“Digital Prospects” bridge the gap between research institutions and companies: in Turin the debut of Sant’Anna Master “Mains” and Alumni proposal

“Digital prospects: comparing start-ups to big companies – technology for innovation” a new event discussing how to bridge the gap between research institutions and industry was organised by Sant’Anna School Master’s programme in Management, Innovation and Service Engineering (MAINS) Alumni Association (AMMISA) and presented in Turin at Intesa Sanpaolo Centre for Strategy and Innovation, directed by Maurizio Montagnese, and located on the 31st floor of the skyscraper designed by Renzo Piano.

The workshop was devoted to latest innovation trends and relationship between start-ups and market: big players such as IBM, Mondadori and Banking Group Intesa Sanpaolo met with younger companies Apparound, Buzzoole and MediaMente which is supported by Polytechnic University of Turin i3P incubator. Marco Ficarra, CEO of Intesa Sanpaolo banking group start-up “Destination Italia”, established a partnership with Lastminute.com to increase and develop tourism and visitor spending in Italy.

Roberto Barontini, director of Master MAINS, underlined the importance of expanding the debate on innovation issues in a broader context, looking beyond Sant’Anna School institution, creating more strategic industry-university partnerships such as this would substantially improve innovation.

Cristina Raso, vice president of AMMISA, explains how “Digital Prospects” event is a successful repeatable format by using the same model from September 2016 and how Ammisa’s strategic goals aim to increase contacts with partners, expand network of companies and develop collaborations on innovation between private firms and public research.

The meeting in Turin is the first of many future events organized by Master Mains Ammisa with most innovative companies, such as Intesa Sanpaolo, Master Mains partner since the very first edition.