It's Italy Tech Week in the Bay Area

The groundbreaking week will start next Tuesday, March 12, 2013, with “Italian Innovation Day”, a half-day program organized by Mind the Bridge Foundation, in collaboration with Italian Cultural Institute and Consulate General of Italy, Italian Business & Investment Initiative, a milestone of the 2013 Italian Culture and Innovation’s celebration.

 

Italian Innovation Day is an action oriented investors’ day bringing together the best of Italian technology and innovation: yesterday, today and tomorrow. This year the event will correspond with the launch of a special exhibition dedicated to the footprint left by Italian Innovators in Silicon Valley, with the title “Sexy Before Apple: The Italian Experience in Silicon Valley.” The past, present, and future of the best Italian technological creation will be showcased and, of course, some great Italian food and wine will be served.

 

The month-long exhibition by co-curators Paolo Pontoniere and Alex Bochannek will show how Italy’s love affair with Silicon Valley began even before the birth of Silicon Valley. The notion that something unique was afoot in what was once a quiet stretch of little cities and orange orchards didn’t escape early Italian visitors to Northern California. The sexy allure of Palo Alto, Santa Clara, and San Francisco enchanted Camillo Olivetti, family patriarch, and founder of the Olivetti company. During the seventies and eighties Olivetti became synonymous with Italian high-tech, and grew one of the largest computer manufacturers in the world.

 

Among the Italian excellence selected by Mind the Bridge – Connecting Talent for the annual meeting at the prestigious Computer History Museum in Mountain View, will be presented: Atooma – A Touch of Magic, Bad Seed Entertainment, Curious Hat, In3Dgallery, Map2App, Pick1 and TOK.tv.

 

In fact, Italian Innovation Day features a showcase of the best Italy’s technology startups ready to scale up attracting entrepreneurs, investors, business leaders and mentors from Italy and the US. Beside celebrating unique Italian innovators such as world renown Federico Faggin, the inventor of the microprocessor, Giacomo Marini, co-founder of Logitech and many, many others.

 

Technology will be discussed from a different point of view on Wednesday, March 13, at the presentation of Federico Rampini’s latest book, “Is the European social model a luxury we cannot afford anymore? Wrong!” The U.S. based famous Italian journalist and writer will return to the Italian Cultural Institute to introduce his new book in English to all his fans.

 

 Italian-born physicist Federico Faggin, widely known for designing the first commercial microprocessor, will be the protagonist of  the event “The future of information Technology”, at the Italian Cultural Institute next Thursday, March 14. On this occasion, writer and journalist Mike Malone will interview Faggin, on his vision of the future.

 

A naturalized US citizen, Federico Faggin led the 4004 (MCS-4) project and the design group during the first five years of Intel’s microprocessor effort. He was founder and CEO of Zilog, the first company solely dedicated to microprocessors.

In 2010 he received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the highest honor the United States confers for achievements related to technological progress. He is currently chairman emeritus of Synaptics and president of the Federico and Elvia Faggin Foundation for the study of consciousness.

 

The series of events will conclude with “Clean Tech Italia in San Francisco”, on Tuesday, March 19th, as part of the CleanTech Forum (March 18-20), the two-and-a-half day forum that will showcase the sector’s most important startups, encourage frank conversations, and create opportunities for participants to get to know each other, the influencers, and the issues that will reshape their worlds.

 

The Opening Night Reception at the Hyatt Regency Atrium, sponsored by the Italian Trade Commission, will include welcome remarks from Sheeraz Haji, Cleantech Group’s CEO, and Corrado Clini, The Italian Minister for the Environment.

 The special event at the Italian Cultural Institute will focus on the US Clean Tech Industry, with perspectives from a VC, the Italian Clean Tech Global Players, and how can Italian Players Engage in San Francisco’s Drive for Innovation.

 

SAVE THE DATES:

Italian Innovation Day

Tuesday, March 12, 2013 from 4:30 PM to 8:00 PM

Hosted by Computer History Museum

1401 North Shoreline Boulevard

Mountain View, CA 94043

 

Is the European social model a luxury we cannot afford anymore? Wrong!

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco

 

The future of information Technology

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco

 

Clean Tech Italia in San Francisco

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco