Geopolitics and youth protagonists at the Trento Festival

Five days to reflect on the market, new powers and the hopes of young people. The engines are warming up for the 21st edition of the Trento Festival of Economics, scheduled from 20 to 24 May and dedicated precisely to the theme "From the market to new powers. The hopes of young people'.

Over 700 speakers: 4 Nobel Prize winners, 16 Ministers, 111 speakers from the academic world, 35 national and international economists, 87 representatives of national and European institutions, and over 90 managers and entrepreneurs. The event, in the formula devised in 2022 by the Il Sole 24 ORE Group together with Trentino Marketing on behalf of the Autonomous Province of Trento and with the contribution of the Municipality of Trento and the University of Trento, has seen the "squirrel population" grow in an extraordinary way, reaching over 140,000 attendees in four years.

And it was precisely the great success of the public and the rich programme of meetings on the programme that convinced the organisers to introduce an important new feature in 2026: to increase the number of days of the event to five, bringing together top-level representatives of the economic, academic, political and business community at national and international level.

The five days in Trento will thus become fundamental for anyone who wants to understand where the world and the economy are going today, as captured by the theme of the 2026 edition that will be the leitmotif of the entire Festival: 'From the market to the new powers. The hopes of young people'. A highly topical theme, chosen by the event's Advisory Board, chaired by the Editor-in-Chief of Il Sole 24 Ore and Chairman of the Scientific Committee Fabio Tamburini and comprising Elena Beccalli, Marco Fortis, Paolo Magri, Emma Marcegaglia, Giulio Sapelli and Giulio Tremonti. The title chosen compares, on the one hand, the scenarios of geopolitics that have seen the laws of the market and globalisation fading as a point of reference and giving way to new centres of power such as Big Tech, which concentrate wealth and control the keys to artificial intelligence, and the autarchies of Russia and China, and, on the other, the hopes of young people in the face of fears and uncertainties.

In terms of geopolitics, it emerges that Europe is in a particularly vulnerable position, caught between Trump's pressure, the economic slowdown, a lack of leadership and an increasingly acute demographic crisis. The answer to these challenges lies in one priority: giving young people back their hope in the future, transforming Italia and Europe into attractive places for new generations.