Open Days 2009 : International Forum in Basilicata

Innovative cities for state-of-the-art enterprises:
Sustainable investments in small and medium-sized cities

In the framework of the European year of creativity and innovation, the Basilicata Region is organizing the first International Forum on the challenges faced by small and medium-sized cities in the knowledge economy, which is taking place October 29-30-31, 2009, in the fascinating urban habitat of Matera (UNESCO City).
The Matera Forum seeks to stimulate an exchange of ideas and solutions among the public and private sectors on the theme of investments and human capital in the small and medium cities.  (SMC’s = small and medium cities, SME = small and medium enterprises)

Policies regarding education, training, environment, research and development, and creative industries are important levers for growth in European regions. For small and medium cities (SMC’s), especially those peripheral to the regions that constitute Europe’s economic engines, policies in these fields represent a challenge within a challenge.

The original challenge is to train, retain and attract people and enterprises that enjoy a high level of flexibility in their location choice, and thus global mobility.  To develop and attract human resources, advanced enterprises and investment, SMC’s  must overcome the limits of their size, geographical position, and other factors, like transport connections, the range and quality of economic resources (public and private), and the density of human relationships.

Basilicata and Matera enjoy a unique natural and urban habitat, but the sustainability and equilibrium of these habitats also depend on the way the region and its cities manage to take advantage of opportunities offered by the knowledge economy and the current economic crisis. 
The Forum will focus on investment in science based industries, knowledge based manufacturing, creative industries, green economy, and cultural tourism.  And it will face a critical question for SMC’s: how to develop a local educational system capable of generating human capital, which is the true wealth of cities. The sustainability of economic and environmental investment depends on local  educational system and the quality of the human capital it produces.

It will be up to the territory’s main players, such as enterprises, local governments and universities, to interpret the ideas and solutions proposed in the Forum so that they can develop regional and urban policies tailored to local SMC’s  and favour the emergence of an urban region better equipped to compete on a global scale.
Within the forum, in parallel with the thematic sessions,  two laboratories will be held, with a predefined activities module, and an “urban game” will be set up in order to involve Matera’s citizens (description at the end of the document).

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REGISTRATION - download file
HOW TO ARRIVE - view
CLOSEST AIRPORT - view
ACCOMODATION  - view
DISCOVER AND INVEST IN BASILICATA - view
BASILICATA RESEARCH AND INNOVATION - view
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PROGRAMME

Thursday, October 29, 2009

9:00-13:30: Plenary Session, Day One
9:00-9:30 Registration
9:30-10:15 Welcome address and opening Vincenzo Santochirico Vice President and Councillor for Environment
Nicola Buccico, Mayor of Matera
10:15-10:30 Research presentation “Small and medium cities in the knowledge economy” and moderator (Giovanni Padula, CityO)
10:30-11:00 Keynote speaker: Maria Berrini, President of Ambiente Italia, Milan: “Quality of life, Environment and Cities”
11:00-11:15 coffee break
11:15-13:30 Session: Building and moving well: case studies from European cities
Alessandro Speccher, Green Building Council Italia (LEED certification), Rovereto
Michele Gubert, European Energy Communities: a peculiar evolution, ACSM Group Primiero (TN)
Cristina Farioli, IBM, Business and Innovation Development, Director, Responsible of Starter Town
Paolo Secco, Deputy President ACSM, Green Valley Project, Primiero (TN)
Patrizia Minardi, Basilicata Region, OP ERDF 2007/2013 Managing Authority
Viviana Cappiello, Director General, Department for Environment, Basilicata Region Giuseppe Esposito, Director General, Department for Infrastructures, public works and mobility, Basilicata Region
13:30-14:30 Lunch break
14:30-17:00 Session: Growth strategies for creative enterprises in small and medium cities
Angelo Nardozza,  Basilicata Region Director General Presidency Department 
Paolo Verri, Director of Italia 150, Turin 
Beniamino Saibene, Esterni, Milan
Alberto Versace, President Sensi Contemporanei and Ministry for Economic Development
Raffaello De Ruggieri, President of Fondazione Zétema - Matera and member of Italian Upper Council for Cultural Heritage
Marina Wallace, Director of Artakt- London
Annibale D’Elia, Regione Puglia, Bollenti Spiriti Programme
Antonio Acito, Architect and creative entrepreneur , Matera
11:00-18:00 Parallel activity: Laboratory n. 1, Matera Fablab (description at the end of the document) Where:Circolo Culturale La Scaletta, Via Sette Dolori, Matera


Friday, October 30, 2009
9:00-19:00 Parallel activity: Laboratory n. 2, One day creative laboratory (KUBLAI project - description at the end of the document). Where: Circolo Culturale La Scaletta, Via Sette Dolori, Matera) Link:  http://www.progettokublai.net/progetto-in-un-giorno/,
9:00-13:00 Plenary Session, Day Two
9:30-10:15 Opening Gennaro Straziuso, Councillor for Enterprise Policies, Research and Innovation Basilicata Region
10:15-11:00 Keynote speakers: Michael Storper, London School of Economics and Political Science, “European cities in the knowledge economy”
Raffaele Trapasso, Regional economist, OECD, Paris
11:00-11:15 Coffee break
11:15-13:30 Session: Attracting and training highly-skilled workers and financing knowledge-based enterprises
Tomaso Marzotto, Program Director of Istud Entrepreneurship Programme, founding partner and general secretary of Italian Business Angels Network (IBAN)
Mario Calderini, Turin Politecnico University  and COTEC Foundation
Giancarlo Michellone, President of AREA SCIENCE PARK
Andrea Freschi, Director General, Department for Enterprise Policy and Technological Innovation, Basilicata Region
Claus Schultze, General Secretary of ERRIN “Regional European network for research and innovation”
Gianluca Salvatori, CEO EURICSE, European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprise, Trento
Fabrizio Montanari, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, and Bocconi University
René-Paul Arlandis; Centre Region leader of EURANEC (European regional network for the anticipation of economic change)
Maria Teresa Lavieri, Director General, Department for Training, Work, Culture and Sport , Basilicata Region
Tommaso Grimaldi, General Secretary of EVTA (European Vocational Training Association); Pasqualino Mare, Manager International projets, KC Handel
Conclusions Antonio Autilio, Councillor for Training, Employment, Culture and Sport, Basilicata Region
13:30-14:30 Lunch break
14:30-17:00 Final Session – Conclusions
Introduction and summary of the forum, Giovanni Padula, CityO
Representative of University of Basilicata
Gianni Pittella, Vice-President of the European Parliament
Vito De Filippo, President of the Basilicata Region
17,30  Urban game of Critical City:  : E/MAZE:
Link: http://www.a-maze.it/

The forum’s laboratories  + the urban game E/MAZE

Laboratory  n. 1: Matera  Fablab- Workshop of self made technology
Basilicata Region is implementing an initiative on creativity –called Visioni Urbane-  which has involved around 70 Smes and associations of the creative industries in Basilicata. Its focal points are a network of Creative centres, specific know-how and technologies to be closely in connection with the world.
Arduino is an Italian technology of an open source hardware. It works like a kind of technological Lego, with standard components which could be easily assembled and run by a computer large as a credit card, and easily to program by any Pc.
Arduino puts in communication the world’s data information with the real world, enabling anyone who has some time and patience to build machines.
Along with creative people from Basilicata, we will use Arduino to build a piece of the technological equipment of the Creative centres that are under restoration in the framework of the regional project “Visioni Urbane”. In this way, we intend to prove that home automation  is not an abstruse science, but a thing that we can live as main protagonists.  
Partecipants: Massimo Banzi, designer, creator of Arduino and founder of Tinker.it

Laboratory n. 2 KUBLAI project : One day Creative Laboratory
Creative people often find it difficult to move from the idea to the planning stage, coming up with a well-developed operational and financial plan. While this is a general problem, it is much more marked in lagging areas, where inspiring, successful models are harder to come by. Kublai, a creative project design environment launched by the Italian Ministry of Economic Development, will hold a workshop in which people walk in with a creative idea and walk out with a full-fledged project proposal document - useful for pitching prospective partners or backers. Ministry experts in business planning, software development and design will help, in a fun, all-day brainstorm-then-deliver session.

 E/MAZE, Urban game of Critical City
“: E/MAZE” is an urban game, in which players choose some creative missions specifically conceived for the Open Days on the website and carry out them in real life in Matera on Friday 30 October from sunset onwards. By choosing the game as the special application of creativity, we intend to convey the specificity of the creativity policies put forward by Regione Basilicata.
The game will involve participants- above all young people- in creative missions closely related to the city: for instance, players will be confronted with quiz-solving, ability tests, with discovery of Matera and its hidden treasures, neglected traditions and ordinary stories.
A high quality video will be shot, and than used for promoting  the initiative of the Open Days. A video of the urban game in the Sassi has good probability to become popular on YouTube, Vimeo etc.
Thus, the objectives of  the game , that will end with a final prize and with a party, are:
-          to attract a new public to the Open Days in Matera and create a link between the policy-makers and the end-users of those policies
-          to involve participants in an active manner;
-          to carry out a lively event that combines innovation and tradition
-          to give large visibility to the Open Days
The game will be designed and carried out by the staff of Critical City , with a close collaboration of the creative community of Urban Visions.