The event was opened by Hermann Mettler, principal of HSR Rappreswiill and followed by welcome speeches of Martin Klöti, president of canton St Gallen, Erich Zoller, mayor of the city of Rapperswill-Jona, Simon Bell, ECLAS President as well as the OK members Michael Jakob from hepia Genève and Peter Petschek & Bominik Siegrist from HSR Rapperswill.

Five keynote speakers introduced their approach to “Bridging the Gap”:

. Chris Reed – Assoc. Prof in Practice of Landscape Architecture, Harvard University, Boston/US

. Paolo L. Bürgi – Landscape Architect, Studio Bürgi, Camorino/Switzerland; adjunct professor of Landscape Architecture, University of Pennsylvania; professor of Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia and Politecnico di Milano in dialogue with Raffaella Fabiani Giannetto, Assistant Professor, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia/US

. Nole Kingsbury – Freelance Garden and Planting Design, UK

. Jörg Rekittle – Professor and Deputy Dean, Landscape Architecture, School of Architecture and Design, RMIT University, Melbourne/AUS

. Matthias Stremlow – Federal Office for the Environment FOEn, Rural Areas Section, Bern/Switzerland

120 presentations were held by participants in parallel session of the following sub-themes:

. Landscape Design

. Construction/IT

. Landscape Planning

. Planting Design