What it takes to work on an event in Switzerland as a European company (2024)
I’m Lucía Arribas, founder of Solutions Prompteur, a prompter rental and support company. If you’re thinking of attending or organizing an event for a Swiss company, and want to earn their trust with your professionalism, I’m sharing some key info.
My entry into Switzerland.
I recently went to Lausanne (Switzerland) for a prompter-accompanied event. For this event, I brought along a student from my school of prompter operators: l’École 0%. From now on, to maintain this 0% error rate, experience in the field is essential for an apprentice prompter operator.
Who was our customer?
Nothing less than the Swiss Sport Integrity Foundation, in charge of anti-doping tests for the Olympic Games and many other sporting events. They were also celebrating their 25th anniversary, so we had 2 events in 1.
With several speakers, the choice of prompter fell on the remote-controlled Obama model. This device allows height adjustment to (1) adapt the height of the windows to each speaker in real time, or (2) simply lower the prompter device and make it disappear.
It’s a fairly bulky piece of equipment, so we transported it by car.
We arrived at the show early Monday afternoon.
There were lots of new texts to integrate. The speech rehearsal was scheduled for 5pm, so we should have had plenty of time to set up, but…
Our client, in charge of anti-doping tests, came to inform us that he had to take an anti-doping test himself:
The labor inspectorate I received in Switzerland as a French company.
The labor inspectors were there. They had introduced themselves and wanted to meet me and my 0% learner.
My client was rather worried, but my job is not only to accompany the speaker when he speaks (to make him feel that everything is under control) but also to reassure my clients:
“Look, we know you have to go through the formalities to come and work in Switzerland. We’ve done everything we need to, I have all the certificates with me.”
You can’t imagine the relief on his face.
That’s what experience is all about. It’s not just unrolling the prompter or knowing the equipment.
“We also brought electrical outlets to adapt our French equipment to your Swiss outlets.”
He was surprised that I thought of this detail too, but as I always say: The prompter is a matter of detail.
Documents required to work in Switzerland as a European company.
We showed the inspectors:
1. The declaration of our entry on Swiss soil, with this work assignment. This is a compulsory, but little-known formality. You can request it via this link. Customs will then accept it.
2. The ATA carnet for equipment: the “machine passport” required to enter Switzerland. You can find out more here.
And another surprise…!
3. You also needed a signed contract.
4. …and the A1 form, which confirms that we pay our social security contributions in France. More info here.
We didn’t have the last two, but we had three days to present them. Thanks to Adeline, our office fairy, everything was settled the day after their visit.
In the end, the service went really well, and that’s the most important thing: serenity after a job well done.
Lucía ARRIBAS
PS: I hope this publication has been useful to you. I only publish 25% of this information on the web. If you’re part of the events world, I privately share the tips I’ve observed among France’s (and the planet’s) most sought-after production managers after more than 20 years of working with many of them. This information is free of charge and can help you avoid many coordination errors during an event, thus increasing your prestige.
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