politics to Winterthur. This resulted in a visit to House of Winterthur by the renowned journalist Olivera Perkins from Cleveland. We were able to explain the Swiss education system to her and accompany her to companies and educational institutions in Winterthur. In 2019, a multi-part report on this and on Winterthur as a center of vocational training will be published in the daily newspaper "The Plain Dealer" with a circulation of up to 400,000 copies.
1+1 > 2 - greater effectiveness thanks to new collaborations
New opportunities for the start-up scene and innovation projects
In January, House of Winterthur, in collaboration with Technopark Winterthur, the Entrepreneur Club Winterthur and the ZHAW / Center of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, launched the new Startup Guide Winterthur, a directory of organizations with direct contacts for start-ups.
The Digital Hub was also launched in 2018. Since November, this platform has been used to drive forward specific projects that arise in the context of digitalization. The first projects of the two companies Rieter AG and Burckhardt Compression AG are already being implemented thanks to the Digital Hub. In addition to the so-called speedboat projects, the hub organizes a digital breakfast event once a quarter and arranges analysis and strategy workshops.
3 times more inquiries
Great potential for holding seminars and events
Inquiries regarding seminar hotels, event locations and supporting programs tripled in 2018. While there were 49 inquiries in the previous year, our employees were able to accept 155 inquiries in 2018. This is thanks to the targeted development work in the area of seminars & events. It shows that Winterthur still has potential in the event and congress sector. The exciting events that House of Winterthur was able to support, including the supporting program and accommodation offers, included the Association Suisse des Guides Touristiques ASGT training weekend, the Soroptimist International Switzerland delegates' meeting, the Cranio Suisse specialist congress for therapists and the general meeting of the Association of Swiss Electrical Installation Companies VSEI, among many others. In view of this success, House of Winterthur was able to secure further service agreements with new partners.
Visitors & Residents
Pleasing increase in hotel overnight stays
The number of overnight stays rose encouragingly in 2018. At 393,349, it rose by a further 3.66 percent compared to the previous year (4.4 percent), thanks not least to the intensive marketing activities of House of Winterthur.
Winterthur polishes its image in the leisure sector
Winterthur is also becoming a more attractive destination thanks to new and trend-setting leisure activities. The Tempodrom, Technorama, Foxtrail and Skills Park, which have long been popular, were joined by another highlight in 2018: Windwerk, the wind tunnel for diving in and taking off. House of Winterthur also contributed to the unique range of leisure activities: in April, we opened Switzerland's first urban golf course with fixed installations and course lengths of up to 94 meters together with the Skills Park and the event organizer Golfsession. In its first year of operation, the urban golf course already had 2510 players. The "Alban" Foxtrail , which opened in fall 2017, even attracted 8,991 participants last year.
City tours consistently popular
House of Winterthur continued to offer a diverse range of guided tours of the city. With 691 tours, we were able to maintain the number of guided tours at a consistently high level (previous year: 710). However, the result is more than impressive. The most popular privately booked city tours include the Old Town tour with church tower ascent and the Sulzerareal tour. Among the public tours, the Eulach tour, the Sulzerareal tour and the "Stroll and taste" culinary offer are the most popular.
Store dedicated to the Winterthur brand
Special products have found their way into the store. Since the launch of the Winterthur brand, various "branded" gift items and souvenirs have been on sale, literally making the hearts of guests at the Tourist Information Office beat faster. As the launch only took place in September, it is still a little too early to take stock of the sales of our branded products. However, it is worth mentioning that regionally produced products are very popular: Well over 4000 items went over the counter in 2018.
The ticket sales platform of the Tourist Information www.ticket-winterthur.ch has been relaunched and is now much clearer.
Last, but definitely not least, the Visitors & Residents department worked hard to create a new cultural marketing position. From 2019, the new position in the city of Winterthur will strengthen the exchange between the administration and our marketing activities. This form of cooperation has already proven its worth in the Business & Meetings division's relocation management: The relocation manager appointed by Urban Development works closely with House of Winterthur.
Marketing & Communication
500 followers gained on Instagram
Accompanying the brand process and supporting the divisions
In addition to the time-consuming and resource-intensive brand process and the launch of the new Winterthur brand with encouragingly positive reporting and great enthusiasm for the placement of marketing and communication material, the Marketing & Communication department supported all other areas from media releases and digital channels to the realization of advertising measures and events.
Facebook Winterthur-experience!
Around 40 partners were already using the Winterthur brand by the end of 2018.
Marketing catalog
The Marketing department offers its members and partners a catalog of marketing services that is actively used and maintained by us. The catalog was also revised as part of the reorganization in the transition year 2018 and supplemented with attractive additional services.
Publications
In specialist media such as "Geo Saison", "Immobilia", "Bodensee Ferienzeitung", "Geschäftsführer Zürich", "Wandermagazin Schweiz" and "Transhelvetica", detailed reports were placed on the location and destination as well as unique and new offers in Winterthur. We are pleased to report that the International Vocational Training Congress received intensive coverage in the national media.
Journalists from several countries and Swiss regions traveled to Winterthur to report on the educational, business or cultural location. We welcomed media representatives from Germany, Canada, Italy, France, Spain, China, the UK, Denmark, Serbia, Poland, Latvia and the USA.
Web presences
The House of Winterthur business page has been redesigned in line with the tourism page that was redesigned last year.
The new offer on www.kinderregion.ch in association with the cities of Zurich, Baden and Zug is managed and further developed by the House of Winterthur marketing department.
A new addition to the House of Winterthur offering is the Instagram channel, to which 2,000 users had already subscribed by the end of 2018.
