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Happy Birthday Italy, the new Europe is young
350 youngsters gathered in Turin to become the protagonists of their future
Happy Birthday Italy, the big celebration for the 150th anniversary of Italian unification that took place in Turin, just came to an end last Monday, 11 July. 350 young people under 30 who study and work in Europe gathered in Italy’s first capital city to give their recipes to revive Europe and to be the protagonists of the future of the old continent. They proposed their projects to Italian enterprises in the field of environment, mobility, health, food…
Young people find it difficult to express their point of view and to count more in strategic decisions in the world of economy, culture, politics, not only in Italy, but also in the rest of Europe. They have felt the effects of the crisis, particularly in the field of employment. ThinkYoung, the organizer of the event, believes that young people can find solutions.
The five-day event featured workshops on: Kosovo and the Balkans (by Uni Group) , Franco-Italian relation in the European integration (by Politistes Paris I), Camera di Commercio, Youth Opinion (by AIESEC), Italian Federalism (by Prof. Pier Giuseppe Monateri and Prof. Gianmario Demuro), Young Farmers Today (by CEJA and ANGA), Legality in action (by FLARE), The role of Youth in the EU strategy for Sustainable Development (by SENSD), Indignados (by Khaled Fouad Allam, Vittorio Emanuele Agnoletto and Francesca Paci) and The New role of social journalism (by Vita Europe).
The inauguration workshop was the occasion to present the Nuovi Mille project, aimed at finding a thousand young Italian social innovators, to show that Italy has the potential to change and is rich in creativity and talent. Just as Italy was unified thanks to one thousand followers of Garibaldi, the project’s aim is to find 1 thousand young innovators. 2 thousand people have been found so far!
The organizers of the event have been travelling around Italy for 8 months in search of young innovators. The final stage of this expedition will be Turin, in November 2011, where the most innovative projects will be given an important award (the overall winner receives 1 million Euros and the best project of each thematic area wins 100,000 Euros) in the presence of Giorgio Napolitano, President of the Italian Republic.
All the workshops that were held during the event took place at the Officine Grandi Riparazioni (OGR), an impressive ex factory that is the symbol of Turin’s industrial past. It is a 20,000 square meters area built at the end of the Nineteenth century that was born as a centre for train maintenance.
Now the OGR hosts two major exhibitions organized as part of the 150th anniversary of Italian unification, called Fare gli Italiani – 150 anni di storia nazionale (Making Italians – 150 years of national history) and Stazione Futuro (Future Station), which shows how Italy will look like in the future. This last exhibition, curated by Riccardo Luna, journalist and publisher, will be the final destination of the “expedition of the thousand”.
Happy Birthday Italy was also a lot of fun! Parties, concerts, the Traffic Festival, Turin’s nightlife: an amazing 5 days experience to share with 350 new friends!
