Smau, the Italian biggest and best known event for innovation&tech, is going to cross its national borders, first step Berlin, probably the most attractive city in Europe, at the moment, for young and passionate entrepreneurs. A place where already a lot of Italians have chosen to live, sometimes moving there with their startup, sometimes getting nice jobs in others startups (many of them gather in the group digitaly). On Startupbusiness, we already publish a couple of articles about Berlin and what is “value proposition” is, see the last one here. Born in 1964, SMAU has been a benchmark of innovation for companies and public administrations for over 50 years. For six years Smau has organized a series of local events throughout Italy’s main regions to promote a culture of innovation among businesses and local organizations, a series which become international in 2015. More than 80,000 companies visit SMAU every year, coming from various commodity sectors and for whom the trade show is an important platform to communicate directly with the market, the aim being to get the leading companies active in the development and revitalization of the Italian sector by increasing their potential through innovation and modern digital technology. Alongside digital industry professionals, exhibiting at SMAU will be startups, spinoffs, laboratories, research and technology transfer centres and innovative SMEs. On the 12th and 13th of March, at Palazzo Italia, located in “Unter den Linden” number 10, Smau will be at its first debut in a foreign country (but in a friendly capital:Berlin) with a two days event that will to showcase the Italian innovative excellences and will be also a full preview of what Italy will also show at Expo 2015 in Milan. 
The purpose of the event, as Pierantonio Macola, Smau CEO, says: “is to introduce the innovative excellence of “Made In Italy” to German entrepreneurs, investors and managers invited to the exhibition. Italy is best known in the world for its excellence in food, fashion and design, but there are a lot of startups, spin-offs, laboratories, research and technology transfer centres and SMEs that are introducing innovations within various sectors like energy, new materials, life sciences and transport. Smau Berlin will be the occasion to activate trade relations, partnerships and investments between the various international startup ecosystem professionals that will visit the event and the Italian ones taking part in the initiative”. Smau Berlin, that is organized in collaboration with Startupbusiness, will host an exhibition area with 50 innovative startups and SMEs representing ‘Made in Italy’ innovation, selected by Smau along with the participating Italian Regions Governments, among which Campania, Tuscany, Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna and Calabria are already confirmed. The exhibitors such as startups, spin-offs, research centers and innovative companies will show their technologies and products, prototypes and services. These innovations will be grouped after the model of industrial sectors according to the Italian National Technology Clusters: Smart Factory, Life Sciences, Agrifood, Technologies for Smart Communities, Green Chemistry, Aerospace, Technology for Living Environments, and Means and Systems for Surface and Maritime Mobility. The programme of Smau Berlin will include an institutional launch event followed by five pitching sessions by startups and companies that will show to the audience their innovations, technologies, products, and services. Audience will be made up for the most part by investors, managers, entrepreneurs. After each pitch session there will be a round table focused on the main aspects of the innovation ecosystem. During the event attendees can have one-to-one meetings in order to go in deep with the more interesting companies and startups. A series of one-to-one meetings between the attending organisations, investors and entrepreneurs will take place throughout the first day. A networking event is scheduled for the end of the first day and it will feature speakers, exhibitors, investors and all the community of Italian innovative entrepreneurs in Berlin. Second day will develop during the morning hours and it will feature the award ceremony that will declare the most innovative startups among those participating at the event. Last, but not least, there will also be a VIP Party. The full program is still on going, every update will be publish on the official site. Startupbusiness will be covering the event in the news. (featured image: Berlin Gendarmenmarkt – Gertrud K.)
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