The network of innovators is born in Palermo
The project. The initiative of Palermo City Councillor Fabrizio Ferrandelli, who involved private individuals in the construction of a single entity in the city
by Nino Amadore
3' min read
3' min read
The construction site was opened just before the summer and is, in its own way, a turning point. The objective is to arrive at a single entity for the construction of a single innovation pole in Palermo. A job that is neither simple nor obvious in the Sicilian capital, where much is moving but so far in a fragmented manner. The person in charge of this project, with the ambition of participating in valuable tenders, is the councillor Fabrizio Ferrandelli, who is in charge of innovation and its structure.
'We are happy to have networked all the stakeholders who are involved in innovation in our city and with whom the municipal administration had been in contact,' says Ferrandelli. 'We have the extraordinary opportunity to set up the Polo Unico dell'Innovazione at the Cantieri Culturali della Zisa's Spazio Tre Navate. What is most important, however, is to create an ecosystem of relationships to be networked, so that each of the participants can play a leading role in writing innovation policies for the city. It is a path in progress because it is an open path, our motto is this: the best part of this path we have yet to meet.
The idea is more and more to give strength to the pole destined to be created at the Cantieri Culturali alla Zisa, a symbolic place of industrial archaeology in the heart of the city that has many connections with the time of the Palermo felix of the Florios for having been the production base of the Ducrot furniture makers who built furniture for the Florios and others based on the designs of architects Giovan Battista and Ernesto Basile.
At least two operational meetings convened by the councillor were attended by representatives of companies interested in the project. In particular, the Mechatronics Production District led by Antonello Mineo as well as Sispi, the company wholly owned by the Municipality of Palermo that deals with the city's IT system: both have already broken ground in the field of innovation under the Bravo Innovation Hub acceleration programme in partnership with Invitalia and the Municipality of Palermo.
The meetings were also attended by Biagio Semilia, CEO of Digitrend, the company that is working on the organisation of the second edition of the Sicilian Innovation Award (to be held on 21 November) and that has launched the Innovation Island platform, which is already an initial regional core community dedicated to start-ups and innovation: 'The City's project,' explained Semilia, 'is in line with our objectives and our philosophy: to create and grow a network of innovators, of start-ups. To create and grow an innovative system of enterprises with an eye on the action of the Sicilian Region in its strategy for innovation'. There was, among others, Monica Guizzardi representing the Mediterranean Start Up Summit that will be held on 11 October and will put start-ups from over 20 Mediterranean countries in competition. Also present was Alessandro Balsamo for Develhope Srl, the company that launched the Amazon Supply Chain & Technology Incubator last year in collaboration with the US giant.
