On Thursday 8 October 2026 we inaugurated our Lausanne offices, in the Tour Edipresse. These offices do not mark an arrival in unfamiliar territory.
They give an address to a presence that was already well established: we have been working alongside organisations in the canton of Vaud for many years. That is why we wanted to say so differently, by welcoming people in.
For the occasion, we wanted to give our guests a real experience, and to have them leave with more than the memory of an office visit. An address and two demonstrations were conceived with a single aim: to continue, in another form, the exploration of the challenges facing organisations in French-speaking Switzerland and of the paths open to them. Innovation and artificial intelligence were brought to the fore.
A look back at the three highlights that shaped the day.
Meeting and talking with Cristina Gaggini
Cristina Gaggini, Director for French-speaking Switzerland at economiesuisse and member of its Executive Board, accepted our invitation to deliver the opening address of the evening. This umbrella organisation represents the interests of businesses across Switzerland. Before our guests, she set out the challenges facing the Swiss economy.
Thierry Ungaro, founder and CEO of Ad Valoris, opened and then led the discussion alongside her: several of these challenges were taken up and explored further with the room.
Ms Gaggini did us the pleasure of staying throughout the evening. She took part in all the activities, from virtual reality to robotics, and took the time to talk with each guest. Her attentiveness and her enthusiasm were contagious.
A robot in our offices: the start-up Grip Robotics in demonstration
Grip Robotics had brought along one of its robots. The start-up, founded by EPFL graduates, develops artificial intelligence capable of spotting and removing unwanted items from organic waste. The system is already being trialled at a composting facility north of Lausanne.
Oscar Gentilhomme and Jonas Gruetter, two of its co-founders, led the demonstration, and guests were able to handle the robot in turn, set it in motion and follow the sorting as it happened.
They left behind something other than a successful demonstration: a way of approaching the future of organisations without detour. Technology is not an end in itself, but a means of giving a new dimension to existing skills, of taking on what can be taken on and of giving teams back the time for the heart of their work.
Grip Robotics documents its work on its LinkedIn page. To see the robot in action and learn more about its mission, watch the demonstration video.
A virtual reality experience by Ad Valoris devoted to Lausanne
Designed entirely by one of our colleagues, Constantin Riff, this experience invited participants to explore Lausanne differently. Virtual reality headset on, visitors moved through the city and discovered from an unexpected angle the companies and institutions that make it up, along a trail of anecdotes and unusual facts. Our guests’ own organisations featured there deliberately: everyone could come across their own, discover others, and learn something about those around them.
The approach says something about the way we work. A technology is worth only what it makes possible: raising the level of thinking, opening new strategic perspectives, moving processes and ways of thinking forward.
Plus: an exceptional gift to carry the evening further”
Our guests did not leave empty-handed. We offered them “The Man Who Planted Trees”, Jean Giono’s short story of a shepherd in Haute-Provence who, by planting a hundred acorns a day for decades, brought a forest back to life, along with the villages it once sheltered.
This text has accompanied Thierry Ungaro, Managing Partner and founder of Ad Valoris, for many years. We see in it a lesson that speaks to our work: the most durable transformations are built through steady effort, and their effect can only be measured over time. We overestimate what an organisation can change in three months, and underestimate what it can become in ten years.
Éditions Gallimard granted us an exceptional authorisation to share it with our guests for the duration of the day.
Conversations in a close-knit setting
The inauguration took place in a close-knit, almost intimate setting, open to a depth of discussion that larger formats do not allow. The people we welcomed came from varied worlds, and it is from that variety that the most fruitful conversations arose.
A transformation cannot be led from a distance. That is the reason for this address. These offices now open the way to further gatherings, and it is from Lausanne that we will continue to work alongside organisations in the canton and in neighbouring cantons.
Ad Valoris répond