Webinars

For import and export activities, companies are increasingly using the maritime mode that now accounts for almost 70% of worldwide trade. In this scenario, strategic planning and logistic choices of SMEs need to be based on an accurate consideration of geo-economic changes and emergent players in the shipping industry and maritime logistics. How to deal with China’s major presence in the Mediterranean and in the transport sector? What kind of impact is expected from the new Suez Canal on cost/time transportation? How could technology and the new competitiveness among Ports improve logistic performances? Significance and implications of these phenomena for SMEs will be presented and discussed during the webinar.

Relator: Mr. Massimo Deandreis

From 1995 to 2000 Massimo served as Head of the Italian Chamber of Commerce delegation to the European Union. In 2001 he was appointed General Manager of the Piedmont Regional Chamber of Commerce in Turin, a position he held until October 2008. Since November 2008 he has worked for Intesa Sanpaolo Banking Group where he served as Head of Cabinet of the President of the Bank; subsequently he was appointed General Manager of SRM, the position he currently holds. Massimo is currently contract professor of Business Management at the Department of Economics of the Turin University and he has recently been appointed President of the Italian Society of Business Economists. He graduated in International Economic Law at the University of Turin and earned a second degree in International and Diplomatic History.

Recognizing the role of entrepreneurship as a catalyst for development and a means to address sustainable development challenges, the presentation will illustrate UNCTAD’s approach to promoting entrepreneurship from a policy perspective. It draws lessons from the implementation of UNCTAD’s Entrepreneurship Policy Framework (EPF) and will explain the need for holistic entrepreneurship policies according to the six priority areas identified by the EPF. The presentation will focus on how policymakers can create an enabling entrepreneurial environment which also takes into account inclusive and sustainable business models, thereby expanding opportunities for all and addressing the needs of socially disadvantaged groups. For aspiring entrepreneurs from such groups, who tend to have lower levels of entrepreneurship skills and greater difficulty in navigating the business and regulatory environment, governments need to tailor policy measures to help them manage and grow their businesses. In this way, entrepreneurship policies can contribute to the achievement of the United Nations General Assembly’s sustainable development goals adopted in 2015.

Relator: Mrs. Fiorina Mugione

Economist with MBA in international trade has more than twenty years' experience in international organizations. Worked primarily in the areas of research and analysis in enterprise, investment and development issues at ESCAP, OECD and UNCTAD. She leads since 2006, the Entrepreneurship Programme UNCTAD’s Division on Investment and Enterprise. Fiorina also coordinates the EMPRETEC programme – the one stop agency for small and medium sized enterprise development- in 39 countries around the world. Responsible of investment policy reviews at UNCTAD between 1996 and 2006, earned concrete experience in policy analysis and programme management (Egypt, Ecuador, Peru, Ghana, Colombia). Published a number of articles in international journals and contributed chapters to different economic publications.

Many academic organisations and entrepreneurship academies are calling attention to the need for urgent changes in curricula and learning methods demanded by the continual social transformation of an increasingly technological world. Transversal skills such as the ability to think creatively and critically, take initiative and work collaboratively for common goals, are essential to guarantee a qualified and entrepreneurial workforce in Europe. In this educational context, Design Thinking proved to be an effective transversal learning tool. After briefly introducing the Design Thinking concept and how it is nowdays implemented in diverse fields ranging from education to business management, the webinar will explore the existence of different process models with a special attention to the Evolution 6 model and their applications to training sessions with companies, researchers and educators. The session will also summarize main findings and results of the first two years of the D-Think project, promoting a wider use of Design Thinking in Education and Training.

Relator: Dr. Katja Tschimmel

Katja Tschimmel is consultant and executive trainer, researcher and lecturer, coach and conference speaker. Having a Ph.D in Design and a Masters in Applied Creativity, Katja researches in the fields of Creative Thinking, Design Thinking and Creative Processes. She is the author of the Design Thinking model Evolution 6, which is licensed by Creative Commons, CC by-SA since 2015. Katja is the founder and partner of MINDSHAKE – Consultancy and Training of Creativity and Design Thinking. Currently she is Guest Professor at Porto Business School (Portugal) and at Laurea University (Finland). For 15 years she was Professor at ESAD, College of Arts and Design in Matosinhos (Portugal), where she is coordinating the research project D-THINK (Design Thinking Applied in Education and Training). 51 years old, German by birth and Portuguese by choice, Katja speaks fluent German, Portuguese, English and Spanish.

During the last two decades social enterprises have acquired an increasing importance both within the academia and in the real world as an example of efficient enterprise, able to manage the emerging economic and social challenges. When we talk about social enterprises (SEs), we refer to nonprofit organizations pursuing a social objective through an economic activity. Social Cooperatives (cooperative sociali) in Italy, Collective Interest Companies (Société coopérative d’intérêt) in France, Social initiative cooperatives (Cooperativas de iniciativa social – CIS) in Spain are examples of SEs.
The webinar will analyse the main characteristics of SEs and their potential for competitiveness that could represent a pattern to develop a future economic activity.
In particular the session will explore the example of Italian social cooperatives by answering the following three main questions: what are social enterprises? what are the main futures of SEs? how is it possible to develop a SE?

Relator: Mr. Simone Poledrini

Simone Poledrini is an Adjunct Professor of Management of Innovation at the Department of Economics at the University of Perugia in Italy. He holds both a PhD (University of Perugia, Italy) and a M.Sc. (University of Sussex, UK) in Management of Innovation. His research interest is nonprofit with a particular focus on civil society organizations and social enterprises. Simone is currently involved in the CostAction research Project “EMPOWER-SE”, while he was previously involved in the ICSEM Project (International Comparative Social Enterprise Models) where he was part of the Italian team. He spent some time as visiting researcher in European universities research centers, such as the Centre d'Economie Sociale (Centre for Social Economy) of the University of Liège in Belgium, and the University of Castilla-La Mancha in Spain. Simone’s lecturing experience is in the field of Management of Innovation and Nonprofit Organizations. Since 2010 he has been teaching Management of Innovation at a master level at the University of Perugia.

We are all familiar with the elevator pitch of a start-up, but presenting research results to rise money or interest is something new we are not used at. Scientists and researchers are good in presenting at conferences, but the experience shows that they often fail when pitching to a different audience than peers. This webinar is designed for the ones having the responsibility to work with researchers and help them to progress along the “from knowledge to market” value chain turning R&D results into use, paving the way towards innovations and contributing to SMEs competitiveness, growth and employment. Participants will be guided through what to know when pitching research results knowing that a R&D result is different from a start-up. It is about addressing challenges and problems, the added value we provide, and explaining how we will mobilise a change (novel service/product/etc.) and who we target, who our “customers” are.

Relator: Mr. Andrea Di Anselmo

Andrea Di Anselmo is a founding member of META. He has 25 years of experience in innovation and startup support gained participating to international projects and influencing strategic addresses as member of the BoD of intermediary organizations, research institutes, Business Angels Networks and SMEs. He is in the Board of Directors of META Ventures, the management company operating the Ingenium seed funds in Italy, Slovenia and Poland. Andrea is also Vice President of INSME.

The merits of government interventions are intrinsically linked with one’s view of how free markets work, as well as with one’s view of the government’s role in free markets. The general case is made that government interventions must be justified by evidence of market failures. Using the U.S. SBA Act as an example, the specific case is made for government interventions in the SME sector. A deep knowledge about SMEs – who they are, where they are, what they do, etc. – should be the guiding light determining not only the effectiveness but also the sufficiency of government interventions in the SME sector. Assessing the impacts of these interventions is best and most efficiently achieved by leveraging existing Administrative Data that are generated as part of implementing these interventions, and linking these micro-level observations to secondary or statistical micro data available across government agencies. This modality, if correctly implemented, has the potential of shifting the empirical and cost paradigm of how government learns what works and what does not.

Relator: Mr. Giuseppe Gramigna

Giuseppe’s work focuses on the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector. He advises national, multilateral and non- profit entities on how to best assist SMEs. His areas of expertise include: (i) national SME policies, (ii) designing SME assistance programs, (iii) program benchmarking, performance and impact evaluations, (iv) portfolio credit risk monitoring and assessments, (v) portfolio and partner risk management. Giuseppe works with international organizations such as the OECD, APEC, ASEAN, and the World Bank. He serves on the scientific committees of several academic institutions and publications. He also serves on the advisory board of several non-profit entities that assist SMEs. At the U.S. Small Business Administration, Giuseppe serves as the Agency’s Chief Economist, where he advises the Agency on economic trends affecting small businesses, and leads research on economic impact evaluations and strategic planning. He also serves as the U.S. Permanent Delegate and Vice Chair to the OECD Working Party on SMEs and Entrepreneurship.

One of the most dramatic revolutions in the Internet era is one that we didn’t see: the large-scale adoption of computational trust between digital systems. For centuries, human trust has been at the roots of commerce, politics, and war. Today these relations are handled by digital systems, such as e-commerce and banking platforms, which must communicate through computational trust principles. The advent of IoT is further pushing ahead the need for trusted communication between systems, opening new, unique business opportunities for automated and smart-contracts regulated transactions.

Relator: Mr. Stefano Pepe

Stefano Pepe is CEO and co-founder of Uniquid Inc., a software company that provides identity and access management tools for Internet of Things devices. He grew up working as an independent web developer during the '00 and web marketing specialist during the '10. Since 2013 works with the same passion for the Bitcoin and blockchain business. TEDx speaker, panelist and public speaker on the argument, he published the book "Investire Bitcoin" in the fall 2014.

Software can be a major asset both for companies mainly based on software products as well as for companies who incorporated software in their devices or services. Together with software and often strictly linked with it, the use and protection of data-bases is becoming a major topic for SMEs also for its connection to digitalization projects. Both software and data-bases can be considered as company assets having their economic value. The purpose of this webinar is to grow the awareness among SMEs of the means for protection as intellectual property assets of software and data-bases, algorithms as well as to understand how they can circulate and which processes and documents should be implemented. In particular, software can be protected as copyright, patent or trade secret under the circumstances.

Relator: Dr. Michela Maggi

Michela Maggi, attorney at law, PhD in Intellectual Property and Competition Law, is an experienced professional with a strong expertise in intellectual property, data protection, digital law, international contracts. She founded the Law Firm Maggi Legal in Milan, Italy and she is also ambassador of AIPI Italian Association for Industrial Engineering (acronym for Associazione Italiana Progettisti Industriali), treasurer of the Italian group of AIPPI (International Association of Protection of Intellectual Property), as well as head of the Italian group of securities over intellectual property rights and member of the international AIPPI Group on Trade Secrets. She is also a coach for innovative projects under H2020 (Horizon 2020) led by the European Commission. She cooperates as an expert with WIPO, EUIPO and the European Commission, as well as with the EU-China and the EU-Asean IPR SME Helpdesks.

The year 2018 will entail profound changes for companies with high innovative potential which operate globally, particularly for SMEs. This is due to several reasons. First of all, by May 2018, European companies will have to adapt to the new requirements introduced by the EU Regulation 679/2016 (better known as General Data Protection Regulation – GDPR) on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data. Secondly, by June 2018 the EU Directive 2016/943 on Trade Secrets will oblige EU Member States to harmonize national laws and implement internal regulations aimed at the protection of industrial secrets, particularly in relation to the acquisition, use and disclosure of the same. If the compliance required by the aforementioned legislative instruments will be managed strategically by companies that operate globally – hence also those that intend to maintain partnership relations with European and/or US companies – such undertakings may push companies to create and implement protocols and internal procedures in order to strategically manage the data and, where the relevant conditions are met, protect them as trade secrets and intellectual property rights, as well as enhancing them from an economic point of view.

Relator: Mr. Elio De Tullio

Elio De Tullio is Managing Partner of De Tullio & Partners, Intellectual Property Law Firm. Attorney-at-Law admitted to the Bar in Italy since 1994 and litigator before the Italian Corporate Courts specialized in Intellectual Property. He is registered as European and Italian Trade Mark & Design Attorney since 2005. He matured considerable expertise in assisting companies (in particular, SMEs) and associations operating internationally in the technology sector. He cooperates as an expert with WIPO, EUIPO and the European Commission, as well as with the EU-China and the EU-Asean IPR SME Helpdesks. He is a frequent lecturer for several Italian Universities and speaker during international conferences and seminars, as well as author of numerous publications and articles on international magazines and reviews.