Calabria: young people attend business lessons at the “L’orodiCalabria” summer school

To create the right conditions for doing business in Calabria too, offering young people the opportunity to stay or return. Starting with training that is more closely aligned with the needs of businesses themselves. These are the objectives that, once again this year, are inspiring the summer school organised by the ‘L’orodiCalabria’ association, now in its third year. The event is taking place under the patronage of the European Commission. The initiative will be hosted in Pizzo Calabro, where, from 27 to 30 August, lecturers from Calabria’s three universities and Luiss, together with managers, marketing experts and entrepreneurs, will lead the sessions for the 24 students selected from the 80 who applied.

All must be under 27 years of age. As in previous years, the participants will start with a business idea, which they will develop into a project to be presented to potential investors. Then, at the end of the summer school, the four winners will be offered a training and work placement programme, modelled on the experience their predecessors had last spring at businesses in the iconic Silicon Valley.

But the four days in Pizzo will also provide an opportunity for a discussion featuring entrepreneurs who have already brought their projects to fruition, both in Calabria and beyond the region. A prime example is Biofarm, which this year won the ‘L’orodiCalabria’ award: in 2015, Biofarm was merely a family-run citrus orchard, but today Osvaldo De Falco has transformed it into a national platform with more than 100 partner farms across Italia, more than 100,000 trees adopted, over 60,000 users, and which has generated more than three million euros in direct revenue for the small-scale farmers in the network.

The evening talks will kick off on Thursday 27 August in Piazza della Repubblica at 8.30 pm with a debate featuring Raffaele Fitto, Vice-President of the European Commission, and Roberto Occhiuto, President of the Calabria Region. The topic will be the EU executive’s ‘Right to Stay’ project, aimed at young people who wish to build their future in their own regions. In recent months, the association L’orodicalabria has forged a link between the European Commission and the region’s three universities: the University of Calabria, the University of Catanzaro and the Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria will therefore be called upon to develop a joint project in collaboration with the European Union. The event will take place on Friday 28th at 9.00 pm in Piazza della Repubblica: the vice-chancellors will be in attendance, alongside Gaetano Quagliariello of the Luiss School of Management and Eugenio Gaudio, president of the Fondazione Roma Sapienza.

The following evening, Saturday 29 August, the floor will be given to those who have already successfully built their own businesses: “Seeds of Calabria: Stories of Those Who Chose to Stay” is the title of the debate scheduled for 9.00 pm at the Casa della Cultura in Pizzo, featuring Mario Vitale of Nextalia Investment Management and Giuseppe Stigliano, a lecturer in Marketing. The final evening, on Sunday 30 August at 9.00 pm at the Castle, will be dedicated to the summer school students, who will present their business projects. The jury, comprising the association’s scientific committee, will announce the winners of the 2026 edition: four scholarships will be awarded for advanced training abroad, and a further six scholarships for a business public speaking course in English.