The Bolognese companies are increasingly networking and are thus able to better face the crisis. For this reason, for the third consecutive year, Unindustria and Legacoop are promoting "Farete" for 8 and 9 September, a two-day event of meetings and debates, which is registering growing success and which, due to the number of participants, this year arrives for the first time in the spaces of the Fair. There are 600 exhibitors, including companies and coops, i.e. 50% more than in 2013, with 32 important interlocutors, international buyers interested in dealing not only with a single company, but with several companies, with a territory that, at least in this sense, it knows how to compete compactly.
“Manufacturing is the fulcrum of every rebirth – says the president of Unindustria Bologna Alberto Vacchi – and we must all work in this direction. There is a growing demand for initiatives like this, so much so that today we receive support not only from Bologna, but from all of Emilia-Romagna”. Farete serves companies to get to know each other, but also to do business. “The buyers who have joined – adds Vacchi – all represent large foreign companies. There's a change of pace in their way of coming here. In 2012 we had to pay their travel expenses, today they are shouldering the costs because they have understood the value of the project and the opportunity it contains”.
For now, the initiative is unique on the national scene and was born, not by chance, in a particularly economically strong area. “We are coping with the crisis better than others – says Vacchi, who is also the managing director of Ima, one of the jewels of the packaging valley – because we are big exporters. Bologna is feeling the pinch, but it is certainly holding up the situation well and the bond between exports and a hope of recovery of the domestic market makes us look to the future with less pessimism. The companies that suffer most from this long negative situation are those least equipped for foreign markets, here is the value of networking. These two days are used by companies to close deals, but also to define strategies and programs. It is a model that some foreign newspapers are realizing, given that two Chinese newspapers and the Financial Times have requested accreditation”.
Corporations and cooperatives in Emilia have long ceased to feel antagonistic. “In our DNA – says Gianpiero Calzolari, president of Legacoop Bologna – there is solidarity between cooperatives, ours is already a widespread network of businesses. But we don't feel opposed to spas. We differ from them on the ownership front, but when it comes to tackling the market we have the same issues. Today we know that competitiveness is played out between territories, so we prefer to share resources and skills and focus on excellence together, also with a view to developing new businesses. Next year, that of the Expo, we will think about developing the city of food project and all the possible opportunities that this could create”.
In the meantime, Farete brings 600 companies, 800 exhibitors on 20 thousand square meters, 42 workshops, 200 meetings with buyers from China, Russia, South Africa, Kenya, Indonesia, Nigeria, Singapore, Denmark, Poland, Sweden and Turkey to give substance to ideas.
The work program will be opened on Monday morning by the General Assembly of Unindustria Bologna, on the theme "Italy in its best light", an event which will also be attended by the president of Confindustria Giorgio Squinzi. In the early afternoon, an appointment with innovative Start Ups promoted by AlmaCube (university) with the eight finalists of a regional competition. At 16 pm Farete Talk, a meeting with five guests to discover new ideas from around the world. Meeting with schools on Tuesday morning: “It's a paradox – observes Vacchi – that while youth unemployment is on the rise, companies are still struggling to find the necessary technical skills. In recent years we have managed to bring 15 young people to businesses, we must continue to be close to them so that they understand and appreciate the technical course of study". The meeting is entitled "Industriamoci" and on the occasion the winning phrase of the competition "the value of technical and business culture - create your own slogan" will be awarded, chosen from among those proposed by seven schools in the competition.
In the early afternoon, the theme of corporate social responsibility will be discussed with the Minister of Economic Development Federica Guidi and the President of the Foundation for Collaboration between Peoples, Romano Prodi.
The young entrepreneurs of Unindustria close the two days by reflecting on the generational transition: “Masters or custodians. A change of pace”, an appointment in which the head of the economy of the Democratic Party Filippo Taddei will also participate.
