Agenzia ICE
Italian Trade & Investment Agency

ITA-Italian Trade Agency, together with the Italian Embassy in Berlin and the Italian Chamber of Commerce for Germany (ITKAM) organizes the 2nd German Italian Innovation Conference “Investing in Italian Innovation: Smart Policies for a Digital Europe“ that takes place on 20th November 2018 in the Italian Embassy in Berlin and on 21st November 2018 within the Smart Country Convention, organized by BITKOM, in Berlin’s City Cube.

We all perceive that Digitalization and Smart technologies are rapidly changing both the nature and economics of the industrial and the infrastructural environment, affecting traditional businesses, city governments and citizens.

This digital transformation is indeed changing industry boundaries and dynamics and it is a valuable opportunity to attract investors from abroad or towards foreign markets.

The conference aims at:

• Presenting the Italian policy framework to attract foreign investors, both at national and at regional level, as well as the Italian Digital Policy;
• Introducing the Foreign Investment Unit of the Italian Trade Agency – ITA as “one-stop shop” for the foreign investors, helping them to establish and expand their operations, supporting them throughout the whole investment life cycle and offering high-level tutoring services;
• Discussing showcases for investment opportunities and for technology partnerships in four core areas: smart digital content; healthcare; smart mobility and connectivity; education.

Following topics will be discussed:

- Session I: Investing in Italian Innovation – the Italian Trade Agency as one-stop shop for Investment promotion: selected showcases for investment opportunities

Presentation by the ITA Foreign Investment Unit on the Italian policy framework to attract skills-intensive Foreign Direct Investment and on selected showcases for investment opportunities

- Session II: Smart digital content and Creative industries

Cultural and creative industries score amongst the most dynamic components of the Italian and of the German economy, accounting in Italy for € 92,2 billion n value added (€ 98,8 billion in Germany) and providing 1,55 million jobs (1,6 million in Germany), most of them high quality jobs. At the same time, creative industries are now confronted with the challenges of the digital society, as they are generating an increasing amount of digital content, adding to the 2.5 quintillion bytes of data we are producing daily, such as the 350 million photos uploaded on Facebook daily and 100 hours of video uploaded on YouTube every minute. As creatives and digital businesses are strongly linked, both in Italy and Germany, in several domains such as architecture, design and media, this session will discuss how their mutual cooperation and partnership can be strengthened, profiting also from EU support, such as the “Creative Europe” Program

- Session III: Healthcare without Frontiers

Digital Health is forcing disruptive solutions in the medical field through machine learning, allowing doctors to access patient files, lab tests and images such as X-rays at any time. Recent technological achievements have revolutionized clinical practice, from prevention through diagnosis, monitoring to disease management, and enabled unprecedented public interest and engagement. Recent achievements in mobile technology and sensor/wearable devices have created big data streams, facilitating participatory systems that are radically changing the way we monitor populations with unprecedented opportunities for disease surveillance, early-warning, preparedness, and rapid response.

- Session IV: Smart Mobility - Interaction, Connectivity and Cooperation

In 2030, two thirds of the world population will live in metropolitan areas, while these are expected to add another 2.5 billion new residents by 2050. The megacities of the future will be different from those today: they will have to be cleaner, more sustainable and more connected. The movement to make cities smarter is transforming municipal government worldwide, as it faces increasing environmental pressures and infrastructure needs. Smart mobility solutions, such as car sharing and ride sharing, will enable urban transport to operate with far fewer cars than we have today, fading away the distinction between public and private transportation.

- Session V: Education 4.0

The future of learning will be dramatically different, in school and throughout life. The concept of a “lifelong learning” becoming the norm, means that learning will be a lot more important, and different, for the next generations. Most people will have at least 6 different careers, requiring fundamental reeducating, whilst the relentless speed of innovation will constantly demand new skills and knowledge to keep pace, let alone an edge. These dynamics are expected to have an extensive impact on the education and vocational training market: To what extent will machines replace workers? What new jobs will emerge? How will the role of managers change as a consequence? What role will education and life-long learning play in the process of aligning competences, practices and mindsets to the new context?

To know more about the participating companies and their speakers and for updates on the program, please visit the official website www.italianinnovation.org.