Startup Arena

Durante la prossima edizione del WMF, si svolgerà in esclusiva il primo Campionato Europeo di Dronesoccer, l'innovativo esport con droni: oltre ad assistere alla competizione, potrai provare in prima persona l'emozione di questo innovativo eSport.

Dal Busker al BSKIN, dalla pallamano alla pallavolo fino al ballo Country, passando per simulatori di volo e guida al WMF ti aspettano aree interattive per provare sport tradizionali e attività immersive. In collaborazione con Vero Volley, FIGH, EISI, FIPAV, e le associazioni G.R.D - genitori ragazzi down, In.Da.Co., Western Academy e Aero Club pavullo, potrai cimentarti in sfide reali o virtuali, tra movimento, divertimento e tecnologia.

From June 24th to 26th, Humans.tech will offer a series of demos focused on Artificial Intelligence and software engineering.
Through these presentations and technical insights hosted by the team's experts, real-world case studies, working methodologies and architectures for AI agent control will be illustrated, alternating the talks with networking opportunities during breakfasts and coffee breaks.
Find out more at the Humans.tech stand.

TSSIxellence is the Academy training tomorrow's professionals in Digital Marketing, Business Administration and Commercial Services. At WMF 2026, the institute takes the stage with practical insights and real-world experiences on the future of business. A strategic meeting point for companies looking for skilled talent and young professionals ready to launch their careers through real connections and future-proof skills.

Durante i tre giorni del WMF potrai vivere l’esperienza unica di guidare una Tesla grazie alla Test Drive Area dedicata. Un’occasione esclusiva per testare in prima persona le prestazioni e la tecnologia dei veicoli elettrici che stanno rivoluzionando il futuro della mobilità sostenibile. Prenota il tuo slot e preparati a salire a bordo!

Area esperienziale di Motor1 sulla mobilità elettrica, con talk live e test drive per approfondire la transizione energetica attraverso il confronto con giornalisti e prove su strada dei veicoli.

Arianna is the corporate AI assistant designed by Ricca IT, an Italian company specializing in System Integration, Cloud Services, Cybersecurity, and Artificial Intelligence. Using cloud solutions increases concerns about privacy, security, and regulatory compliance. Arianna offers a concrete alternative: all the power of Artificial Intelligence available on the market, but completely safe within the corporate infrastructure. Arianna allows total control over sensitive data, compliance with data protection regulations and personalization on specific business needs.

From corporate challenges in international networks to market-entry strategies for research: an hour of practical guidance to discover University programs, hear from fellow students, and learn how to acquire key skills for your future.

Presentation of the official Italian translation of “The Surprising Power of Liberating Structures” by Lipmanowicz & McCandless, the creators of the world’s most widely used group-work exercises. But you won’t just hear about them — you’ll experience them firsthand and discover how 33 simple activities, usable by anyone without special training, can radically transform the way a group works, makes decisions, and collaborates. Get ready to be surprised. PS: spectators are not allowed.

Discover how Bitcoin functions as the sole free and uncensorable digital currency, and learn how to secure and store it in a simple and reliable manner.

Selling in the AI Era is the speech where I share the sales methodologies that proved most effective in managing over 500 salespeople across dozens of different industries. I will discuss processes, control, and performance, and how to use artificial intelligence to analyze negotiations, train the team, and maximize commercial results in a measurable and scalable way.

Offering your own SiteBuilder to clients is no longer a privilege reserved for the big players. SiteBuilderBuilder is the whitelabel platform that allows you to hit the market with a fully branded, flexible, and customizable website creation tool—without any internal development. In this talk, we’ll explore how it works, what you can offer your clients, and why more and more operators are choosing to build and market a digital product under their own name.

During a humanitarian emergency, in contexts marked by conflict, hunger, and violence, words become an integral part of medical action. Denouncing injustice, bearing witness to survivors' stories, and celebrating their resilience is a form of care, especially in the many places far from the media spotlight. This is what the field staff of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) learn—a humanitarian organization that, for over 50 years, has combined medical action with the act of bearing witness. When silence is more terrifying than bombs or epidemics, words can become both healing and defense.

Le città sono oggi al centro di una competizione crescente per attrarre talenti, imprese e nuove opportunità di sviluppo. In questo scenario, l’innovazione urbana si intreccia con qualità della vita, servizi, politiche giovanili e modelli di sviluppo economico, ridefinendo il ruolo delle amministrazioni locali. Dalla valorizzazione degli ecosistemi imprenditoriali all’economia della notte, fino al marketing territoriale e alla trasformazione dei servizi, il panel mette a confronto esperienze e strategie per comprendere come le città stanno costruendo la propria attrattività nel contesto contemporaneo.Modera: Antonello Barone

Artificial intelligence in tourism is no longer a future prospect; it is an immediate strategic choice. However, for many businesses—particularly SMEs—it remains an ambiguous territory, caught between enthusiasm and uncertainty.
This workshop is designed to overcome that ambivalence and guide participants through a journey that:clarifies what AI truly means for the tourism industry today;distinguishes perceived risks from tangible opportunities;identifies practical and sustainable first steps for adoption.The focus therefore shifts from the question of whether to adopt AI to how to adopt it effectively and responsibly.

n the automotive market, the challenge is clear: scaling volumes while keeping quality high. Through a real-world case study using PMax for Vehicle Ads, we will explore how an innovative test-and-learn approach can completely transform performance in a highly sensitive market. We will cover: technical setups, data-driven approaches, best practices, and concrete results.

After the initial “wow” effect of demos, AI agents face their toughest challenge: production.Autonomy, reasoning, and tool calling promise powerful applications, but without proper control they can lead to high costs, latency, contextual noise, and unpredictable outcomes.This talk explores what happens when an agent moves from prototype to a real operational system.The journey starts from a concrete use case, highlighting the main bottlenecks: context overload, tool bloat, payload management, and web search.It also examines strategies to reduce context without sacrificing quality, guide tool usage effectively, and introduce budgeting logic.The focus is on designing lighter, more targeted, and more sustainable functions.The goal is not to limit the agent’s intelligence, but to provide it with a more controllable architecture.The session will also cover monitoring, automated quality controls, and future scenarios ranging from SLM + LLM systems to code execution.Because a sustainable AI agent is not improvised — it is built through deliberate design choices.

Pegasus è uno degli spyware più sofisticati al mondo e spesso chi viene spiato non se ne accorge. Un viaggio dentro il lato invisibile dello spionaggio digitale: spyware zero-click, tracce che svaniscono e tecniche forensi per rilevare ciò che a occhio nudo non si vede. Un talk per capire come proteggere persone, dati e organizzazioni.

In regulated sectors such as aerospace, automotive, and food, quality management demands complex processes, data analysis, and compliant documentation. LIV4 introduces a multi-agent platform based on generative AI that enables natural language data querying, report generation, and the execution of automated operational actions across ERP systems and Excel. Deployable within a few weeks, it reduces operational lead times by up to 70-80%, enhancing efficiency and the control of quality processes.

People Spa manages training, safety, and HR consultancy for businesses. Following two unsuccessful experiences with other software, the company selected Odoo to centralize CRM, sales, projects, invoicing, and accounting within a single platform. A case study on guiding skeptical clients toward digital transformation by addressing their actual needs and earning their trust one step at a time.

Companies have experimented heavily with AI, often in a fragmented way, and rightly so. Now it’s time to clean up the drafts and scale things properly. To do this, clear principles are essential to avoid building an internal Black Mirror dystopia. A talk on dev culture, organizations, and collective intelligence.

A speech to discover what brand jingles are, their purpose, and why they are significant. Featuring practical examples to construct one's own.

The objective of this talk is to provide critical tools for understanding how new media influence the narrative of the body, intimacy, and sexual health. Through a scientific and educational approach, the speech assists in recognizing the distinction between information, entertainment, and misinformation, promoting responsible communication capable of dismantling taboos without trivializing issues that have a tangible impact on individual and collective health. It contributes to the construction of a more conscious digital culture, wherein sexual health, education, and scientific information become instruments of individual empowerment and social impact.

Digital transformation represents a strategic lever for improving the access, quality, efficiency, and sustainability of the National Health Service (SSN). However, the adoption of digital technologies and AI-based solutions does not automatically translate into useful innovation: it requires solid evidence, public governance, value assessment, protection of equity, and integration into clinical-organizational processes. This presentation analyzes the opportunities and challenges of digitalizing Italian healthcare, highlighting the necessary conditions for technology to truly contribute to improving health outcomes, reducing inequalities, and strengthening a universal, fair, and sustainable healthcare system.

Mission-driven organizations rarely fail for a lack of vision. They fail for a lack of structure in growth. After more than 15 years between international corporates and non-profits, building teams that have generated millions of euros for environmental and social projects, I have learned that impact is not scaled with enthusiasm, but with architecture: clear objectives, defined roles, sales and fundraising systems, strategic partnerships, and results-oriented leadership. In this session, I will share the practical framework I use to transform mission into sustainable growth, without compromising identity and credibility. We will talk about revenue engines, corporate partnerships, team organization, and the main mistakes that block impact-driven entities when they try to grow. This is not a motivational talk. It is an operational method for those who truly want to scale.

AI writes, rewrites, and synthesizes. It renders everything more accessible yet more fragile, as the loss of attention is ever-present: for this reason, it is essential to perceive web editing as a daily and conscious act of care in writing, source verification, and listening to the readership. Every action is composed of time, doubts, and concessions. And empathy? It reveals itself as a professional competence, enabling the recognition of the actual needs underlying a query and the expectations behind a click.

The talk explores complexity as a constitutive dimension of the social and the living, transcending the myths of total control and rationality. In the age of AI, it is necessary to rethink systems of thought and epistemologies, healing the rift between the human and the technological. The future belongs to "hybrid figures" and managers of complexity: professionals capable of inhabiting boundaries and integrating transversal knowledge to govern the unpredictable and generate true innovation.

Information exists within your data that GA4 alone is not disclosing. Discover how Artificial Intelligence is rewriting the rules of CRO, enabling the extraction of profound insights that were previously technically unattainable. We shall analyze real-world case studies where the synthesis of data and algorithms has generated a quantum leap in performance, demonstrating how to revolutionize the strategic approach to your clients' projects.

How we integrated artificial intelligence into the design process of the complex ecosystem of AISM, the Italian Multiple Sclerosis Association: from defining the discovery mix to synthesizing insights, from the information architecture to content models, all the way to generating prototype content. Through a real case study, we will walk through the workflow, the tools, and the moments where AI added value—as well as those where human judgment remains essential. For now.

In this session, we’ll explore how to transform AI into a high-speed content factory. Moving beyond theory, we’ll dive into practical techniques to generate a full month of advertising in just a few hours. Using tools like Gemini and Claude, you'll learn to create SEO copy, ad creative, images, and automated reports. Discover how to scale your production while maintaining top quality, using optimized strategies you can implement immediately to accelerate your business growth.

Participants will learn to navigate the convergence between executive communication and influencer logic, understanding its opportunities and reputational risks. Through real cases and strategic frameworks, they will gain the foundational principles to build a personal digital communication strategy that drives relevance and engagement while preserving institutional credibility.

In an age where everyone communicates, but few do so strategically, the risk is that the digital universe turns into pure noise. To avoid falling into hyperconnection and presentism on one side, and to navigate artificial intelligence and automation on the other, the value of presence becomes central again: not just as online visibility, but as the ability to build authentic relationships, guide communication consciously, and give it real meaning.A conversation between social media strategy and the culture of presence, exploring how vision, content, data, and authenticity can transform social media from simple tools of exposure into real drivers of growth, positioning, and impact.

Publishing companies are evolving into integrated media company models, where content, technology, data, and distribution coexist within a single system. At the same time, an increasing number of businesses and institutions are adopting editorial logic to strengthen their communication and relationship with the audience. In this scenario, the boundary between publishing, corporate communication, and digital platforms is becoming increasingly blurred.

Marketing is no longer just the face of a brand; it’s its voice. Discover how Salesforce Agentforce Marketing and Data 360 (the #1 CDP) transform static campaigns into dynamic, two-way dialogues. Through real stories and live demos, we'll explore three pillars of a unified agentic architecture: campaigns that spark conversation, real-time adaptive experiences, and impact-driving insights. Stop talking at your customers and start talking with them.

Sport is undergoing a profound transformation driven by technological innovation. Following an introduction by Dr. Vaccaro, Martina Santandrea will moderate a discussion with four innovative sport tech startups—Futura Tech Company, Alteres, Viknlab, and Tepy—which will present their solutions and visions for the future of sport, spanning technology, performance, engagement, and new business models.

Exploring the unique strengths of India's innovators, from its massive talent pool and digital public infrastructure (like Aadhaar and UPI) to the challenge of scaling social impact and bridging the rural-urban technology gap. Discussing how Indian startups are defining 'what matters' for a rapidly evolving, globally significant market.

Un evento dedicato al confronto sullo sviluppo di servizi innovativi e ricerca tecnologica ICT, powered by Clust-er Innovate.

Un evento dedicato all'esplorazione delle innovazioni in ambito territoriale, turistico e agritech powered by Clust-er BUILD, Clust-er Tourism e Clust-er Agrifood.

The presentation of an innovative solution for home cultivation that integrates an advanced environmental control and growth system, optimizing lighting and parameters. "Orto Lunare" provides fresh food and cleanses the air, contributing to sustainability.

Race4Future animerà il WMF con un ricco programma dedicato alla mobilità sostenibile e alle tecnologie del futuro. Per tre giorni, il Mall ospiterà l’Automotive Show, un’area esperienziale con veicoli elettrici, innovazioni green e soluzioni smart.

AELION presents THE SPACE IN BETWEEN, a Digital Art experience that comes to life through audience interaction. Via the AI Mirror, Digital Live Painting, AI Photo Art and Holograms installations, visitors modify the artworks in real time, completing the technology with their presence.
The project is created in collaboration with Service2Service, IC Videopro, Asit, Radio Sata, and Ferrari Computer.

Con il simulatore potrai vivere esperienze immersive uniche e coinvolgenti grazie alla totale libertà di movimento a 360° che garantisce livelli di coerenza e fluidità tali da scongiurare la motion sickness.

An opportunity for Invitalia to meet with businesses to present startup support tools, active calls for proposals, and new development and innovation opportunities. The event is private and by invitation only. Please consult and register on the Side Events website.

Esplora l'Universo nel planetario itinerante con proiezioni full dome, un sistema video a 360 gradi che avvolge completamente lo spettatore. Vivi l'emozione unica di toccare un meteorite lunare e scopri reperti leggendari: un frammento di cometa e il celebre Libyan desert glass. Indossa poi i visori VR per salire a bordo della Stazione Spaziale Internazionale e torna sulla Terra per ammirare da vicino lo straordinario mimetismo degli insetti foglia!

What would a film about the production chain look like in the era of AI adoption and generative AI? Which aspects would be highlighted? What details should the viewer’s gaze focus on?An analysis of the international, Italian, and local landscape, with the aim of highlighting data and perspectives useful for understanding the key drivers of change and the level of strategic adoption of AI and GenAI in advanced mechanical engineering.

Strategies for a Successful Pitch

With Giovanni Sanicola, Head of Education at Chora & Will Media: podcasts, the creator economy, video, AI and communities are transforming the media market. Starting from industry data and trends, this workshop explores emerging professions, the most in-demand skills and career opportunities in the sector.An interactive session to understand how to navigate the new media landscape and identify the career path that best aligns with your interests and talents.

What if you could access over 400 API services and millions of data points on companies worldwide with the same simplicity as sending a voice message? The CTO of Openapi shows how the Telegram ecosystem can become a conversational interface for hundreds of digital services, transforming a chat into a true control center for accessing data, performing checks, and developing automations. A practical talk on how the union between API marketplaces and instant messaging can redefine access to digital services.

Until recently, insurance was a complex product sold in agencies. Today it is a seamless, invisible experience embedded in the services we use every day. From booking a trip to purchasing a smartphone, Insurtech is transforming digital platforms into the true insurance distributors of the future. Simone Ranucci Brandimarte (President of Italian Insurtech Association) will explore the boom of Embedded Insurance: how brands, e-commerce players, and tech companies can leverage this revolution to create new revenue streams, reduce cart abandonment rates, and deliver hyper-personalized customer experiences.

We live alongside machines that write, suggest, diagnose, and make decisions with us. But the real question is not how intelligent these systems are: it is what we become when we learn to use them at their best. Focusing on how to design better hybrid intelligence encourages us to move beyond both enthusiasm and fear, and allows us to understand how to build more lucid and responsible collaborative relationships between people and the technologies they use to work, stay informed, and create value.

As a child, I was told that my dreams were impossible. For years, I believed I was flawed, until I chose to transform every limitation into uniqueness. The most arduous journey was learning to love myself. Today, I am IroNadia: a bodybuilding champion and Knight of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. My story demonstrates that diversity is not a hindrance, but an immense strength. True limits exist only within the ideas of others; overcoming them is possible, for ourselves and for those seeking the courage to rise again.

Is an event just a waste of budget, or can it transform into a strategic communication touchpoint? Discover how to go beyond the brief "WOW effect" and rethink events as full-fledged communication campaigns that deliver concrete, measurable, and valuable results. If you are convinced that a tacky giveaway and a cousin working as a DJ aren't enough to generate ROI, this speech is definitely for you!

Filling out documents by hand is one of those tasks that seem minor… until they become a bottleneck. In this session, we will examine how InPdf allows for the transformation of forms and data into complete, coherent, and branded PDFs, ready to be shared in seconds. A practical approach to reducing errors, accelerating workflows, and making every document more "professional" without adding complexity to the team: from internal processes to documents for clients and collaborators.

How is an advertising investment turned into a measurable sales outcome? Every year, companies invest in advertising, yet they often fail to connect generated leads to actual business results. The issue is not a lack of data, but a lack of connection between marketing and sales teams. To address this challenge, YF Studio and Jenia designed an ecosystem of AI agents capable of collecting, qualifying, and managing leads through to conversion, providing full visibility over the sales journey and finally enabling a measurable ROI.

L’evoluzione dell’intelligenza artificiale e delle piattaforme digitali sta ridefinendo in modo profondo i processi democratici, incidendo sulla produzione e distribuzione dell’informazione, sulla formazione del consenso e sugli equilibri tra cittadini, istituzioni e attori privati. In un contesto in cui dati, algoritmi e modelli predittivi influenzano sempre più il dibattito pubblico, emergono nuove sfide legate alla trasparenza, alla qualità dell’informazione e alla tutela dei diritti fondamentali. Il panel mette a confronto prospettive accademiche, istituzionali e operative per analizzare i rischi e le opportunità di questa trasformazione e riflettere sul futuro della democrazia nell’era digitale.Modera: Antonello Barone

A talk designed to help navigate between enthusiasm and concerns surrounding artificial intelligence, starting from the questions that most often generate anxiety and confusion. Sonia Montegiove offers practical tools to understand how AI works, assess its risks and opportunities, and support younger generations in using it. Through the metaphor of an “over-the-counter medicine,” the audience will be guided through benefits, directions for use, and possible side effects, in order to build a more informed and balanced relationship with these technologies.

An exploration of the tech and market synergies between Canada and Brazil. This panel will compare the venture capital landscapes, talent pools, and regulatory environments, focusing on opportunities for cross-continental scaling and how these two major economies are defining 'what matters' for the Americas.

PerfeTTO Network, the Italian network dedicated to technology transfer (TTO) in Life Sciences, which brings together 54 centers of excellence including IRCCS (Scientific Institutes for Research, Hospitalization and Healthcare), Universities, Foundations and Italian Hospital Trusts, presents its project for an AI-first platform for technology transfer in Life Sciences. Developed by the Maggioli Group, the platform was created to facilitate collaborations and investments in the healthcare sector. Thanks to its AI-first architecture equipped with a conversational agent, it actively connects researchers, startups, companies and investors, guiding the user through the entire technology transfer process—from patent analysis and technological maturity assessment to matching with potential partners.

Is it 2025 or 1885? For apps, we are SOLID architects, but infrastructure is still in the Old West, caught between fragile YAML and procedural scripts. Let's get into the DeLorean: let's bring the wisdom of the "Past" into the "Present" of infrastructure through Platform Engineering! We will stop "configuring" and start designing Infrastructure as true Software. You don't need a 1.21-gigawatt lightning bolt to beat technical debt: all it takes is the same care you dedicate to your applications.

In a world where AI is everywhere, the real challenge is not adoption—it’s turning it into a measurable competitive advantage. This session explores how leading organizations are leveraging AI to move beyond experimentation and drive real business transformation. Discover the Frontier Transformation approach, where AI evolves from a technology capability to a strategic engine for innovation, productivity, and sustainable growth.

Globally, an increasing number of teenagers are using AI chatbots to seek mental health support. The risk, however, is that these tools may be perceived as perfect, real-time "substitutes" for professionals. This raises significant concerns, especially when chatbots provide advice that lacks medical-scientific foundations or is potentially harmful, without possessing a genuine understanding of the teenager's life experiences or fragile state.

By now, most brands are using AI in some capacity. But few understand how and why these systems make decisions - which means they’re not actually leveraging AI. Joya Scarlata and Mara Dettmann, hosts of The Marketer’s Guide to the AI Galaxy, unpack the gap between AI adoption and real AI literacy in a session which challenges how brand leaders think about measuring AI success and what “capability” really means in the age of agentic systems. They ultimately introduce a more grounded framework for working with AI - because when everyone has access to the same tools, the real competitive edge comes from understanding what those tools are actually doing, and knowing how to steer them.

From climate shocks and conflict to displacement and economic crises, today’s humanitarian emergencies are evolving faster than ever. This session explores how satellite data and geospatial analytics can detect emerging risks in near real time and support faster, smarter decisions that save lives. Drawing on experience from UNICEF, ESA, and Smart Connect, it highlights how data-driven insights are transforming early warning, crisis analysis, and humanitarian response before conditions worsen.

Our client, a leader in the Italian healthcare sector, manages a highly complex funnel: users often enter through campaigns targeting specific facilities or specializations but complete their conversion elsewhere. To accurately track this journey, we implemented custom variables via Google Tag Manager (GTM), enabling us to monitor the facility, specialization, and physician throughout the entire funnel.

Financial reports reflect the past. Behavioral data predicts the future; however, without Identity Resolution, you are training your models on corpses.

Discovery commerce represents the revolutionary present of online commerce. Companies no longer need to chase consumers, but instead integrate natively into their digital spaces. Brands can become an integral part of consumers’ everyday conversations, amplifying their impact and building authentic, lasting relationships that ultimately translate into sales.

The Priority Prism choosing what to do, and what not to do. In recent years, marketing complexity has exploded: new touchpoints, new formats, new platforms, and new AI-driven tools. The promise is efficiency; the result is often fragmentation. Many content strategies start with a clear direction but, over time, become cluttered with disconnected activities—chasing trends, adding channels, and experimenting with tools. Output increases, but impact doesn't. This is precisely when 'enshittification' begins. In this session, I will present the Priority Prism, a decision-making framework designed for CMOs and marketing managers to restore order to complexity. The model is based on a simple principle: every piece of content must be filtered through a specific primary brand goal—whether it's Sales, Awareness, Positioning, or Talent Attraction. Every goal requires coherent actions and, crucially, specific sacrifices. Through real-world cases and practical applications, we will see how to use the Prism to: Select high-impact initiatives.Eliminate 'decorative' activities. Avoid AI-enabled compulsive production. Concentrate budget and teams on a few strategic actions. The thesis is clear: in today's landscape, the ultimate competitive advantage isn't doing everything—it's choosing what NOT to do. This speech is for those who feel the pressure to be everywhere but want to return to a strategy that is legible, coherent, and measurable. Less noise. More direction. Real impact.

Startups often underestimate how design impacts growth metrics. Drawing from 150+ product launches with YC and Stanford StartX alumni, Sergey Krasotin shares actionable UX/UI strategies that directly cut customer acquisition costs and increase lifetime value. Expect real case studies, tested frameworks, and practical methods you can apply tomorrow.

Beatrice will talk about her role as a non-judgmental content creator, sharing her experience and her empathetic approach to social media. The talk will also be enriched by her singing and performance talents.

AI applied to voice opens new possibilities for the non-invasive monitoring of patient health. Through the automated analysis of vocal signals, it is possible to achieve early detection of alterations related to respiratory, neurological, or vocal disorders. This approach offers innovative diagnostic and monitoring solutions that can reach large populations and be seamlessly integrated into clinical and home-care pathways.

In niche markets, where audiences are highly aware and relevance is the only true driver of conversion, mass marketing becomes a risk. The real challenge is using automation to scale a relationship that must feel individual and tailored. In this talk, we will explore how to design complex workflows to manage non-linear customer journeys, typical of those seeking specific, high-quality products.

In the era of autonomous AI agents, relying solely on large language models (LLMs) can become inefficient. LLMs require costly infrastructure, consume significant amounts of energy, and are not well suited for edge devices. In addition, sending sensitive data to the cloud introduces latency, bandwidth costs, and privacy risks. This talk introduces small language models (SLMs): models with millions—rather than billions—of parameters, designed for specialized tasks. These models consume less energy, provide faster inference, and can run directly on edge or embedded devices. Thanks to techniques such as quantization, pruning, and efficient fine-tuning, SLMs make it possible to move intelligence from the cloud to the edge, reducing latency while protecting local data. I will present use cases where SLMs are integrated into distributed architectures, from collaborative robots to IoT devices and federated systems designed for privacy preservation. I will also compare costs and performance with LLM-based approaches, illustrate optimization techniques, and introduce a method for migrating agents from general-purpose LLMs to specialized SLMs, following insights from recent NVIDIA studies. The goal of this talk is to demonstrate that micro language models are not only powerful enough for most agentic AI functions, but also represent a more sustainable and cost-effective alternative to general-purpose models, enabling a more democratic and widely accessible AI ecosystem.

Le competenze digitali rappresentano oggi una condizione essenziale per partecipare pienamente alla vita sociale, accedere ai servizi, entrare o rimanere nel mercato del lavoro e comprendere l’impatto delle nuove tecnologie. La diffusione dell’Intelligenza Artificiale rende questa sfida ancora più urgente: non si tratta solo di formare specialisti, ma di accompagnare cittadini, lavoratori, studenti e organizzazioni nello sviluppo di strumenti critici, culturali e professionali adeguati al cambiamento. Il panel approfondisce il tema dell’accesso e dell’inclusione digitale, analizzando il ruolo delle istituzioni, delle fondazioni, della formazione e delle politiche pubbliche nel contrastare il digital divide e nel promuovere nuove opportunità di crescita. Al centro del confronto: alfabetizzazione digitale, competenze AI, formazione continua, nuove professionalità e modelli di collaborazione tra pubblico, privato e società civile.

Art has always played a role in society: it has reflected change, exposed abuses, and given a voice to those who had none. Today, choosing to take a stand is no longer optional—for many artists, it has become an integral part of their identity and creative vision.We see this in the United States, where Bruce Springsteen has become a voice of popular resistance against the policies of Trump and ICE. We see it in Italy, with Elisa at the forefront of climate action and Ghali bringing the Palestinian cause to stages that too often overlook it in mainstream discourse.The Patagarri fit into this tradition with a clear awareness: today, silence is already a choice.But what does it really mean to “politicize art”? Does it mean taking sides, or simply refusing to pretend that everything is fine? Where does an artist’s responsibility end and the risk of moralizing begin? And, above all, does the audience want to be challenged, or would it rather be comforted?An unfiltered discussion on one of the most sensitive and controversial issues in today’s cultural landscape.

A joint perspective from two economic powerhouses, Japan and South Korea. This roundtable will contrast their innovation styles—Japan's focus on robotics and precision engineering versus South Korea's rapid-fire digital consumer tech—to understand their collective strengths and the common challenge of navigating rapid demographic change.

Uno spettacolare volo umano a propulsione, con performer che sfidano la gravità davanti al pubblico del Festival.Un mix di adrenalina e tecnologia da non perdere.

Trust is a central issue both when discussing Artificial Intelligence and when exploring Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT). What are the fundamental ingredients for building advanced AI systems that genuinely keep humans at the center?

In uno scenario globale sempre più competitivo, l’innovazione tecnologica è diventata una leva strategica di politica internazionale, capace di ridefinire equilibri economici, relazioni tra Stati e dinamiche di sviluppo. In questo contesto, l’Europa è chiamata a rafforzare il proprio ruolo attraverso una combinazione di policy, investimenti e strumenti di diplomazia economica, valorizzando startup, imprese e centri di ricerca. Il panel mette a confronto prospettive europee e nazionali per analizzare come tecnologia e innovazione stiano entrando nelle strategie geopolitiche e quali opportunità si aprono per l’ecosistema europeo nel contesto globale.Modera: Antonello Barone

The AI ecosystem is reshaping your role within the company and freeing up time for the work that truly matters.We are no longer in the era of chatbots. Today, every professional can manage a team of AI agents that access corporate knowledge and independently handle operational tasks.Marta, our fictional protagonist, does a bit of everything at work — emails, complaints, meeting minutes, research, reports, presentations — everything that consumes time without creating real value.With the right system, those agents understand her company, follow her procedures, and perform the work on her behalf. Her role changes: from executor to supervisor.This talk explores the principles behind this transformation and why the time it frees up is the real competitive advantage.

The meeting explores how artificial intelligence can become an enabler of connections between tourism, creative industries, and commerce, contributing to the emergence of a regional ecosystem capable of generating value, hybrid experiences, and new business models.It is not only about technology, but also about cross-disciplinary collaboration: culture, design, retail, urban regeneration, and research become elements of a single value chain, supported by AI.The workshop also serves as the launch moment of a regional initiative aimed at building a collaborative platform between public and private stakeholders for creative tourism.

Have you ever wondered how many of the objects you use every day have actually traveled through space?Space missions have long provided a unique opportunity to test the durability of materials, making them more efficient and better equipped to meet the challenges of modern life.Join us to discover the answer—and take a journey among the stars!

We shall operationalize a full-funnel approach designed to drive business decisions: objectives, audiences, channels, content, and measurement. From the initial analysis to the strategic selection of investment areas to maximize demand and conversion, culminating in a measurement system that enables continuous optimization and more effective budget allocation. Engage and Waves serve as accelerators in the key phases: target definition and performance measurement.

Moxoff's solutions offer a journey into the world of AI applied to Healthcare, transforming complex data into concrete tools at the service of research, medicine, and clinical training, while contributing to technological progress. In this way, AI becomes a powerful instrument to enhance the quality of care and reduce margins of error, providing direct benefits for patients, hospital organizations, and the national healthcare system.

Companies invest in dozens of tools, but they often end up creating fragmented processes that slow down both people and business. In this speech, we will explore how to overcome the silos between IT, HR, Finance, and Legal through Enterprise Service Management, creating a single point of contact for employees while improving collaboration, traceability, and productivity. Less operational complexity, more value for the entire organization.

“How to Steal a Job from AI” is probably the most useless talk of the day. Because let’s be honest: AI is taking our jobs. Period. So what am I even doing here? Talking to you—pointlessly—about how to “make a difference,” while we’re slowly being replaced by something that doesn’t sleep, doesn’t complain, and doesn’t ask for a raise. But since we’re here… let’s at least see how to lose our jobs with style and elegance.

The quest to extend human healthspan and decode the biological mechanisms of aging is undergoing a profound transformation, driven by an inflection point in artificial intelligence. We are transitioning from a slow, observational approach in longevity science to a highly predictive, generative paradigm. I will explore how the convergence of advanced AI architectures and massive biological datasets is not just accelerating discovery, but fundamentally altering our approach to aging, cellular senescence, and age-related disease. At the foundation of this revolution are groundbreaking advances in biomolecular modeling and structural prediction. When coupled with emerging, purpose-built foundation models for biology and medicine, researchers are gaining the ability to decode intricate epigenetic and proteomic signatures. This enables the rational design of novel geroprotectors, targeted therapeutics, and highly personalized interventions with unprecedented speed and precision. However, the next frontier in longevity medicine lies in the transition from static structural mapping to dynamic biological simulation. The development of "world models" for biology and fully realized "virtual cells" represents a paradigm shift for the field. By simulating complex cellular behaviors and tissue-level interactions in silico, these dynamic models allow us to safely and rapidly test millions of potential anti-aging interventions. They enable researchers to predict complex systemic responses, model the long-term cascade of cellular aging, and evaluate multi-drug regimens without the immediate need for decades-long clinical trials.

The speech aims to analyze the relationship between law and artificial intelligence, examining the models of technological humanism and digital sovereignty in light of European regulation (EU Regulation 2024/1689) and national legislation (Law 132/2025). The governance of artificial intelligence—based on risk, transparency, and human oversight—drives an evolution in legal principles and instruments, while at the same time revealing unprecedented challenges that must be addressed.

Designing for different platforms by finding common ground. A firsthand account of building a design system engineered to live across web, mobile, and TV. A complex, ongoing project, shared as it takes shape.

In 2026, the winner is not the one who publishes the most, but the one who understands how attention works. With a feed scrolling faster than ever—more creators, more formats, more stimuli, more noise—the real problem is no longer publishing more, but understanding where attention actually lies and how to capture it without burning out your brand in the process. In this talk, we will analyze how user behavior has changed on current social media, which formats are truly retaining attention, which dynamics are dying even if they still seem "trending," and why chasing the algorithm is no longer a sustainable strategy.

There was a time when the only thing standing between a brand and its customer was a search bar. Today, there's an AI agent — and it's already making choices for us.Agentic traffic has grown exponentially over the past year and 72% of customers now expect shopping experiences guided by agents that anticipate their needs, walk them through decisions, and complete transactions frictionlessly.Traditional SEO is no longer enough. Brands need to be discovered and chosen — by humans and agents alike.
And while this transformation reshapes the market outside, something equally significant is building within organisations: the Frontier Firm — where people and agents work side by side, turning ambition, ideas and intelligence into entirely new business models.Two parallel transformations. One strategic question: how do you build competitive advantage in the agentic era?"

XR training is no longer just about putting on a headset. The XR2Learn project (Horizon Europe) has built and validated AI systems that detect learners' educational state in real time - adapting challenge, pace, and content dynamically. From no-code authoring tools to open-source affective AI models, discover success stories of how immersive, human-centric learning is becoming accessible to SMEs, educators, and training providers across Europe.

L’intelligenza artificiale sta ridefinendo profondamente il ruolo delle università, incidendo sui modelli di ricerca, sui percorsi formativi e sulle competenze richieste dal mercato. In questo scenario, gli atenei sono chiamati a ripensare il proprio posizionamento come attori centrali negli ecosistemi dell’innovazione, capaci di formare nuove professionalità e di guidare lo sviluppo tecnologico. Il panel mette a confronto due prospettive di vertice per analizzare come cambiano didattica, ricerca e collaborazione con le imprese, e quali sfide attendono il sistema universitario nel contesto dell’evoluzione dell’AI.Modera: Antonello Barone

The global space economy is undergoing a phase of rapid transformation and significant expansion. This dynamic is driven by a combination of geopolitical factors, the maturation of enabling technologies, and the strengthening of the value chain—impacting investments, industrial models, and strategic priorities. In this international and European landscape, Italy now stands at a turning point. This session will illustrate the evolutionary trajectories of the Italian Space Economy, examining both the national space supply chain and its progressive expansion into non-space sectors.

AI agents are the shiny new toy. Everyone’s talking about them. Very few are using them in a way that actually drives Google Ads profit. This session cuts through the noise. You’ll learn how to build a safe, reliable system of AI agents that can take real PPC work off your plate, boost productivity, and help you scale without drowning in more accounts, more tasks, or more chaos. No vague theory. No AI fluff. Just a clear, practical framework for deploying autonomous workflows that improve performance and free up your time. After this session, you’ll know how to: Build agents that help manage and optimize PPC accounts Understand the difference between true agents and basic LLMs Choose the right tools for your agent stack Follow a step-by-step path to implementation Start using agents to grow your business and improve client profits If you want to stop watching the AI hype train fly by and actually put it to work, this session is for you.

In 2026, the customer journey has gone 'silent': AI agents and zero-click searches now mediate interactions, making old click-based models and navigation tracking completely inadequate. This session outlines our proposition for end-to-end measurement that unifies signals from the pixel to offline CRM data, centralizing everything in BigQuery. We will shift the focus from vanity metrics to CLTV and pCLTV. We’ll explore why incrementality measurement protocols and Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) are now the only tools capable of proving the real impact of marketing on company margins.

Artificial intelligence can generate content, analyze data, and optimize campaigns in seconds. However, one fundamental element is still missing: a deep understanding of the cognitive and emotional mechanisms that drive human decision-making.
In this talk, we will explore why neuromarketing and behavioral sciences are more crucial than ever today, and how to integrate them with AI to create truly effective communication, products, and experiences.

Generative AI has theoretically revolutionized content creation. In practice, however, brands face a paradox: it has never been easier to produce unlimited volumes of content and it has never been harder to ensure that this content actually looks and feels like the brand. The result is an abundance of generic, interchangeable, visually identity-less assets that rarely deliver on KPIs. In a world where content is the most powerful brand touchpoint, this isn’t just inefficient — it’s risky. This keynote introduces a scientifically developed workflow that bridges the gap between brand identity and AI. It demonstrates how brands can empirically decode their visual DNA, align generative AI with it, and predict performance before anything goes live. Three developments sit at the core and they define the future of content creation: 1. From Generic Output to Brand-Specific Signature How the visual DNA of a brand can be algorithmically captured and why this is the foundation for truly differentiated, recognizable, and on-brand GenAI content. 2. KPI-Optimized Generation Instead of Trial-and-Error How content can be guided not only by aesthetics but by data, enabling more precise targeting, stronger relevance, and higher performance across the entire consumer journey. 3. Predicting Performance Before Content Goes Live How AI reduces human subjectivity in content selection, minimizes creative risk, and enables faster, more confident decision-making. The keynote blends research insights, practical examples, and learnings from data-driven brand communication. It shows how brands will use AI in the coming years not to simply produce more content, but to create better content; content that is on-brand, KPI-effective, and scientifically validated. This is how generative AI evolves from a creative guessing game into a validated system that unifies brand identity, KPIs, and performance prediction into one scalable workflow.

This session will explore how cross-border cooperation in the Euro-MED region can advance innovation and entrepreneurship support by strengthening the role of ecosystem enablers, including incubators, accelerators, entrepreneurship centers, and support organizations. Drawing on the Ripple initiative, the discussion will showcase how regional collaboration, peer learning, and strategic partnerships can enhance the capacity of enablers to support startups, connect ecosystems, and drive more inclusive and sustainable entrepreneurial growth across the region.

Most organizations are still running digital transformation programs inside an operating model built for human limitations. They made existing processes faster and more visible, but the underlying structure - siloed roles, narrow specialization, and fragmented decision-making - remained largely unchanged.AI transformation is different. It doesn’t just accelerate work; it removes the constraints that made the old model necessary. When systems can hold and connect knowledge across domains that no human can master simultaneously, the old boundaries between functions and disciplines start to lose their purpose. Execution can be handled by agents. Human work shifts toward orchestration, judgment, and defining outcomes rather than performing tasks.This is not an efficiency story. It is an architectural one. Organizations that continue using AI primarily to reduce headcount or speed up existing processes will stay trapped in the logic of the past. Those that redesign how work is structured around what AI can now do will move from an economy of reduction to one of creation -discovering new possibilities instead of simply optimizing what already exists.The real transformation begins when leaders stop asking how AI can improve the current model, and start asking what the model should become.

The World Cup is the biggest sporting event in the world, and developers everywhere build apps around it to bring fans closer to the action. We wanted to join in, so we built a fun serverless fantasy football app for the tournament, one that handles unpredictable traffic surges every time a game kicks off. Then we asked: what if this wasn’t just for one tournament, or even one sport?We inverted the architecture, extracting a single-event app into an extensible multi-sport engine. You’ll see the production application and the real code behind it: how we isolated per-sport traffic with multi-tenancy patterns, modelled flexible data structures in serverless databases, and used event-driven patterns to survive game-day traffic spikes while keeping the frontend responsive.No abstract theory. We open the repo and show you best practices for building scalable serverless frontends and backends and that hold up when it matters most.

An interview retracing the career of Antonio Moro, better known as ITOMI, in the world of video games. From co-founding Vae Victis Games, a racing game studio, to his journey with Lega Nerd, and on to his most recent editorial projects. A journey through development, creativity, and pop culture, exploring how his passion for gaming evolved from directly creating video games to celebrating them through the Storie di Videogame and Pixel series, which explore the origins and cultural impact of the titles that shaped entire generations.

Presentation of the talk “They Called Me… the Breath Nurse”, a work that brings together narrative medicine and telemedicine, deeply rooted in the local community.Through everyday stories, Alessandra, a nurse care manager, and Emilia share their experience of entering people’s homes with empathy and compassion, while using digital technologies to connect home-based care with genuine human warmth.This inspiring talk offers a unique opportunity to discover a healthcare model in which innovation and empathy work hand in hand, restoring centrality to people’s lives, dignity, and well-being.

In a world that rewards individual protagonism, simplifies every experience, and increasingly shifts relationships into the digital sphere,Rockin’1000 has taken a different path.For more than ten years, thousands of people have voluntarily chosen to invest time, energy, and commitment to build something they could not achieve alone: performing in large stadiums in front of tens of thousands of spectators. People of different ages, backgrounds, professions, ideas, and beliefs who agree to set aside their egos in order to collaborate toward a common goal, united by a universal language: music.Through the experience of Rockin’1000, Fabio Zaffagnini explores forms of innovation that are often overlooked: social media as a tool rather than an end, collaboration instead of competition, the value generated by shared effort, the transformative power of real-world experiences, and the role of human relationships in a society that is becoming increasingly polarized and isolated.Because experiences can be digitized, simulated, and distributed, but human presence, belonging, and the transformation that arises from encounters between real people remain impossible to reproduce.

From the behind-the-scenes stories of those who’ve been there to incubator services: an hour of real-world stories from two founders and practical tips on how to launch your idea and get the right support to make it take off.

Media is evolving every single day: platforms, languages, technologies, business models, and audience expectations. In this landscape, today’s journalists cannot just master tools and skills; they need to develop a mindset capable of evolving alongside the industry. This session explores Chora & Will Media's approach to training through the New Media Academy: a method built on study and experimentation within the new frontiers of digital journalism, encouraging open dialogue with all key players in the media market.

A case study concerning a complex segment, developed through a multichannel strategy (centered on search intent) within the medical field. We shall examine how this brand, an offshoot of a larger corporate entity, is scaling both domestic and international SERPs by leveraging SEO for AI and the broader evolution of online search.

Deepfakes are redefining the boundary between what is real and what is false. Through a study on users’ reactions to AI-generated content distributed by sources perceived as trustworthy, we will explore how trust is built in the age of synthetic media. Even when flagged, deepfakes are often misunderstood or ignored, amid polarized emotions and limited critical awareness. What happens to truth when everything can be generated?

Artificial Intelligence can only create real value when built on a solid foundation. This talk begins at point zero: the business diagnosis. Through AISMENT, we will explore how to identify where AI is truly needed, measuring ROI and ensuring compliance with the EU AI Act. We will then dive into NewDreamApp, a restaurant ecosystem that leverages MCP servers and agentic AI to manage dining rooms, kitchens, inventory, and delivery by interacting directly with the system.

There is a gap that many companies underestimate between a convincing demo and AI truly entering core processes. Fragmented data, unstructured documents, and real-world workflows put GenAI and agents to the test. The real breakthrough happens when we stop asking the company to adapt to the tool and instead build technology that models itself around the operational context. That is exactly where adoption becomes real and value becomes measurable.

A look at 1990s culture and Gen Z: nostalgia, evolving language, emerging trends, and cultural shifts that are reshaping how we communicate and consume entertainment.

Bringing together perspectives from the burgeoning tech scenes of Bulgaria and Croatia with the established financial and innovation hub of Belgium. The discussion will cover how CEE's cost-efficiency and talent can interface with Western Europe's stability and market access to build resilient, pan-European ventures.

With Flavio Todini, Graphic Designer at Chora & Will Media: today's challenges demand unprecedented ideas. In this context, traditional brainstorming is no longer enough; it requires a mindset capable of flipping perspectives.This session explores creative thinking: a method to deconstruct problems and think in reverse, generating new and unexpected solutions.

Today, the value of innovation is measured on two fronts: scalability for the company and time restored to the user. In this session, we will explore how the Karma hub meets this challenge by developing vertical AI solutions for diverse purposes. We’ll analyze real-world case studies where Artificial Intelligence stops being an isolated tool and becomes a bridge between sectors—capable of optimizing business workflows while simultaneously improving people's quality of life.

In an increasingly saturated digital landscape, traditional channels are experiencing an engagement crisis: emails yield open rates of approximately 10% and response times measured in days. Radical innovation is required. This session marks the transition from unidirectional marketing to the Conversational Era, driven by intelligent systems that listen, comprehend intent, and execute actions. Discover Spoki, the premier CEM platform that transforms WhatsApp into a strategic asset to position your brand among the innovators of the new digital commerce.

Contemporary crises reach us through images, headlines, and often fragmented content, filtered by the logic of media and digital communication. In a context where information, propaganda, and public perception are constantly intertwined, it becomes crucial to question who shapes collective narratives and which stories remain invisible. Spanning social media, journalism, and new forms of communication, this interview reflects on the relationship between identity, memory, and representation, starting from an analysis of the books by Randa Ghazy and Pegah Moshir Pour.

When managing company personnel, how many hours a week are lost chasing documents, compliance, and manual processes? Even in the most innovative environments, HR professionals dedicate up to 80% of their time to operational activities, facing a real risk of errors and leaving little room for what truly matters. Tommaso Marchese explores how technology can free individuals from this burden, restoring time, focus, and strategic impact to those tasked with taking care of people.

Le Regioni sono oggi tra i principali attori nell’implementazione delle politiche di innovazione, chiamate a tradurre strategie e indirizzi in interventi concreti su digitale, lavoro e inclusione sociale. In questo scenario, la sfida non è più solo definire policy, ma misurarne l’impatto reale sui territori e sui cittadini, integrando innovazione tecnologica e welfare. Il panel mette a confronto esperienze e approcci diversi per analizzare come le amministrazioni regionali stanno guidando la trasformazione digitale e sociale, tra attuazione, risultati e modelli replicabili.Modera: Antonello Barone

An in-depth look at Switzerland's unique innovation model, characterized by high-value deep tech, world-class research institutions, and a stable regulatory environment. This roundtable addresses the challenges of high costs, the competition for specialized talent, and the ethical role of financial and biotech innovation.