The project will start in early March Venywherewhose goal is to promotesettlement of smart working workers in Venice. The initiative, born from the collaboration between the Foundation of Venice and theCa ‘Foscari University and developed by a team of young graduates resident in Venezia coordinated by Massimo Warglienteacher to Like Foscari and creator and founder of the initiative, will involve some employees of Cisco from various European countries, who will use the company’s technologies for hybrid work.
In the initial phase they will participate in Venywhere the 16 workers disembarked a Veneziawhich will use the innovative collaboration platforms of Ciscoas an example Webex, who are able to create models that go beyond current remote work experiences, redefining new, more inclusive and engaging standards. The team of Cisco will experience not only the functionality of the platform Venywhere and the impact the whole initiative will have on the city of Veneziabut also technologies enabling the future of work and new forms of collaboration between people in distributed teams.
The project starts from the assumption that the lagoon city could be the ideal place for a new balance between work and personal lifeand for the experimentation of an urban renewal triggered by the presence of a new one population of “temporary citizens” which could become new residents over time. To this end, it is consolidating a network that includes research institutions, associations, foundations, museums and private structures that support the project by helping to create an offer of workspaces and services, to which individuals or groups of workers will be able to access through a system of flexible booking.
The main targets to which Venywhere it addresses are four: i freelance and “digital nomads”; i employees who have the opportunity to carry out their business for prolonged periods away from their headquarters; the Venetian residents who can take advantage of support services for their remote work, facilitating their stay in the city; companies interested in moving entire teams for extended periods to Venice.
There are three key areas on which the project focuses. To offer “workers from anywhere” support in identifying suitable residential solutions and working spaces. Develop a service offering, which allows you to participate in the daily life of the city through activities such as sport, art, crafts, food and wine, knowledge of the language, visits to the city and the lagoon, while generating significant potential induced local economic alternative to tourism, and helping to favor the shift of a significant part of the residential offer from the short term, linked to tourism, towards a medium-long term offer. In the end, promoting social innovationinvolving “workers from anywhere” in forms of active citizenship at the service of the community.
“Venywhere wants to help shape the future of Venice as a city of contemporary work – he explains Massimo Warglien – Venice offers a unique opportunity to integrate work and daily life, reinventing the working space. And we expect a new flow of workers / residents to help keep essential services alive for citizens and help shift part of the housing supply from the short to medium / long term, creating new housing opportunities for all ”.
L’CEO of Cisco Italy, Gianmatteo Manghiemphasizes instead how for Cisco “Creating a modern and inclusive work model has always been an indispensable priority: this is demonstrated by the fact that we have been first in the ranking for six years Great Place to Work. It was therefore natural that we were proactively participating in the project Venywherethanks to which we will be able to further test our collaboration technologies and collect the data necessary to define the guidelines for the future of work “.