“The future gets better”. Despite the war, despite the pandemic, despite the economic recession. At the Italian Tech Week 140 speakers from around the world explained that we can be optimistici, that there is still room for new challenges. To take risks. “To always do what you fear to do”. She said it Simone Mancini, founder of Scalapayone of the many startups that has embellished, with its history, the most important Italian conference on technology that closed yesterday in Turin.
IT Week 2022, Simone Mancini (Scalapay) and the symbolic phrase of the startuppers: “Always do what you fear to do”
In short, there is no need to be afraid. And indeed you can “fail gracefully”, as he explained Francesco Simoneschi, founder of Truelayer. Because an entrepreneur can always get up after a failure. And build a new, better company. And maybe turn into “unicorn”. This is the name of startups that pass the valuation of one billion dollars. On the stage of Italian Tech Week we saw one, Satispay. The Italian Alberto Dalmasso, one of its co-founders, told Riccardo Luna, director of the Italian Tech content hub and host of the event: “Startups do well because risk capital forces those under thirty to put everything what he has in the project “.
Also John Elkann, CEO of Exor (which through Gedi is the publisher of Repubblica) has announced further investments in startups: they were a billion in five years for seventy young companies that will grow to 100 in the next few months.
You need ideas, courage and a little madness. Which then is the recipe for Massimo Moretti, founder of Wasp who wants to give every man a zero kilometer 3D printed home. Or that of Mattia Barbarossa, 21, who with his low cost rocket dreams of revolutionizing the space economy. “These are tough days but those who cry all day don’t change anything,” said Alec Ross, technology expert and former senior innovation advisor to Hillary Clinton. “We need to bring out the Italian character, linked to innovation and humanism”.
IT Week 2022, Massimo Moretti (Wasp): “My dream: a house for everyone printed in 3D at Km 0”
In two days, the five thousand people who flocked to the Turin Ogrs had their fill of inspiration: there was talk of metaverse, gaming, NFT, artificial intelligence, quantum computers and climate tech. The European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton intervened in the form of a hologram. The Ukrainian minister, Mykhailo Fedorovsent a video message: “If we resist Russia, it is also thanks to technology“.
They were all there: startuppers, investors, inventors they held 14 masterclasses for 450 participants. There was no free seat in front of the four boxes. “There is a desire for the future”, summed up Riccardo Luna. “At a time when resignation and disengagement seem to be rampant, this energy is the antidote we need.”
IT Week 2022, Alec Ross: “The history of Musixmatch teaches that in Italy merit must be rewarded, not the important surname”
The event was sold out, but everyone was able to follow it: five simultaneous live broadcasts, 2 million streams, more than 140 video on demand. A continuous flow of images that will accompany us for a long time. Until the next Italian Tech Week, exactly in one year, at the end of September 2023.