WMF – We Make Future, the International Exhibition and Festival on Innovation: AI, Tech and Digital, opens a new edition of discoveries, inspirations and global connections at the service of building a better future.
The event, devised and organized by Search On Media Group, inaugurated this morning at the BolognaFiere spaces, will bring together from today until Saturday 15 an exceptional lineup of creative minds, innovators, entrepreneurs and technology enthusiasts from all over the world.
The only certified international fair in Italy on innovation, WMF – We Make Future sees Ford Italia as its Main Sponsor and is under the patronage of the Emilia-Romagna Region and by: Rai Regione Emilia-Romagna, Regional School Office for Emilia-Romagna, ADCI – Art Directors Club Italiano and sees as Partner Visit Emilia-Romagna.
More than 90 countries involved, with representatives from Europe, Africa, North and South America, Asia and the Middle East, over 1,000 speakers, more than 600 exhibitors and sponsors and over 3,000 startups and open innovation stakeholders. WMF is therefore ready to return to the center of the global innovation ecosystem, acting as a connection platform for building the future.
Advertisement
The opening ceremony
The Opening Ceremony was a true hymn to an inclusive, accessible and equitable future, a representation of some of the founding values of the event which, since the first edition, has placed the opportunities born from innovation tools at the center of society.
“10 years have passed since the first edition of WMF. Since then we have wanted to create a platform for building the future,” explains Cosmano Lombardo, Founder and CEO of Search On Media Group and creator of WMF.
“All of you, all of us, whoever takes to this stage is an activist who tries to build a more inclusive and sustainable future. The internet and digital certainly serve this purpose” and continues “It is important to understand how much each of us can make a difference in understanding how to use today’s technological arsenal. In these years we have tried to understand how to change things through these tools, starting from the assumption that cooperation between all of us is fundamental. Giorgio Taverniti, in his opening speech, spoke of a step backward: a step backward that perhaps we should all take, citizens, institutions, companies, putting society at the center. We should do it in an inclusive way, using inclusive languages.”
Institutional greetings
Several protagonists of the Opening Ceremony amplified Lombardo’s message, including Fatoumata Diawara, an artist among the most vital representatives of international female music, who performed in a solo show plus talk, Giorgio Taverniti, Tech educator and co-founder of Search On Media Group, with an intense and moving monologue and the LIS (Italian Sign Language) performers with the best of Rai Accessibilità productions.
Following were the institutional greetings, starting with those of the Minister of Enterprises and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso, who, in a video message, stated: “This event represents a great opportunity to recognize the role that startups play in the digital and ecological transition. They are synonymous with development, innovation and the ability to implement new ideas and technologies.”
“The Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy is actively committed to supporting startups. We are also working, thanks to initiatives like this one, to make Italy more competitive and strong so that we can better play our role as a manufacturing leader in the world and certainly in Europe and make this system grow for the benefit of the whole country. Thank you for the work you will do”
Advertisement
The hosting region: Emilia Romagna
Space on the main stage was also given to the greetings of the President of the Emilia Romagna Region Stefano Bonaccini, who said from the main stage of the event “For us it is a pleasure to continue to have this great fair and event in Emilia-Romagna. For me, this is one of the last interventions as President, but I am proud of what we have achieved in these 10 years: the Bologna Technopole is being built next door; the G7, which will be held in July, will see the world’s leaders confront multinationals and innovation players.”
“I am proud of this because we have brought three incredible things to Emilia-Romagna: the Meteorological Forecasting Center for 27 European countries, the Leonardo supercomputer, the most powerful in Europe and among the top 5 in the world, and recently the fourteenth United Nations University for the study and fight against climate change and the impact of AI on society.”
“We will become the main European data valley, attracting the main players in innovation here to create offices and build the future. The jobs of the future will still be unknown, but everything is based on training and innovative education. Emilia-Romagna, which was one of the three poorest regions in the post-war period, now looks to the future to build the future for the next generations.”
Advertisement
