The youth project 14-19. take your future into your own hands! was based on a dossier from the Expo.02 participatory campaign. This concept envisaged inviting a large number of young people between the ages of 14 and 19 to Expo.02 and, in several meetings, the so-called Future Councils, to try to sketch out the image of Switzerland in 20 years' time. To give them the opportunity to turn their dreams into reality, it was also planned to invite decision-makers from politics, business and culture to the closing event. This closing event was intended to initiate a dialogue between the young people and the decision-makers so that concrete measures could be taken.

The young Swiss were invited to develop their ideas about the Switzerland of tomorrow and send them to the project organisers. A jury selected the most interesting projects from the 1,500 submissions received. These selected 400 young people from all over Switzerland aged between 14 and 19 then took part in the actual project. For four weeks, the young people were accompanied by around 50 supervisors on the 4 Expo.02 Arteplages. The final event at the Arteplage Biel-Bienne on 04.09.2002 was also attended by the President of the Swiss Confederation, Kaspar Villiger.