The second edition of the Gaetano Marzotto prize. conceived of by the enlightened businessman giannino marzotto, who died very recently, its competition has closed having doubled its number of participants.

This is a highly significant result and was just what Giannino Marzotto had hoped for: almost 600 well-structured projects for new enterprises in Italy which will now compete for a total prize money of 450,000 Euros.

This has been an excellent reaction to the national Gaetano Marzotto prize award, one of the various activities of the Associazione Progetto Marzotto which is aimed at creating a platform for innovation in Italy based on the ethical association between entrepreneurial ability and social vision. An example of this had been shown in the early twentieth century by Gaetano Marzotto and was followed up by Giannino, the preeminent collaborator and mentor of the project: he followed it at first hand until he was stopped by ill health which led to his death at 83 on Saturday 14 July.

Despite its brief history, this year the competition redoubled its participatants with some 598 complete and well-structured projects which will be presented to an international jury at the end of August.

A detailed breakdown:

– 310 applications for the “Business of the Future Prize” which earmarked 250,000 Euros for the best business project able to generate a significant positive outcome in the social, territorial, cultural, and environmental sectors.

The jury consists of Federico Marchetti, Gaetano Marzotto, Mario Moretti Polegato, Alessandro Profumo, Renzo Rosso, and Roberto Siagri.

The preferred sectors of interest are those of fashion and textiles, food farming, tourism, pharmaceutics, mechanics, the home, interior decoration, and the environment, all Made in Italy.

– 228 applications for the “Prize for a New Social and Cultural Business” which has set aside 100,000 Euros for the best business project able to generate a significant positive outcome in the social and cultural sectors.

The jury consists of Emil Abirascid, Ilaria Capua, Luca De Biase, Mario Dal Co, Stefano Gallucci, and Maurizio Sobrero.

There is a third sector for cultural, social, personal, and environmental services.

– 60 applications for the three “From the Idea to the Business Prizes” which include a residential period in one of the H-Farm, M31, and Seedlab business incubators with programmes aimed at transforming ideas into business.

The three prizes are reserved for those with a maximum age of 35 years; they will not be awarded in money, and have an overall value equivalent to 100,000 Euros.

The competition is aimed at all those – individuals, teams, businesses – who have a new entrepreneurial idea that is able to generate a significant positive social and economic outcome on the Italian territory, though one with the possibility for international growth. The competition’s first-placed participants come from the region of Lombardy with 151 projects, followed by the Veneto, with 104; Emilia-Romagna and Puglia tied with 69; Lazio with 63; and Piedmont with 36.

From a first analysis, the ideas suggested – which had to answer to criteria of originality, innovation, feasibility, sustainability, and profit – were:

– for the Business of the Future Prize, in first place the web-digital-new media sector, followed by the sectors of the environment, fashion and textiles, and tourism;

– for the Prize for a New Social and Cultural Business, the greater part were projects aimed at social and personal services, followed by cultural services and by web-digital-new media services;

– for the From the Idea to the Business Prize, the greater part were web-digital-new media projects, followed by tourism, informatics, and cultural services.

So now the recruiting phase has been concluded and will be followed by:

– before 31 July, short-listing the proposals to pinpoint the 25 most pertinent projects: 5 for the first competition; 5 for the second; 15 for the third;

– before 31 August, presentation of extra documentation upon request;

– 12 September, interview with the finalists in the Villa Trissino Marzotto;

– 17 prize-giving ceremony in the Teatro Comunale, Vicenza.

If the Marzotto project came about in order to create, through a series of diversified actions, a new social fabric (www.progettomarzotto.org), the Gaetano Marzotto award, which will continue for a decade, is an appendix to it with the aim of pinpointing and promoting the development of new business ideas, ones able to match up to economic-financial sustainability criteria and, at the same time, to generate concrete (above all occupational) benefits for the Italian territory by giving a possibility to the younger and more lively areas of our country.

It was won last year by the Micro4Art projects: micro-organisms for the restoration of stone surfaces of artistic value; TICE for interconnected growth and learning; and Vinswer, an online platform for monetizing professional competences. The competition – with a new formula which divides the third prize into three awards and with the prize money increased by 50,000 Euros more than in 2011 – aims at creating the environmental conditions for a paradigmatic change by backing the birth of new businesses in Italy.

In this sense, the meetings on 22 and 25 May last year in the Bocconi university, Milan, and in the Bari Chamber of Commerce, and the participation on 12 June last year on the National Day for Innovation held in the headquarters of the Italian Commerce and Tourism Board in Rome – in the role of promoter, together with the ministry of instruction, universities and research; the agency for innovation; the Italian commerce and tourism Board; Enterprise Europe Network; and FORUM PA – were organized for developing  an active network between innovators, young businessman, incubators, universities, and associations. This will also be the case for the roundtable/workshop devoted to the idea of networking, in programme for Sunday 26 and Wednesday 29 August 2012 in Drò, near Trento, organized together with veDrò.

The Gaetano Marzotto prize is an initiative promoted by the Associazione Progetto Marzotto.

Under the High Patronage of the President of the Italian Republic, and under the aegis of:

– the Presidency of the Board of Ministers, the Department of Youth

the Ministry for Economic Development

the Agency for the diffusion of innovatory technologies

– CNA – National Confederation for Crafts and Small and Medium Businesses

– CRUI – Conference of Italian University Rectors

– Unioncamere.

Organized together with H-Farm, Jacobacci&Partners, M31, SeedLab, Startupbusiness, and veDrò.

There has also been the involvement of such advisors as: 360 Capital Partners, Fondamenta sgr, Gradiente sgr, IBAN Italian Business Angel Network, Innogest sgr, and Synergo sgr.

For further information and updates: www.premiogaetanomarzotto.it

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