The Rimini Meeting – on its 42nd edition – will take place this year in presence, at the Rimini Fair, from the 20th to the 25th of August. The meeting – whose title “The courage to say I” is a quote from a text by the Danish philosopher Kierkegaard – will be full of round tables, discussions and cultural initiatives and will be broadcast live on multiple digital channels and in multiple languages. It will be a time of reflection and global recovery in the context of such a difficult exit from the pandemic.
The President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, will attend the opening event on the 20th of August.
Today, during the official presentation of the program at the Embassy of Italy to the Holy See, after the greeting speeches of Ambassador Pietro Sebastiani and Bernhard Scholz, President of the Meeting Foundation for Friendship among Peoples, the following spoke: Maria Cristina Messa, Minister for the University, Sister Alessandra Smerilli, Under-Secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and Marco Sesana, Country Manager & CEO of Generali Italia and Global Business Lines.
“In a future where uncertainty and unpredictability will increasingly be our fellow travelers”, the Minister for University and Research, Maria Cristina Messa, declared, “the role of the University becomes crucial to help young people to learn a method that allows them to remain firm and find solutions even in difficult situations such as the one we are still going through. And while the University has to accompany young people, we face today the task of improving the reach and rules available: the PNRR planned investments are massive and we must use them well, but if we want to change tack, we must accomplish, as soon as possible, the reform path that we have set in motion with Parliament”.
“Having the courage to say I” is an assumption of responsibility, a creative commitment and attention to dialogue even in difficult and dramatic moments. This courage, faithful to the desire for one self’s and the others’ good is the true antidote to individualism and collectivism. It’s about rediscovering the original connection between “I” and “we” “, said Bernhard Scholz, President of the Meeting Foundation for friendship among peoples. He also added: “I hope that the Meeting will be able to contribute to a recovery focused on the future of the young generations. We will discuss the Recovery Fund from different perspectives – not by chance is the fund called “the Next Generation EU” – and above all we will propose many meetings focused on education, training and the labor market”.
“The Rimini Meeting, precisely because of its long-standing openness to dialogue, national and indeed international meetings and confrontation, becomes even more essential”, Ambassador Pietro Sebastiani began, “and it always impress us for how he feels his responsibility to establish a dialogue especially in the reconstruction that awaits us: to dare, to take risks, to have the courage to do, to move forward, to expose ourselves knowing how to fully assume all our responsibilities with the contribution of everyone to the common good”.
“In this new context we are experiencing unprecedented changes”, Marco Sesana declared, “and all this requires a vision of development through two different directions: sustainability and digitalization. For Generali, sustainability is a deliberate choice: it means designing, developing and measuring one’s business in relation to the great challenges of being a transformative, generative company with an impact on the society and the planet. Sustainability is also part of the strategic choices of the next few years that will determine the ability of companies and states to innovate. A challenge that we, institutions or companies, must take up to become engines of change and sustainable development for the community and the country”.
For Sister Alessandra Smerilli, “Pope Francis shows us two verbs that should guide the correct relationship with the earth and with our brothers and sisters: to cultivate and to guard. The earth is entrusted to our custody, a custody that must be creative and that requires transformation – cultivation,- so that it can bear fruit for us. Likewise, relationships with others also need to be “guarded and nurtured”. If we apply these principles to the economy, we realize, first of all, that we must move from a logic of maximization to a logic of equilibrium, from a short-term logic to a medium-long term one. And we understand that, in order for the economy to be respectful of people, relationships and Earth, all the players in the system must do their part”.
Starting today, Tuesday 13th of July, the program of meetings, exhibitions and performances of the 42nd edition will be published on the website www.meetingrimini.org. Furthermore, from Thursday the 15th of July, the Android and iOS versions of the completely renewed Meeting app will be available for download from the Play Store and Apple Store. This application will be essential to attend the event: it will give you physical access to the Fair from the 20th to the 25th of August, allow you to book participation in conferences and visits to exhibitions, to read news and access additional contents.
The Green Pass, or some equivalent, must also be entered in the app, in order to ensure compliance with the regulations for the protection from Covid-19. “We have developed a simple, very precise and accurate management system”, explains Emmanuele Forlani, director of the Meeting, “to allow a large and spontaneous attendance in presence, as in the best Meeting tradition, assuring at the same time a high standard of safety. I believe that this model can also offer ideas for other future events”.
The press kit can be downloaded on Tuesday 13th of July from 12.00 at the link https://meetingrimini.news/Presiamento-Meeting-2021. It includes:
• the official press release file
• the program of conferences and shows
• exhibitions’ sheets
• the press release of the “Meeting Music Contest” initiative
• press releases of partner companies
• (starting from 1 pm) photos and video clips of the presentation
