Aspen Seminars for Leaders

Venice

10 October 2021

Aspen Collective Mind Seminar: Industrial processes, Cultural processes

At first glance, culture and technology may appear mutually exclusive categories, but that has not always been the case. The Italian Classical and Renaissance traditions were a continuous intermingling of humanism and science that only the twentieth century interrupted. Reuniting them to create a “polytechnic culture” could prove fundamental to confronting major changes, such as the digital and environmental transitions, that are now having a radical effect on daily life and habits and will continue to do so in the future.

Venice

8 October 2021

Focus on Industry – Policies for recovery

The pandemic experience and consequent evolution of the global economic picture make even clearer than before the need for Italy and Europe to cultivate an attractive environment for industrial investments, primarily those strategic to national growth and security. This along with the promotion of adequate public and private level competences and a deep reform of the public administration aimed at higher quality and rapidity in decision-making.

Many factors have converged to bring radical change to the scenario:

Venice

8 October 2021

Italy 2040: a new social contract to weather the crisis

The United States-China face-off is surely going to dominate in the near future. Washington now considers the bid to involve China in a liberal order, which Beijing itself has deemed illegitimate, a lost cause. Thus, in order to prevent the confrontation from becoming a conflict – or even war – it is going to be necessary to establish some collaborative terrain on global issues in a context otherwise dominated by sharp contrasts. It is not the Congress but rather the American economic world that interacts and is heavily interdependent with the Chinese economy.

Venice

8 October 2021

Re-shaping finance: the challenges ahead

The world of finance, with its products and markets, is undergoing a deep transformation. Indeed, from the standpoint of technology, the instruments made available to operators over the past 10 years have revolutionized the sector.

Venice

8 October 2021

Economic growth and consumption: how to relaunch demand

The Covid-19 pandemic has radically modified the consumer industry over the last 18 months. If, in a first phase, we saw the acceleration of trends that were already widespread, such as e-commerce, over time we witnessed the rise of new priorities, generally viewed as secondary in the pre-pandemic phase, including, but not limited to, the protection of the environment and the physical and mental well-being of the person.

Venice

11 October 2019

The data-driven society

The early years of the Internet were marked by a liberal optimism about its decentralizing and democratizing effects. Information would be widely available and undercut the monopolies of authoritarian governments. However, the world seems to have undertaken a radically different path.

Venice

11 October 2019

National identities around the world

While certainly not exhaustive, this summary clearly reveals one of the principle reasons for the European crisis and the current tensions between the EU and national identities that has raised its ugly head thanks to sovereigntist and populist pressures. Excessive focus on the rules, especially by an increasingly weaker Commission, further distances the development of a politically empowered community system; at the same time, distancing citizens from institutions and revealing how low governments’ faith in each other is.

Venice

11 October 2019

The tourism industry: culture, environment, innovation, development

Globalization and technology have radically changed the tourism industry over the last decade. The processes of globalization have led to a dramatic increase in demand that has resulted in the two-fold effect of lower travel costs and increased connections that has made travel accessible to a growing number of people across the globe. At the same time, technology has made it possible for everyone to read and publish their reviews on where they have been in real time.

Venice

11 October 2019

Focus on Industry: Competitiveness and the new industrial triangle

The new industrial triangle (Lombardy, Veneto, Friuli) is currently one of the European continent’s most dynamic drivers behind growth in GDP, exports and value added manufacturing. A performance made possible by an intersection of business, universities and public administration anchored to major technological and research platforms. The data are gratifying but, at the same time, they raise questions. In a country characterized by such exasperated dualism, it becomes urgent to understand how the new industrial triangle can bring the rest of the country with it.

Venice

11 October 2019

Rethinking the Healthcare Ecosystem

The healthcare ecosystem is changing very rapidly and we need to drive that change – not be driven. In rethinking health, welfare and the lifecycle, innovation is key: it is a social priority, we might even call it a “Renaissance of Innovation”. We need to recall our core values and apply them to modern discoveries

Venice

12 October 2018

Focus on industry: human capital and artificial intelligence

Proceedings at this Aspen Seminar for Leaders began with an examination of the premise that the digital revolution currently underway is subverting the relationship between humankind and machine, with the change in progress being not only technological but also cultural in nature. With the advent of robots, the economy, society, and the law are also changing – all at a breakneck pace that was inconceivable in past revolutions.

Venice

12 October 2018

Media and politics in the age of algorithms

A key observation made at the start of discussions at this Aspen Seminar for Leaders session was that the main shift entailed by the digital revolution is not just technological, but especially cultural, in nature. It was noted that in past decades, a vertical relationship prevailed in the world between the management of political power and the media. Today, this relationship is very different, and has become horizontal.

Venice

12 October 2018

Transportation and logistics: smart infrastructure

(Italian Version)
Un Paese moderno e competitivo deve avere tra i suoi asset fondamentali un sistema di trasporto e logistica basato su infrastrutture efficienti, tecnologicamente avanzate e multimodali. Questo è un problema che riguarda, in misura diversa, tutto l’Occidente. Si tratta di investire risorse tanto nella manutenzione e nell’aggiornamento della rete esistente quanto nello sviluppo di nuove infrastrutture adatte alle esigenze di mobilità create dall’economia digitale.

Venice

12 October 2018

The economy of the digital transformation: a question of value

The linchpin of discussions at this Aspen Seminar for Leaders session was the notion that digital transformation has become the driving force behind a new and constantly developing economy. Adding to the billions of smartphones that have brought people across the world in touch with each other are billions of sensors that remain connected all day, every day, without interruption. This is generating an immense amount of data that requires proper infrastructure and analytics skills.

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.