It’s the solely partial quote from any “Golden Ladies” episode I can reliably bear in mind. It was additionally firmly planted in my mind as I set off on my newest worldwide innovation coaching program to Italy.
100 years after the Sophia character’s story a few “younger navy officer stationed removed from residence searching for a pleasant face and a glass of Chianti,” my colleagues Eric Gorman, Julia Jackson and I rolled as much as a roadside cafe in Catania, Sicily. We had been armed with a suitcase stuffed with Submit-it notes and electronics. We had been looking for (and discovering) a refreshing glass of Aperol Spritz and a few gifted of us with whom to work.
After a four-day program in Sicily and a 2-day program in Cesena, we walked away with some new pals, some nice prototypes, and a brand new respect for Italy. We had been impressed by its progressive tradition cast from among the biggest artists and engineers the world has recognized.
Innovation inspiration
Earlier than our innovation coaching packages started, I performed vacationer in among the nice Italian cities. I used to be lucky to deliver my mother, whose ancestors got here from Italy.
Between glasses of wine and fantastic meals, I visited two websites that characterize the head of Italian engineering and design: the Florence cathedral and the Ferrari museums in Modena and Mugello.
The dome of the duomo in Florence is an iconic landmark in fabulous metropolis but additionally an engineering marvel. The dome is the biggest masonry vault on the earth, reaching 116 meters into the Florence skyline. Brunelleschi designed it within the fifteenth century with a revolutionary double dome design that may stand with out the everyday help construction frequent in different church buildings of the time.
The consequence was good and mesmerizing. My mom and I ascended all 463 steps to the highest and had been rewarded with an excellent view of the town at sundown.
After all, Ferrari is synonymous with Italy, excessive design and precision engineering. Enzo Ferrari used his ardour for racing and excessive efficiency to create one of many world’s most iconic auto manufacturers.
For somebody like me, who loves System 1 racing and watched the period dominated by Michael Schumacher and the Scuderia, it was an exquisite expertise to see each the long-lasting highway vehicles in addition to the all-conquering F1 vehicles of the late Nineties and early 2000s designed by Ferrari engineers.
The Ferrari F126C pushed by the late Gilles Villeneuve on the Ferrari Museum in Maranello.
Ecological Eurekas
Totally impressed by the good artwork, structure and innovation from round Italy, it was time to get to work. Our program was once more sponsored by the U.S. State Division, this time by a grant from the U.S. Consulate in Naples.
First on the agenda was a 4-day hackathon in Catania, Sicily, centered on the problem query: “How would possibly we use know-how to assist agricultural producers maximize their crop output whereas minimizing environmental affect?”
On the Isola co-working area, based mostly on the lovely Palazzo Biscari, we had the perfect venue for our 20 contributors to deal with this problem. After two days of design dash coaching and a day and a half of intensive prototyping—together with working with Particle IoT growth boards—we had been surrounded by nice concepts and prototypes. The concepts included clever water assortment, inventive leasing of agricultural land, and good compost assortment.
Gaia Ferrara and Danilo Musumeci constructing a prototype of a Particle Argon based mostly soil high quality sensor.
Then it was off to our second program, a 2-day innovation coaching in Cesena—a sleepy metropolis of about 100,000 folks only a brief practice trip south from Bologna.
We held the coaching on the incubator, CesenaLab. On condition that Italy is soccer mad, we determined to provide our 35 contributors this problem: “How would possibly we improve the expertise of going to a soccer match sustainably?”
After all, being good trainers, Eric, Julia and I needed to do our analysis. We attended the Bologna FC-vs.-Fiorentina (Florence) match the weekend earlier than to get immersed within the ardour of soccer tradition in Italy.
Left The ambiance on the Bologna FC match. Heart and Proper. Groups at Cesenalab utilizing Design Dash methodology to make the soccer expertise higher and extra sustainable.
Curiously, about half of the trainees had been soccer followers and half of them weren’t, which made the options they got here up with very numerous.
Concepts ranged from distinctive methods to make the native Cesena FC workforce stadium a group area to how one can make the fan expertise higher for each residence and visiting supporters. Hopefully, the American homeowners of Cesena FC will take discover.
Creativity endures
Italy was a bucket listing expertise for me. It was superb to see the good artwork and structure of the land of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, and even higher to share it with my mother.
My mother and I earlier than the 463 steps to the highest of the dome.
I used to be equally impressed by the good folks of Catania and Cesena that we labored with, and their progressive spirit and keenness to make Italy and the world a greater place.
