Announcing SMAU: the innovation tradeshow hits Milan in October

Digital innovation in Italy

There are drawbacks to a national identity being associated with tradition and ancient knowledge, namely the fact that innovation always seems to hit the marketplace later than elsewhere. In recent years though, several successful endeavours have been made by both private enterprises and public administrations to speed up the pace of digital innovation in Italy. SMAU’s mission is to make this process smoother and increase the benefits for businesses and individual professionals, by providing a healthy mix of tech startups and public administration contacts and access to European funds to help tech enterprises. As we have discussed on several occasions, doing business in Italy means enjoying high life quality and a healthy work-life balance, but it often presents difficulties that are particularly puzzling to the average foreign entrepreneur. Taking part in an event such as SMAU will help you get in touch with the most innovative startups and professionals in Italy, so that you can hit the ground running when launching your project in this Country.

Open Innovation: what SMAU is really about

What do we mean by Open Innovation? It is the idea that direct contact between startups, accelerators, researchers, incubators, coworking spaces and other similar stakeholders is the best way to ensure that the entrepreneurial scene develops in a healthy way. SMAU has reserved several spaces for this specific purpose. Open Innovation goes along with a wider Digital Transformation program. Long gone are the days when specific professional categories were involved in everything digital whereas everyone else in the office carried on ignoring the techies, with their obscure lingo and their weird gizmos. This means we all have to rethink the way we organise our work from a digital perspective. Nobody is exempted from striving for efficiency and tech savviness. Even businesses and departments that are not, strictly speaking, tech-related can benefit from acquiring the right digital enhancements for their specific field of work, thus leading to an overall increase in productivity.

Why you should visit SMAU this year

SMAU is more than a technology trade-show: it is a hub for researchers and startuppers that aim at leading Italy into a new era of digital innovation. Being at SMAU this year means being where the change is actually going to happen, intercepting the buzz as it grows and getting access to the most exciting ideas and businesses in the pipeline, before they hit the marketplace. You will get exclusive previews and will be able to establish partnerships and working relationships with new and interesting entrepreneurs, with the potential of becoming tomorrow’s big players. This is not just about placing a pre-order for the newest and most efficient office CSM or investing a few grand in a new tech startup, this is about getting a sense of where progress will be taking us in a few years, to feel which way the wind is blowing before anyone else does. Don’t pass it up: the future is happening now and it’s stopping by in Milan. Be there.