Skip to content

Chronological archive

  • Ricerca
  • Research

      • Bologna
        • 23 October 2017
         
         

        Growth, innovation, competitiveness: Big Data as a strategic resource

          Participants at this National Interest event noted that Big Data represents a great opportunity for the Italian system. In point of fact, the internet and digital technologies are radically changing the process of data collection, transfer, and storage, with far-reaching impacts on the business world and society in general. The pervasive spread of new technologies has ensured that a growing number of interconnected devices are simultaneously active, thereby generating increasing amounts of data.

        • Venice
          • 13 October 2017
           
           

          From millennials to the silver economy: different generations of consumers

            Kick-starting discussions at this Aspen Seminar for Leaders session was the observation that the traditional concept of the “generation” has made a comeback in public debate. This, in the age of breakneck disruptive change and without there having been, as in the past, any war or pestilence between generations – at least, not in the western world. The return of the concept of the collective as embodied by generations might appear to be in contradiction with an era as “me”-focused as is the present day.

          • Venice
            • 13 October 2017
             
             

            Focusing on new mobilities: the Internet of Things and the self-driving revolution

              The self-driving revolution is at our doorsteps. Driverless and autonomous vehicles are becoming a reality faster than anyone would have expected just a few years ago. And, for better or for worse, the consequences for the socioeconomic fabric will be radical. Cities will be redesigned, roads will become safer, cars will turn into mobile offices, millions of jobs in the transportation industry will be displaced and free time will surge.

            • Venice
              • 13 October 2017
               
               

              Italian competitiveness: culture, manufacturing, tourism

                Participants at this Aspen Seminar for Leaders session noted that culture has played, and will definitely continue to play, a key role in Italy’s economic and social development. From a historical standpoint, it has been a strong factor in the formation of identity and in integration, for a country whose unification took shape in literature before doing so on the battlefields of the Risorgimento.

              • Venice
                • 13 October 2017
                 
                 

                Focus on industry: digital transformation and new geoeconomic scenarios

                  For the first time, recovery and optimism dominated the debate at this year’s Aspen Seminar for Leaders “Focus on Industry” session. Against the backdrop of an economic climate that has finally returned to growth, the seminar participants dwelt more on the strengths of the Italian system and the opportunities to be seized than on the country’s systemic weaknesses and lost opportunities. While acknowledging that the international scenario is unfavorable, with the headwinds of protectionism blowing from Trump’s America, it was highlighted that global trade is still ongoing.

                • Venice
                  • 13 October 2017
                   
                   

                  Healthcare 4.0 and the future of life sciences

                    “The healthcare system of the future will look very different, with a crucial change being the move to ‘consumer-centric’ healthcare, allowing citizens to have much more responsibility for managing their healthcare and that of their families”.  (World Economic Forum)

                  • Venice
                    • 13 October 2017
                     
                     

                    Welcome back to Babel. Living amidst diversity

                      The crisis afflicting the Old Continent is not just financial and economic, but rather risks becoming systemic. Within a very short space of time, there has been a great degree of change, like never before throughout history. Old differences have been heightened, and new ones have come into play, made keener by the crisis. These all have had difficulty being absorbed, until what has prevailed is conformity, which is far-removed from the tolerance and dialogue between diversities that has always been Europe’s Grundnorm (or ground rule).

                    • Rome
                      • 28 September 2017
                       
                       

                      Can scientific research be an economic driver for Italy?

                        Participants at this National Interest event observed that economic and demographic trends in advanced economies point to an increasingly strategic role being played by research and innovation in the pursuit of growth and improved standards of living. This role was seen as very evident in the life sciences field, the focus of a study on “Italy’s competitiveness in a new scientific research scenario” conducted by Farmindustria and Fondazione CERM for Aspen Institute Italia.

                      • Rome
                        • 27 September 2017
                         
                         

                        Africa in the new energy century

                          Africa is changing. Some countries are growing and forging ahead, while others are moving more slowly. The whole continent has major potential, and yet it often remains unfulfilled. The most important thing in the midst of this change is to envisage a sustainable scenario. Updated legal systems are crucial to any future progress: without regulations, it is more difficult to attract private investments. Innovation must also be an ingredient of this progress and the way business is done needs to be tweaked. This applies particularly to the strategic energy industry.

                        • Rome
                          • 21 September 2017
                           
                           

                          The fourth industrial revolution: rethinking Italy’s job market and the welfare system

                            Though acknowledged as unpredictable in its consequences like every momentous turning point of the past, the fourth industrial revolution was hailed by participants at this national roundtable as entirely unique in terms of its pervasiveness, the profundity of the transformations induced, and the speed of the changes occasioned, marking something of a “progressive watershed” between one age and another.

                          • Rome
                            • 25 July 2017
                             
                             

                            Trump and the politics of uncertainty

                              Looking at the Trump presidency, the international media – and actually, the American media, too – have lost sight of some background data that have to do with America in general, and far less with the White House. This point emerged from a discussion with Walter Russell Mead, known above all for his studies on the various schools of American foreign policy (from this standpoint, Trump is a “Jacksonian President”) but also thoroughly versed in the United States’ political culture and electoral cycles.

                            • Rome
                              • 7 July 2017
                               
                               

                              The migration challenge. Human mobility and development in the 21st century

                                The starting premise of discussions at this roundtable on migration, organized by Aspen Institute Italia, was that current tensions within Europe demonstrate how Italy has effectively become – and is being seen by its continental partners – as a buffer state: a country deputized to serve as a “shock absorber” in the new geopolitics of the Mediterranean.

                              • Milan
                                • 3 July 2017
                                 
                                 

                                Business as a creative community: changing paradigms

                                  Kick-starting discussions at this national conference was the observation that it is customary to consider creativity as an expression of individual genius, or to associate it with an extravagance and fancifulness far removed from the workings of the economy and corporate business. Moreover, the concepts of artistic or aesthetic creativity and economic or productive creativity are often perceived as antithetical.

                                • Milan
                                  • 26 June 2017
                                   
                                   

                                  How can the school system help Italy’s competitiveness?

                                    The participants at this national roundtable vehemently challenged the veracity of a popular – now verging on hackneyed – belief that the Italian education system only churns out mediocrity. Nothing – it was felt – could be further from the truth. The tenor of education and training at an international level leans favorably towards the traditional system adopted in Italy which is based, in its essentials, on the Giovanni Gentile model.

                                  • San Donato Milanese (MI)
                                    • 22 June 2017
                                     
                                     

                                    The future of Energy

                                      The starting premise of proceedings at this Meeting for The Aspen Junior Fellows group was that any discussion regarding energy of the future entails an examination of technological considerations as well as geopolitical prospects, both of which were seen as hinging on the energy transition currently underway.

                                    • Milan
                                      • 19 June 2017
                                       
                                       

                                      A fair tax system to ensure economic growth for citizens and businesses

                                        The participants at this national conference recalled, by way of introduction, that two objectives are pursued through taxation systems, namely: the social purpose of ensuring there are resources for essential community services, and the economic aim of fostering business and investment. It was underlined that these systemic objectives are undermined when fairness and certainty are wanting.