MeasureCamp Italy in Bologna: culture, learning and pride

They made it!

Enlightened by the historical experience of Anna Khan , ?? Fosca Fimiani , Elena Nesi , Giovanni Fabbrocino and other members of their merry gang, packaged a top-notch new MeasureCamp Italy experience in an incredible city.

Started on Friday with a delayed flight from Copenhagen due to the lovely weather that always blesses our lives here, the Alps blessed my sight and one hour later I was in Bologna where the pre-conference community activity started with an improvised city tour together with Jon Su and Anisa Boumrifak where I told them about the Renaissance Industrial Revolution of this city, fueled by the innovation sourced by the first ever university, itself an innovation that makes Bologna the first student city!

We tasted Salame Rosa di Bologna, an ancestor to the more famous Mortadella, and a real Piadina Romagnola.

We also visited the Teatro Anatomico, one of the oldest anatomical theatres, dating back to 1535, including beautiful sculptures of "skinned" men holding the roof of the main seat.

And finally the Basilica di Santo Stefano, also known as the Church of the 7 Churches, since it contains, in fact, seven churches.

But since we were walking a student city on International Women's Day and during a general strike, the most important and beautiful aspect of Bologna was right in front of me the whole time: its political and social activism, from feminists to worker's rights activists shouting good points, to a mini-band accompanying them with Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth".

All as it should be in a city that is probably still the "Reddest" in Italy.

After all this, I had a great pre-conference dinner with new and old dear friends (and one dear enemy, indeed), where we could taste all the great delicacies this city is famous for, like tortellini, birichini, lasagne, tigelle and friggione, mortadella, etc.

Then finally the Day came.

The venue was great and the sponsors were all very nice people, starting from mohrstade that learned how much Italians love German candies, to DataKojak who I hope stopped dreaming about Denmark thanks to me, to the great guys from Stape and Addingwell conducting maybe a silent battle, meeting my MMM heroes from Cassandra whom I learnt being from Rome (and a bit shorter than I thought looking at all their videos on YouTube which I warmly recommend), to finally meeting the famous Matteo Zambon who is responsible, with others, for getting me in this industry.

The sessions offer was magnificent and I myself had to share a time slot with giants like Robert Petkovi? and Piotr Gruszecki , but the ones I attended were:

• It started with fellow genuine Roman Elena Nesi , better known as the "Fairy CodeMother", who blew our minds doing what we all wanted to achieve, on her own and then sharing it with all of us for free!
• Second came Steen Rasmussen offering us what he called an old man's rant, but in reality it had the energy of a teenage tantrum, against the perception of our profession and the state of the industry.
• The morning ended with a great session by Vanessa Li Puma who kept her cool against many tech issues to deliver an overview of the data monitoring and data activation in Decathlon Italia , making me reason a lot about the added value of having such well designed and defined processes around things everyone of us needs to do daily.And the AI to reality slide trick was pure genius!
• After a lunch I won't describe not to have you drooling on your keyboards, I got to experience the most constructive rant ever concocted, delivered by Jon Su , mystically guided by the Chinese Zodiac in giving us action points for the troubles affecting companies and our industry.
• It was then my turn, facing a full classroom (it was really one, due to the venue, not that I am a teacher by any means) of people eager to listen and then ask questions during and after the session. Thanks to ?? Fosca Fimiani 's question people attending MeasureCamp Helsinki will be enjoying an even more actionable presentation.By the way, here is the link to my slides, that many are asking for: be sure to check the slide notes for short explanations and bibliography.
• Finally, Marina Sukhanova 's talk about what awaits us in 4-5 years, since she took upon herself the burden to introduce us to the concept of Causal AI and what it would bring to us and other industries.

Then came the moment that made me really proud, summarized in this image.

No, it is not about me entering the top 5 for the first time.

What made me proud of the mostly Italian audience is the common feature of the talks above mine, starting from Elena's, which I voted myself: they are all practical talks, given by bright people sharing experiences and know-how and appreciated by people wanting to learn and not just be motivated by inspirational talks. I love this about Italy, my country: if you find an educated and professional audience, you will find people ruling out the fluff and focusing deeply on the value of having peers sharing useful actionable information, luckily a common feature of all MeasureCamps.

All of this, sadly but happily, ended with an after-party were compliments, questions, learnings and laughs flowed copious as the Spritz and the mortadella-filled piadinas.

Don't know what to say, I am here in my apartment, alone, thinking about all of this, smiling and clapping.

Don't miss the next one, otherwise you will feel again the regret you feel now.

See you in Helsinki next!