The international conference centre in Geneva was completely refurbished from scratch in just five months. At the heart of the project was a team from ISS, which helped ensure the tight schedule was met.
“Thanks to our workforce pool, we were able to deploy the desired number of workers on the construction site at any time, depending on the tasks at hand.”
- Laurent Benoît, ISS Business Consultant
Geneva is home to the world. Numerous international organizations are based here, influencing and shaping the fate of the planet from Geneva. Every year, nearly 200,000 politicians and experts gather at 2,500 conferences and meetings to initiate significant processes and make groundbreaking decisions.
A central venue for these meetings is the Geneva International Conference Center (CICG) on the Place des Nations. Given the high volume of use and to restore a contemporary, prestigious appearance to the 19 rooms - each seating between 20 and 1,000 people - a comprehensive renovation became necessary after many years of intensive use.
Precise Planning and Coordination: Staying on Schedule with ISS
To avoid disrupting Geneva’s conference calendar - which is booked years in advance - the timeframe for the renovation work was set at an extremely tight five months. This required precise coordination on the construction site. To meet the ambitious schedule, even seemingly minor logistical tasks had to be completed on time and reliably. To this end, the project management team engaged a team from ISS.
A Wide Range of Logistics Services: Making the Tradespeople’s Work Easier
We tore out the old carpeting and disposed of it along with parts of the ventilation system and the wood from the old interior fixtures. Together with our partner, we continuously cleared the construction site of any debris lying around. This prevented accidents and made the work easier for the tradespeople involved in the project. ISS also maintained and cleaned a dozen containers that housed temporary offices, meeting rooms, and restrooms for the construction workers.
To protect the sensitive event equipment from dust, it was carefully covered. And last but not least, ISS employees removed 500 chairs from Conference Hall 1, stored them, and will reassemble them once the renovation work is complete. Finally, post-construction cleaning was carried out for the conference center, and ISS will also be responsible for its routine cleaning starting with the opening in May 2021.
Large Staff Pool: Effort Avoided a Bottleneck
“Thanks to our workforce pool, we were able to deploy the desired number of workers on the construction site at any time, depending on the tasks at hand,” notes Laurent Benoît, the ISS Business Consultant who got the project off the ground. Overall, the project demanded a great deal of flexibility from Rogerio Chaves, ISS Facility Services Manager and project lead, as well as the team members.
Mr. Vazquez, the ISS on-site coordinator, also demonstrated excellent communication and organizational skills. This was because the requirements changed from week to week with very short response times. “December was particularly intense for us. Shortly before Christmas, the hustle and bustle intensified. Thanks to the dedication of all team members, we were able to ensure the waste was disposed of and thus prevent the entire construction site from coming to a standstill,” he emphasizes. This earned high praise from the construction management and the client, he adds.
About the Centre International de Conférences Genève (CICG)
The CICG is owned by the Fondation des immeubles pour les organisations internationales (FIPOI), which was founded in 1964 by the Swiss Confederation and the Canton of Geneva. This foundation identifies, manages, and maintains real estate for international organizations wishing to establish themselves in Geneva, thereby playing a key role in ensuring that Geneva can maintain its reputation as a “miniature world capital” in the eyes of the global public.