Maker Faire Europe 2023: what will happen on our fantastic stage

On Friday 20 October, at the Nuova Fiera di Roma, the eleventh edition of Maker Faire Rome will get under way — the European edition of what its creators call “The Greatest Show (& Tell) on Earth”.

This is a particularly important edition: first because it marks the return to the exhibition halls of the Fiera di Roma — missed since 2020 due to the pandemic — and then because it takes place at the same time as the return of the parent event, the Maker Faire Bay Area in San Francisco (California), which had been absent for a few years due to a series of issues affecting Make:, the US publisher that owns the format.

The original spirit of the great Maker Movement — which inspired and kicked off the current Digital Transition — has by now firmly entered the mainstream and, as expected, has been absorbed and transformed in an increasingly turbulent world, where technology (for better or worse) is the absolute protagonist.

Our company, Chirale, is an example of this transformation: founded by the same founders of the Italian Maker Movement, today it’s one of the most prominent consulting firms in the digital-transformation landscape that is — slowly — taking shape in our country too.

For some years our offering has not been limited to training and consulting in support of businesses and public administrations, but also covers the production of major events dedicated to training and outreach on new technologies.

It’s precisely in this role that next weekend we’ll be in force at Maker Faire Rome 2023, managing, animating and directing the great CNA Stage: with its 200 sqm extension, it will reign in the central area of Pavilion 5, Discover, dedicated to Robotics and Artificial Intelligence.

The exhibition area was designed by Chirale to offer CNA companies — the largest Italian business association — a space that combines the spirit of the event (open to the general public and dedicated to human creativity) with the needs of those who want to use the great fair to start and develop business relationships.

For this reason, beyond the large stage where as many as 10 events will take place in just two and a half days, there will be a networking area dedicated to companies, whose presence will be managed according to an innovative format that goes beyond the traditional booth.

All events will be streamed on the main social platforms, creating a single great live broadcast.

The central event will take place on Saturday 21 October at 5 pm, moderated by Rai journalist Massimo Cerofolini, and will be dedicated to the new Generative AIs — with a panel of distinguished guests including Guido Scorza, the Italian Privacy Authority.

The rest of the programme will be no less impressive: the most current technologies will not be missing — including Blockchain, NFT and Web3 — with real gems on the medicine of the future and quantum computing.

Here’s the full schedule:

• Friday 20 October, 3:00 pm — SHEINNOVATE. Innovation told through the experience of 8 women entrepreneurs. Different stories, different lives, a common goal: creating something new.
• Friday 20 October, 5:00 pm — METABOLIC AVATAR: AN EXAMPLE OF INNOVATION IN E-HEALTH BASED ON QUANTUM MACHINE LEARNING. The imminent Quantum Computing technologies will incredibly enhance many sectors, and Artificial Intelligence — which has already amazed us — will be one of the first. The road opens to a new class of applications, until recently not possible because limited by the classical computational model. Metabolic Avatar is an ambitious industrial-research project, carried out in collaboration with the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, that aims to create a “digital twin” of a person’s metabolism.
• Saturday 21 October, 11:00 am — ESG AND INNOVATION: THE CRITERIA FOR THE GROWTH AND SUCCESS OF SUSTAINABLE BUSINESSES. A talk that aims to highlight how companies can simultaneously increase their integral sustainability and their business model through ESG criteria and the innovation brought by Business Design.
• Saturday 21 October, 12:00 pm — R.O.M.E. EUROPEAN DIGITAL HUB: OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE DIGITALISATION OF BUSINESSES AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATIONS. The ROME Digital Hub is one of the European Digital Innovation Hubs (EDIH) that make up the first European network of digital innovation hubs, set up by the European Commission to support the digital transformation of European societies and economies. The ROME Digital Hub consists of 25 partners — including 4 research institutes — and includes both public and private bodies with highly specialised and differentiated skills, providing an extremely broad and high-level technology offering.
• Saturday 21 October, 3:00 pm — STRATEGIC INNOVATION BETWEEN IMAGINATION AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES. An overview of the fundamental concepts of strategic innovation, whose common thread is the convergence between creativity in user experience and the use of advanced technologies. Examples of virtualisation, robotics and interactivity, made for major brands, told through videos and multimedia content.
• Saturday 21 October, 5:00 pm — GENERATIVE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCES: IMPACTS ON PRIVACY, WORK AND SOCIETY. Generative AIs are revolutionising the technology landscape, but with them emerge new challenges related to privacy and to economic and social consequences. Industry experts will analyse the most recent developments in this field, addressing crucial issues related to personal data protection, work automation and social impacts.
• Sunday 22 October, 11:00 am — ERMES: THE ITALIAN VANGUARD IN AI FOR BROWSER SECURITY. In the digital age, cybersecurity is essential. Ermes — one of the 15 most influential companies in browser security according to Gartner — leverages 10 AI algorithms for real-time protection. With 93.2% of connections evading traditional security measures and the cost of data breaches rising, Ermes places the individual at the centre of its innovative browser protection.
• Sunday 22 October, 12:00 pm — WEB 3: WILL IT REALLY BE THE NEXT INTERNET REVOLUTION?. Web3 has been talked about for some years: at the height of media attention on blockchain technologies, it was indicated as the future model for the Internet. But what exactly is Web3 and why is it closely linked to the blockchain paradigm? What are the current Internet trends? What are the risks and opportunities for companies? Looking at the investments of major tech companies and the most reliable venture capital firms can be a good starting point to analyse the state of the art and make some predictions for the future.
• Sunday 22 October, 3:00 pm — BLOCKCHAIN, NFTS AND THE METAVERSE. WHY IS THERE LESS AND LESS TALK ABOUT IT BUT IS IT TIME TO INVEST?. Just a few months ago the Metaverse was the hot topic in technological innovation. Blockchain and NFT were indicated as the indispensable ingredients for the development of new platforms that would have revolutionised the web and the world of social networks. Enthusiasm has cooled — but, as always happens with new technologies, when the spotlights go off innovations enter the phase of real, realistic development, or reveal their lack of foundation. What’s happening on these topics?
• Sunday 22 October, 5:00 pm — CNA CHANGES AWARD — PREMIO CAMBIAMENTI CNA. Presentation of innovative ideas by start-ups in the Lazio Region. The Cambiamenti 2023 Award discovers, rewards and supports the best Italian companies founded in the last five years, that have been able to rediscover traditions, promote their territory and community, innovate products and processes and build the future.