The festival was from 17th to 20th of November. On the first day, we had presentations and tours from three companies that are based in Bergamo: ABB, SIAD, LOVATO Electric. All companies made introductory tours, where they showed their factories and work from an inside. LOVATO Electric was a company that impressed me the most with their highly developed organizational culture, this company truly puts their workers’ wellbeing as a priority. In addition to the work places, they showed us a break room, a bar, a canteen and a gym. The festival itself started on 18th of November with a session from Gregorio De Felice (chief economist of Intesa Sanpaolo) about energy crisis and inflation in Italy with a focus on the Lombardia region. The region was presented with economic figures and charts. Speakers were discussing a potential risk of losing professional effectiveness and competitive advantage in Lombardia, because of other areas, where energy costs are less. Also, a climate change theme was raised, in particular COP27. Another session that was highly interesting was about space economy and opportunities for Italian firms, due to the fact that nowadays more and more companies appear in a space upstream sector, that use data from satellites to control the landscape for various reasons. The speakers were also discussing a funding model, that start-ups in the space industry should be able to use private investments, not just public funds. Furthermore, we were able to listen to Alberto Calcagno (CEO of Fastweb). He told about his career path and developing of the Fastweb (an Italian telecommunications company that provides fixed and mobile telephony, broadband Internet and IPTV services). One of the last sessions was with Jean-Claude Trichet, was a president of EU Central Bank in the period of 2003 – 2011. He was talking about hopes and expectations in the future development of Europe. It was genuinely great listen to a person with such experience and knowledge.
Daria Pushkareva
