Trento Festival of Economics opens its doors to the ideas of the new generations

The call for ideas is simple in form and ambitious in substance: to participate, you must send a presentation text of a maximum of 1,200 characters, accompanied by a presentation video (2 minutes long), in which you describe the proposed theme and the reasons for your candidature. Registration is open until 8 April on ilsole24ore.com/vocideldomani.

The participants will be selected by the Festival's Scientific Committee, chaired by Sole 24 Ore editor Fabio Tamburini and composed of Professor Ericka Costa, associate professor of Business Economics at the Department of Economics and Management at the University of Trento, Professor Luigi Bonatti, professor of Economic Policy at the University of Trento, and economic historian Adriana Castagnoli.

The selected candidates will enter the official programme and speak live alongside economists, academics, representatives of institutions and the manufacturing world.

Not a parallel showcase, but a direct comparison. The experiment, after all, has already proved to work. Thanks to the previous call for ideas 'The Voices of Tomorrow', in fact, the young people selected in the 2025 edition had the opportunity to speak alongside leading figures from the economic and academic worlds such as economists Giulio Sapelli and Stefano Scarpetta (OECD), Bocconi University Rector Francesco Billari, European Parliament Vice-President Antonella Sberna, CGIL General Secretary Maurizio Landini, and Confindustria General Manager Maurizio Tarquini.

A concrete signal: the new generations are not just the object of analysis, but interlocutors to be listened to. The theme of 2026, with that reference to the 'new powers', suggests a fundamental question. Who really decides today? The markets, politics, technology? And what space remains for those who are trying to build a career path in a context that is changing at an unprecedented speed? The answers are not obvious, and this is precisely why the Festival is asking young people to get involved.

The invitation, as mentioned, is aimed at those between 18 and 30 years of age. Students, recent graduates, researchers, young workers. In the title chosen for this edition, the part about the 'hopes of young people' is not a rhetorical expression. It is a point of observation. Because in that word, hope, expectations and fears, opportunities and fragility coexist. There is the search for a stable job, but also the desire to participate in a broader change. There is the concern for inequality and uncertainty, but also the conviction that new models can emerge. And the Trento Festival of Economics, with its call for ideas, aims to shift the gaze. To move from telling young people to letting them tell their stories. And, perhaps, also to remember that economic transformations are measured in indicators, but also, evidently, in the daily choices of those who try to find their place within a changing world.