Bergamo
13 June 2010
White noise: quality of life in the age of information overload
The Friends of Aspen group met in Bergamo at the G. Donizetti Theater for the 15th edition of their annual conference. Besides taking stock of the association’s recent year since Beatrice Trussardi’s nomination as president, the meeting also served to address the issue of how to reconcile a better quality of life with the need to manage the information and communication overload inherent in today’s society.
Rome
9 June 2010
The frontiers of identity
Identity is a word that has multiple connotations. Paradoxically, there is not just one but many kinds of identities, whose characteristics, origins and development processes are quite different from one another. Individual identity, for example, is often brought into question at the very moment it is affirmed: Saint Augustine explains that sense of doubt in fact characterizes the fundamental moments in one’s life. The ego becomes aware of itself by a process of elimination: I am all, minus that which I am not.
Rome
7 June 2010
Looking to tomorrow: for a youthful future
The event was introduced by the reflection on presentism, or the lack of collective attention in a country overly concerned with the present and which is losing its strategic vision. Presentism is the product of “real time” which has been brought on by technological advancement. Faced with weighing benefits in terms of quality of information and the growth of opportunities, the present has expanded and it has taken over our past and future. In this way, in economic terms, the world financial crisis came about due to an excessive focus on the short term.
Milan
24 May 2010
The China challenge
At the same time as the China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue, a seminar was held in Milan with Edward Tse, Booz & Company’s Chairman for Greater China and one of the major experts on the Chinese market. The meeting was an opportunity to discuss the economic context businesses find in China, as well as the Chinese government’s main choices in this phase of serious international gravity.
Naples
14 May 2010
Pulling through the financial crisis and supporting the real economy
The last minute lifeline thrown to Greece to keep it from possible default opened a series of urgent questions on the future of the single currency, Europe as a political entity and, more in general, the relationship between finance and the real economy. The crisis concerned not only the precarious economic and social situation of Greece – which will inevitably have to pass through a period of deep-seated and predictably painful restructuring. It also shed light on the series of actions that should be taken to prevent possible contagion with other European countries.
Naples
14 May 2010
The telecoms and media industries: what’s next?
The internet revolution has brought great changes to the communications industry, both in terms of infrastructures and contents. For infrastructures, the scenario shows a different level of investment, a change in keeping with regulation and new business models. Today’s prospects are for a Pan-European map that should provide guidelines for the sector’s new organization.
Naples
14 May 2010
Investing in knowledge for progress and productivity
The debate centered around two main points: investment in knowledge and human capital, and research and innovation. These two issues are determining factors of growth and competitiveness and together they represent the basic needs to survive, revive the economy and meet the challenges of the future.
Naples
14 May 2010
Bridging the gap between Italy’s North and South: the Mezzogiorno as a national issue
The seminar, divided into three sessions, studied the main institutional economic and social causes holding back adequate growth in the South and its ability to reach the levels of growth seen in the North.
Naples
14 May 2010
New paradigms of development: values, work, sustainable growth
After the crisis, a new paradigm of development is emerging: more solid, anchored to shared values and projected to the construction of a future beyond the ordinary handling of the emergency. Over recent months, there has been discussion on the wave of moderate optimism brought on by commentators and economists, with figures in hand, to pronounce the imminent end of the economic and financial storm that occurred after 2008.
Naples
14 May 2010
The economics of Energy. From traditional to renewable growth drivers
The global economic crisis is reshaping the energy system in a fundamental way, as extraordinary events have occurred in a very short time span. Six issues appear the most crucial in the current context: i) the discovery of shale gas, a transformational event which was also a consequence of high natural gas prices. According to a recent account, this discovery could potentially turn the US into a permanent net exporter, with dramatic implications on the market for liquefied natural gas (LNG) which now seeks markets when global demand is contracting.
Milan
7 May 2010
Reconciling the environment and development. New ideas from the Y generation to beat weak economic growth
The theme of the Ninth Annual Conference of the Aspen Junior Fellows, held in Milan on May 7-8, was “Reconciling the environment and development. New ideas from the Y generation to beat weak economic growth”. The Conference proceedings were divided into three sessions which focused on: the ecological deficit and measures to establish cross-generational solidarity on environmental values; Italy’s energy strategies viewed from an international comparative perspective; and the environment and food security in a more crowded, hotter, and “flatter” world.
Milan
3 May 2010
The economic dimension of crime
The roundtable session opened with an acknowledgement by participants that the processes of globalization have made the fight against crime more complicated. Criminal activities have spread worldwide, expanding with the internationalization of trade and growth in migration flows. At the same time, however, organized crime has maintained a strong local flavor, due to its embeddedness in local communities and its permeation into the fabric of society.
Berlin
29 April 2010
Europe in the G-20 world
The Conference got underway with a general discussion on a fundamental question: in the new world order, is Europe’s importance destined to wane – no matter what? Leaving aside the impact of major international trends (such as demographic changes), which have reduced the relative influence of the EU in objective terms, the participants pointed to various internal factors as constituting constraints on Europe’s potential. First and foremost of these is the difficulty of reconciling the sovereignty of the various Member States with the authority of Brussels.
Milan
26 April 2010
Italy’s strong and weak points
The opening premise of this roundtable discussion was that a differential of more than ten percentage points has separated Italy from the average growth rate of the eurozone countries over the last 10 years. Whilst the growth rates of some of these countries have now been revealed as unsustainable, based as they were on an escalation in private and/or public borrowings, it was acknowledged that a comparison with the growth of more virtuous countries, such as Germany and, in particular, France, is still unfavorable to Italy.
Cernobbio
11 April 2010
Italian leaders abroad
This National Conference provided an opportunity for comparing the experiences of Italians who have managed to carve out brilliant careers and hold very high-level positions outside Italy, with a view to contributing to a better understanding of the country’s problems and areas of potential, and to identifying better long-term relationship-building and global integration prospects.
Rome
17 March 2010
Moving people: how to improve competitiveness, efficiency, and quality
The roundtable participants began their examination of the mobility issues affecting Italy today with the observation that, last year alone, Italian households spent on average more than 35 billion euro on getting from one place to another. Also in 2009, the cost of congestion in metropolitan areas was around 9 billion euro. Just in Rome, for example, fuel consumption totaled between 12-15 million euro in the same year – to which must be added the costs generated by rising pollution in cities and areas beyond city limits, as well as by road traffic accidents.
Nerola (ROME)
12 March 2010
Aspen Seminar on Values and Society, Nerola, 2010
The Aspen Seminar on Values and Society, conducted in English and held in collaboration with The Aspen Institute, followed the same format as the seminar held in Moltrasio (Como) on March 5-7, 2010. Aimed at a diverse group of participants, the event involved members of the Aspen Junior Fellows and young leaders from Italy and abroad. The debate was significantly enriched by the diversity of the participants’ personal and professional backgrounds and nationalities.
Moltrasio (COMO)
5 March 2010
Aspen Seminar on Values and Society, Moltrasio, 2010
For the fourth consecutive year and in collaboration with The Aspen Institute, the Aspen Seminar on Values and Society was held in Italy. Since 1951, this series of seminars, which is conducted in English, has been the widely-acclaimed cornerstone program of the Aspen Institute tradition in the United States. This latest event in the series was aimed at Italian and overseas participants who, through an analysis and discussion of selected readings from classical and contemporary authors, debated the major universal values and their relationship with the burning issues of today.