The introduction will be shared between all the segments, and eventually will remove the segments from the website, and publish a new article containing all the segments plus connecting material.
The sections (for today):
_ Introduction- the approach
_ 2026-05-28 - the dimensions of innovation
_ 2026-05-28 - climate and brain health
Introduction - the approach
Yes, some remember that did a similar experiment in 2012, when visited Berlin.
Back then, wrote in a first post that was going to visit Berlin for a couple of weeks, but, whenever a post reached 50 readers, would publish a new one.
And, back then, ended up, to keep my promise, sometimes to have to publish twice in a day.
In the end, it became a mini-book prepared in late 2012 and released in early 2013, where also explained the history of my BusinessFitnessMagazine.com, a quarterly on cultural and organizational change that published between 2003 and 2005, in preparation of my return from UK to Italy.
You can download that mini-book, #BerlinDiaries - a personal journey through the new nervous centre of Europe.
The approach was actually a side-effect of of my business experience, that was across different domains, industries, technologies: you end up continously updating and scouting.
It happened often that for either customers or partners, and in the late 1980s to early 1990s also for my employers, had to switch domain, usually interacting with domain experts.
As for the magazine, the reason why I stopped it in 2005 was that... after supporting part-time startups, private companies, and working as part-time PM/BA in Rome on Government agencies projects for a partner...
... decided that was too foreigner for Italy, and accepted an invitation to relocate instead to Brussels .
As somebody unknown who once, years later joined me for a pint I think in Rotterdam told me, moving to the "new Berlin" with my CV was not necessarily the smartest idea.
Lost count of how many "checking the background on missions" were informally done by inviting me to dinners, fairs, exhibitions.
But certainly both those and previous tests in London (as was unusual to have somebody suddenly appearing from Italy, working in banking in Switzerland living not in Chelsea but in an area considered poor, and going around weekly either to Paris or Zurich) were better than the treatment in Turin (and a bit in Rome) since 2012.
Different background checking and recruitment styles.
Anyway, writing in segments online really started in Brussels in 2008, and I remember that by 2009 had published multiple article series (now offline), all based on my experience, research, update- and blending different domains.
Just to make it funnier: after few of those articles got some local feed-back, including questions about who were my sources (disclosure: if you worked in enough different domains long enough, you can connect the dots and forecast new dot connections often even before many of those involved, except their bosses, can)...
... I received an email.
I was 43 and living in Brussels, and the email was from an American former officer- I had met him in the late 1990s, while he represented a large US system integrator, as I was in Brussels visiting my brother (once in a while took the Eurostar London-Brussels), and entered a list to work on PHARE projects.
I was never called up for a project, but probably had made a positive impression- because, when he wrote me, he was in Moscow with a Russian-American company, and the title of the email was something like "a shot from the blue" or "out of the blue".
He asked for my CV- which, having always worked through word-of-mouth since 1990, was frankly a pro-forma, with no names and no details.
Then, came a reply: please send a fully detailed CV with every project your worked in and in which capacity, no more than a paragraph for each project.
The document ended up being 9 pages long- so, asked an Italian friend working in banking to give me a feed-back.
The reply: that I was trying to hide my age, because claimed to be 43, but to have done all that should have been 143.
The beauty of working by word-of-mouth: you are not called for the CV, but for the capabilities already proven, and being asked either to use them, or if you are willing to develop new ones that could leverage on the existing ones.
So, I send it anyway.
The final reply: basically, that they had no idea how they could allocate me- welcome to specialization world.
Once in Brussels I was let to know by a recruiter that he turned down the opportunity to vet my background for a role using a 360- he said because with my CV would have been at least few years, and doing that kind of challenge testing for more than one year is inhumane.
Say: Italians have no qualms, as tests actually started when first moved to UK in late 1990s, and then from the public side again when started working part-time in Rome with some curious cameos to let me know that was known where I went, who I met, etc, in 2004.
What doesn't kill you builds you- hence, the ability to work across even more activities at the same time and across timezones with a follow-the-sun... as an individual.
My CV back then in the mid-2000s was nothing special, frankly: 99% perspiration through word-of-mouth, and 1% inspiration- chaotic for some, but simply, if you looked by industry, there were many parallel lines.
If I were to prepare it now with the same level of detail, maybe as an AI Q&A model, would be even funnier and less credible: still, enabled to accelerate auditing of and writing about patterns.
As you can see on this website, writing in segments is a habit: as it started in the late 1980s, when was almost on a daily basis in a completely different town and business environment, mainly around Italy.
Therefore, the approach for this week has been to reserve events where I could "sample trends" and get "signals" from the territory, also to get different perspectives, and, potentially, different opinions on the same concepts about innovation, emerging technologies, change, etc.
And now, today's segment.
the dimensions of innovation
No, the title of the event that attended today at #FutureWeek in Turin, this time hosted by CSI Piemonte at the CTE Next ("Casa delle Tecnologie Emergenti") was not the title that I selected for this section.
The official title was: "Innovazione e settori di frontiera", i.e. looking at the leading edge of innovation.
Yes, an example of what qualifies as "understatement" in XXI century Turin.
Joking: this time, made sense as a concept, to present an array of opportunities and potentials and... allow those attending to measure each other.
I saw plenty of faces that had seen elsewhere, but, as shared in previous articles, nothing new for me in Turin since 2012.
This time, instead of sharing my notes and connecting with memories and case studies from my past activities, would like to start with a narrative about the agenda, and keep it as short as possible, as, after the narrative, will actually share the real agenda, so that you can have the names of people to contact should need more information- it is what is available online, but I do not know how long, after the #FutureWeek ends on Sunday, all the details will still be available online.
First, a presentation of the day, and an introduction from Invitalia, the Italian Government agency that is focused on promoting development, investment attraction, etc.
You can see on my CV that in 2004 to 2006 had been a part-time project manager and business analyst on a couple of projects for its precursor, SviluppoItalia, and, anyway, supported startups from the late 1990s (actually, with English partners, did already start in 1993, as soon as re-registered back then as freelance management consultant on change, to look into some potential Italian startups built around technology- but this will be for another article).
Then, today there was a series of panels discussing what I nicknamed the "dimensions of innovation".
It started with a panel with the founder of a startup studio- he previously worked in few startups, either as a founder or as an early collaborator; joining him on the panel three representatives of different incubators in Turin (two directly from academia).
An interesting confirmation was actually about international trends and specific characteristics of the Italian market.
While the former has seen an increase in size of "rounds", the latter is still predominantly on pre-seed.
Meaning: Italy is providing initial funding, but then, to grow (and even more to properly scale up) startups have to look for foreign investors- or even to relocate abroad.
The next panel was instead about presenting, again from Invitalia, initiatives to actually provide funding.
If you are between 18 and 35, there are a couple of main measures that can provide to each startup grants on the tune of 30-to-50k EUR (depends on your type of startup and location in Italy), and over 120k-200k EUR, again as grants.
There are some conditions, and shared them with local connections via WhatsApp and Instagram, but I think that it is better if you look at the form online and, if you satisfy the key parameters (at least 51% in the hands of somebody between 18 and 35 who has control and governance, plus having a minority shareholder that has at least 5 years of experience in the domain of the startup- no age limits).
The link is here.
Why not sharing here the same outline that shared with my contacts today?
Because they know me in person, we worked together or talked about business a lot in the past- and know quite well what are my "boundaries":
E.g. two decades ago, while was supporting other startups, there were similar measures with a different structure, and therefore discussed with foreign contacts the concept of helping them to create a local operation, courtesy of the lower salaries and availability of talent in Turin.
My aim was to help generate local jobs and develop the "ecosystem"- not to funnel local funding to foreign companies.
Hence, I did the "filter" that, as back then Italian measures (and also recently, frankly) did not apply filters on "motivation" as restrictive as those that I applied to provide support: as we did not reached an agreement on what was going to be really in Piedmont, I simply withdrew my support on the preparation phase.
Hence, as there are some different elements of the measures presented this morning that rub the wrong way my "audit antennas", I prefer to say:
_ the amount available overall, for a pre-seed, is quite significant, for Italy
_ there is an agency with staff, consultants, and whose disbursement of funding includes also allocating somebody helping with all the bureaucracy and "strings attached"
_ if you are in Italy, it is better that you register directly your expression of interest, read the documentation, and dialogue with them
_ the evaluation is based on a "scoring system" that includes also behavioral patterns (e.g. if you deposit within a specific type of banking account setup for the initiative to receive funding a percentage of what you are asking in funding, as suppliers will be payed from that that account once the agency confirms that supplier invoices are respecting constraints).
Then we had a presentation of different type of exoskeletons from COMAU- interesting was the collaboration between different companies based in Italy, and some of the names in different industries already using them to reduce physical risks for employees- from manufacturing, to logistics, to retail- with a potential benefit not just for the employees, but also to reduce the risks to cover (and therefore potentially the insurance premium).
Anyway, from a cultural and organizational change perspective, if you consider removing or reducing physical risks and fatigue of employees, redesigning processes with that element factored in, plus maybe cobots (collaborative robots sharing their work environment with humans), could generate additional benefits by enabling to redesign the whole workplace.
E.g. imagine a warehouse: if you have "heavy duty" cobots covering the bulk of physical work, humans wearing a relevant mix of exoskeletons could deliver critical steps with less risks and less fatigue from e.g. repeated strain activities, but also increase productivity by doing those "connecting the dots" tasks that require critical thinking and humans, without the fatigue or physical limitations that traditional workplaces have.
Probably it is too early for that, but 2-3 years down the road should be possible to use this mix and "augmented human capabilities" to generate a completely different workplace whenever physical activities are required.
Creating an environment that fosters innovation is an element, providing funding is another, but then the point shifted to an element that saw often from the late 1980s in my activities about introducing technology: organizational culture change.
It was described e.g. the example of an AI assistant that was developed with and for FORMEZ (an entity focused historically on developing human capital), to act as an advisor on calls available for funding and procurement, that now is available to be used across the whole public sector, to ease access to information.
Still, the need is to "frame" both AI integration and a redesign of processes, structures, etc within a focus to streamline while keeping bureaucracy deterministic- hence, not just inserting an LLM, but something including a series of safeguards to ensure replicability and traceability of bureaucracy.
Something that, as shared in previous articles, in Italy is still an uphill battle between individual/corporate citizens and State or local authories.
Italy has a further issue that was discussed also in previous events: often the initiators of startups are not students, but professors, so that there is a whole set of processes to enable generating spin-offs from research activities carried within academia.
The Invitalia measures presented could reduce the burden, but still there is a need of early stage "hand holding" of wannabe startuppers- e.g. what to do and not to do if you want later to file for a patent.
There were then few cases presentations- I did not stay for the pitch sessions and then the pitch workshop, but I think that there will be further sessions in the future.
I will avoid to share what is already within the introduction shared across all the segments, as well as in previous "segments" of this article or previous publications that released since 2012- but the common threads across I found so far included at least:
_ awareness- we need to improve in making "common sense" the basics of startup creation
_ continuous learning: regulations, funding availability, and, of course, the market context will evolve- hence, being able to monitor and understand signals will be more and more critical in the future
_ shifting from quantitative generation of startups (the number of startups) to generating an ecosystem that "promotes" growing up, not just having a badge on the CV "I am a startupper" (already 20 years ago remember being told how cool was to say so- even in Italy, but certainly elsewhere)
_ cultural change and collaboration plus transparency are becoming increasingly non-negotiable, if you want to attract talent (not necessarily retain- but attracting to help in critical stages would sort out pre-emptively many issues)
_ rethinking the whole "startup support and incubation" ecosystem, to focus on impact and self-supported sustainability and removing the "focus on incentives" that distorts the market.
1. Presentation of the day
Michele Franzese, Founder Future Week - Scai; Susanna Zuccarini, Invitalia - Invitalia; Pietro Pacini, Direttore Generale - CSI Piemonte
2. Panel on incubators
with Farhad Mohammadi, Founder & CEO - Mamazen; Claudia Pescitelli, Ph.D. Business and Management, Mkt and Communication Office - 2i3T Incubatore; Laura Pellegri, Head of Communication and Institutional Relations - Zest; Paola Mogliotti, Direttrice - I3P
3. Panel on funding
with Susanna Raffaella Zuccarini Terenzi - Sistema Invitalia Startup
4. Workshop on exoskeletons
with Federica Aprigliano, MATE Marketing Product Manager - Comau
5. Panel on enabling innovation
with Anna Cavallo, Direttrice / Responsabile Innovazione e Trasformazione Digitale - CSI Piemonte; Andrea Toso, Innovazione e marketing, team leader - CSI Piemonte; Vittorio Vallero, Responsabile R&D e Twinning - CSI Piemonte; Elena Deambrogio, Città di Torino - CTE NEXT
6. Talk on academia and innovation
with Eleonora Ferrari, PhD Student - Unisob & HighEst Lab Affiliate; Marco Tagliapietra, co-founder - Deeplomacy; Luca Macis, co-founder Deeplomacy e Ph.D. student - UniTo
7. Orbyta Tech Hackathon & Data
with Matteo Fogli, Digital Innovation Lead - Orbyta Tech
8. Interview on accessible innovation
with Andrea Mariatti, Head of Partnerships - Accessiway
climate and brain health
This event was organized within a series of discussions about climate.
And, in this case, I think that the best presentation of its rationale comes from the organizers:
Climate change is increasingly recognized not only as an environmental and physical health challenge, but also as a growing risk to how we think, feel, and function. From extreme heat and air pollution to climate-related disasters, environmental stressors can affect brain health across the lifespan, shaping neurological outcomes as well as mental well-being. These impacts are not felt equally, with some communities facing greater risks and having fewer resources to respond. Renee Salas (The Cooperative at Mass General Brigham) will moderate a conversation between Katie Hayes (George Mason University) and Burcin Ikiz (EcoNeuro) on how climate change is shaping brain and mental health outcomes and how research, policy, and strategies can better respond to these risks moving forward.
Depending on your perspective, I think that watching the YouTube video recording could be useful if you first, after reading that "intro", consider your own perspective as a starting point.
The key discussion was that there is not one size that fits all, but the resilience of nature and resilience of our brain should be factored in to tailor interventions, and reduce impacts and exposure.
The point is enhancing agency, not just having yet another climate-related scare.
Again: it is a matter of systemic perspective and, after assessing impacts and emerging trends, redesign spaces, infrastructure, and increasing awareness plus resilience.
Considering the limited time available, the event page will later contain a list of resources to dig deeper into the subject and see its evolution.
Key takeaways presented at the end:
1. how interconnected we all are
2. all the actions have an impact- focus on those that help in mitigation, time to accelerate and work as a global team.