The University of Messina's News released a video about the Conference

This is the video prepared by some students attending the School of Journalism at the University of Messina. It was released the same day of the workshop in Taormina. Great job! Congrats to these young journalists.

Taormina's event got the attention of media

The workshop Private Equity & Entrepreneurship got a remarkable attention from the media. The website http://www.taorminaprivateequity2008.net/ contains a special section (News and Press) devoted to a review of the articles published by financial and local newspapers, but more pieces are going to be published on the next weeks. Here, a piece appeared on Saturday July 19th on Milano Finanza and signed by Dagnino and Faraci. Il Denaro, the media partner of the event, has published three articles. La Sicilia, the most important Sicilian newspapers, published an article before the workshop, dedicated an interview to Ronald Spogli and it's going to publish a piece looking back at the overall initiative. In addition, Il Sole 24 Ore is going to devote an article to this event. The workshop got also the attention of some students attending the School of Journalism at the University of Messina. MyNews is the website where these students - which met Ronald Spogli in Taormina - posted some videointerviews with the organizers of the event. A great support to the organizers has been provided by the Press Office at the University of Catania coordinated by Mariano Campo. Radio Zammù, the official radio of the University of Catania, interviewed Rosario Faraci and Mario Sorrentino on the same day they were running, with Arturo Capasso and Giambattista Dagnino, the workshop in Taormina

Enhancing the business partnership between Italy and the US

The presence of Ronald Spogli, the US Ambassador to Italy, in Taormina had a great importance. While attending and actively participating to the workshop "Private Equity & Entrepreneurship", Mr. Spogli remarked the importance of building a stable and effective business partnership among the US and Italy. He reminded all the initiatives (Partnership for Growth, BEST, and others) that the US Embassy has promoted over the last past years to enhance the Italian-American cooperation. So, he wishes that more could be done for the future, particularly to facilitate cultural and business exchanges between US and Italian graduate and doctoral students. The same message has been remarked by Paul Corson, from the US Department of Commerce, who briefly recalled all the programs can be soon activated by the Southern firms to work with the US-based companies. Last but not least, even the Counsel General in Naples Patrick Truhn expressed the same auspices. During the conference, the most remarkable evidence that a real cooperation between the US and Italy is possible was the participation, as panelists, of the business angel Allan May and of the academics Laura Resnikoff (Columbia University) and Donna DeCarolis (Drexel University) coming to Taormina directly from their country of origin. Academia is going to play an important role of "knowledge broker" connecting people, facilitating the dissemination of a new financial business culture among firms, sharing new ideas and transferring to firms the results of their research projects.

The Heritage of "Private Equity & Entrepreneurship"

What was the real intention of the workshop? And what will be its heritage? After having concluded the intense one-day-workshop held in Taormina, let us go back to the drivers of this event that attracted more than 150 people, including 21 panelists and 4 session Chairs which animated the workshop. As Co-Organizers, our primary goal was to share the knowledge of the private equity issues with firms, local banks, academics and graduate students. In order to accomplish the mentioned goal, the list of the panelists was just oustanding. A broad spectrum of investors has illustrated the heterogeneous world of the private equity, ranging from individual investors to very specialized companies which provide money, but also managerial, organizational and networking resources in order to boost the firm's growth process. Some of these investors are specifically investing in the Southern Italy; others, while scouting for new business opportunities, are seriously considering the opportunity to diversify their portfolio investments looking at the "Mezzogiorno". In addition, academics coming from the top world Universities running special programs in private equity confirmed that, under certain conditions, the Southern firms are eligible to open their ownership to outside investors. And last but not least, the Ambassador of the US to Italy said that a very friendly relationship between these two countries must be converted also into effective and stable business partnerships. So, as Co-Organizers we can say this goal has been largely accomplished. But Taormina's event has to be only the beginning. Its primary goal is certainly to have revitalized the debate about the future development of the Southern Italian firms and all the main Universities located in the South of Italy have sent their representatives to Taormina in order to learn how to refuel the debate. But, now it is the turn of firms and entrepreneurs. Our firms are entrepreneurial by definition, no matter whether they operate in mature or emerging businesses. But, to be more competitive, they need to grow up and to expand even internationally. As it happens in other parts of the world, outside investors can be the best partners in these business projects. They provide money, but also managerial and organizational resources; they introduce effective governance systems into the firms; they release the best energies to revitalize both the business and the corporate level strategies. Depending on the stage of the life cycle development and on the organizational size, firms may experience the support of a broad range of investors, becoming more managerial, and being open to outside investors in their ownership structure. Can our Southern firms get the chance provided by the private equity? Taormina has just launched a challenge.

The workshop is done...but it is only the beginning!

The workshop is done! People are slowly coming back to the real life, after having enjoyed the magic atmosphere of Taormina and that of an interesting and challenging workshop. Private Equity & Entrepreneurship is going to be the introductory chapter of a newly released book about the promising future growth of many firms located in Southern Italy. No doubt, the workshop has been very intense and it stimulated a lot of considerations about the relationship between corporate finance and the firms. Among the attendants, several entrepreneurs are really interested to revitalize their firms through opening the corporate ownership structure to outside investors. On the other side, private equitors, venture capitalists and business angels which attended the Taormina's event are seriously considering Southern Italy as an opportunity to do profitable investments. The workshop is done and now it's time to enjoy the summer season. But, for sure, Taormina's event is going to be the beginning...

The water, the soul and ...the sculacciatopi

For those who attended both the rehearsal and the gala dinner, this workshop will be always reminded as that of poetry. Giambattista Dagnino, one of the Co-Organizers, introduced the metaphors of the water and the soul to address the importance of change, dynamism and passion while talking about the relationships between investors and firms. Another metaphor he introduced was that of "sculacciatopi" - the mice-spanking machine, a word that is difficult to translate even in the Italian language. While serving as "sculacciatopi", will the Academia contribute to the future development of Southern Italy?

The magic atmosphere of Taormina

So, the final destination of our journey just arrived. It's July 18th and the one-day-worskhop is going to start. Attendants, panelists, and session chairs have arrived or are going to arrive to Taormina. Beautiful location, magic atmosphere and great wheather conditions. All the Four Co-Organizers (Arturo Capasso, Giovanni Battista Dagnino, Rosario Faraci and Mario Sorrentino) and Giorgia D'Allura are in Taormina since the day before the workshop. Most of the Session Chairs have arrived yesterday to Taormina: Anna Gervasoni, Stefania Peveraro and Stefano Balsamo, while Senia Rapisarda is going to arrive from Bratislava. The US Ambassador to Italy Ronald Spogli arrived to Taormina, accompanied by Patrick Thrun, the Counsel General in Naples and Paul Corson, from the US Department of Commerce. Coming directly from the United States, Laura Resnikoff (Columbia University) and Donna DeCarolis (Drexel University) are enjoying Taormina while preparing to give their speech to the audience. Allan May (Angel Capital Association) approached Taormina coming from Palermo. Last but not least, most of the panelists are in Taormina, enjoying the warm and romantic atmosphere of this beautiful location.