Quarantalks Merry Xmas. Holiday Greetings from the BBS Community
24 December 2020Together with the protagonists of the Quarantalks, the series of meetings that took place during the lockdown, a few hundred Alumni, Faculty and friends of BBS exchanged greetings on zoom and on social networks.
Michele Antoniazzi, Max Bergami, Stefano Bonaccini, Cristiana Capotondi, Barbara Carfagna, Pier Luigi Celli, Gabriella Crafa, Stefano Domenicali, Giovanni Floris, Valentina Marchesini, Ettore Messina, Andrea Pezzi, Michele Pontercorvo, Andrea Pontremoli, Romano Prodi, Alec Ross, Francesco Ubertini and many others.
After the opening theme with Piero Odorici’s sax, Barbara Carfagna, Rai journalist and author, known for her broadcasts on digital innovation, opened the event, doing the honors.
Giovanni Floris wished our Community not only a new year of recovery but also the ability to continue helping people to remain lucid and anchored to reality, also thanks to the great strength represented by culture and training. A profound speech that spoke of learning, generations, politics and the future. Aware of the fact that “the role of knowledge is to unite and not to divide people”.
These themes have been taken up by Romano Prodi, who began by emphasizing how the pandemic has redesigned international political-economic relations with a speed never seen before. Suffice it to say that China, which started downhill, became a world power again in just 11 months. The secret of a country like China? Having been able to project its expectations on the future, investing in training and culture. To recover it would be enough, therefore, to take an example and reorganize our country around its founding element, culture, rebuilding its spirit. The former Prime Minister and President of the EU Commission wished for 2021 in which Italy will start “winning a few races” again.
Ettore Messina of Armani Olimpia Basket recalled the early years of BBS, when it was still called Almaweb, highlighting the centrality of people despite the evolution of technologies. He also wished the whole Community to be able to be a guide capable of taking us out of “the personalism, fragmentation and incertitude” that risk characterizing our time.
It was then the turn of Francesco Ubertini, Magnificent Rector of the University of Bologna and President of BBS, who returned to the themes of the generational split and escape from reality introduced by Floris at the beginning. A possible solution would be to relaunch culture in our country, with investments in training. A relaunch that also involves an evolution of the Italian university, which must be able to do self-criticism and actively engage in favoring inclusion, openness and innovation. The keyword for 2021? “Engagement”, an invitation to go in the direction of real and profound involvement in the processes of change. The Rector thanked the BBS staff and the entire Community for the 2020 results and, above all, for the role that the School has been able to assume.
Max Bergami, the Dean of BBS, started from Competence as a value and then recalled some key moments of 2020: the online transition, the Quarantalks, the new headquarters at Bologna Fiere, smartworking and the projects for the new Campus. 2020 was an extraordinary and unrepeatable year, which taught a lot. “Lead, Learn, Live” is the summary: live life to the fullest, never stop learning and exercise the responsibility of leadership, in any context. With a big wish for 2021.
And after Max Bergami it was the turn of Alec Ross, connected from Baltimore, just landed on his return from Bologna. Ross invited everyone to imagine in order to create the future, something more necessary today than ever. In the next 10 years, there will be a redistribution of innovation, which will no longer be localized in a few areas of the Earth, a process in which Bologna can play a central role. Alec’s optimism is contagious and his wishes for Happy Holidays are also a sharing of his positive approach to the future, to life, to the world and to Italy in particular.
Best wishes also from the couple Andrea Pezzi and Cristiana Capotondi. The entrepreneur and the actress, as well as Vice President of Lega Pro, talked about the importance of finding the right motivation to move forward even in difficult times like the ones we are experiencing. Cristiana spoke about the commitments of Italian women footballers, a real bulwark of human and cultural growth that still needs to be promoted in our country. Andrea reminded us how digital is important, because it allows us to work with great ease from home, but that just as important is that human closeness which, also for emotional and empathy reasons, facilitates the exchange between learners and teachers. Because we also learn through “epidermal emotions” and, above all, by example. And then the wish can only be to be able to meet in person again, without the mediation of new technologies.
Enrico Letta, former prime minister and Dean at SciencePo, made a surprise by bringing his greetings and recalling how the end of the pandemic will not be a return to the past, but the beginning of a new present, with a better balance between teaching in presence and new digital tools.
Stefano Domenicali, the new leader of Formula 1, invited the Community to learn the lessons of 2020: too easy to forget and make this experience disappear, “let’s let history be the teacher” for a better tomorrow for everyone.
Andrea Pontremoli, CEO of Dallara, dedicated to the Community a great classic of the holidays: a beautiful Christmas song! Digital and Innovation has been the main themes in his speech, during which he wished the Community to be able to seize and exploit the opportunities that this pandemic has offered us, also with reference to the local context, in a Bologna that is first in Italy in quality of life and that has been able to prove itself at the forefront of new technologies.
Words of encouragement, which look to the future, also from our Managing Director, Alfredo Montanari, who pointed out that the keyword of the year in BBS was “community”. Among the people who work with us, including Faculty, Alumni, Students, Participants and all the staff, there was an ability to come together and support each other which is the best possible omen for next year.
Michele Antoniazzi, Ferrari Human Resources Director, resumed the thread of the conversation that saw him as a protagonist last spring, indicating how the industrial sector has evolved in a direction of productivity, despite the difficult times. An important result obtained also thanks to the cooperation between public and private, but above all thanks to the collaboration between people, especially among young people, also found in our Global MBA participants. The good news often goes unnoticed, but this reactivity is a positive aspect that is the best omen for 2021.
Valentina Marchesini, HR Director of Marchesini Group also spoke about the ability to react and reinvent work in times of pandemic. The community and the importance of being together are key values of the company which, leveraging this aspect, has managed not to stop even in the middle of the pandemic. The wish for 2021 is to turn a terrible year into a positive one by asking ourselves if we are in our place if we are really living the life we want, in order to orient the future towards choices that represent us.
Michele Pontecorvo, President of Ferrarelle, wished everyone a more sustainable future in an “absurd year”. A message of development and responsibility that is also a commitment for the company it represents. He also thanked the Community for the support offered to Telethon of which Pontecorvo is an ambassador wishing everybody to be able to find their way in 2021 in the best possible direction.
Gabriella Crafa, Manager and Vice President of Diversity Lab, a non-profit that deals with diversity and inclusion, but above all Alumna of the School’s first master in 2001, took up the theme of responsibility, launching a beautiful slogan, which is the best wish for 2021: “Use your Power”. “From the smallest person to the largest company, it is the key to making the world better and making everyone feel at home. Just like us tonight, in this situation and in this School, we feel at home ”.
In conclusion, the president of the Emilia Romagna Region Stefano Bonaccini recalled how at the center of our thoughts must be a serious commitment for a more sustainable future: for people, through work and the dignity that it follows, and for the environment, with special attention to climate change. Bonaccini, who highlighted the importance of BBS for the recovery of the economy, wished the Community to continue to build an open and conscious society, oriented towards innovation.
Quarantalks Merry Xmas and its protagonists support Telethon.
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