The Women&Technologies: research and innovation conference, organized by Didael and the European Parliament (Milan Office), came to a close today at Milan's Convention Centre.

The 41 speakers, important figures operating within Universities, Businesses and Public Administrations worldwide, shone light on the contribution of women as creators and producers of technologies, as protagonists of research and innovation rather than mere “consumers”, in front of an international audience of over 400 people. The topics covered were:

Women and ICT in Europe, Art and affective computing; Interaction and dialogue in the Web Communities of the future, and Innovation in Enterprises and Institutions.

It achieved numerous institutional acknowledgements: the High Patronage of the President of the Republic; the sponsorship of Viviane Reding, Member of the European Commission for Information Society and Media, of the Higher Education and Research Ministry, of the Minister for Public Administration and Innovation, of the Equal Opportunities Minister and of the Economy and Finance Ministry – State General Accounting Department, Lombardy Region Accounting Department and Chamber of Commerce of Crotone. Complimentary messages were received from Mariastella Gelmini, Minister for Higher Education and Research, from Simonetta Matone, Private Secretary of the Equal Opportunities Ministry, and from Diana Bracco, President of Confindustria's special Research and Innovation and Expo 2015 projects. Direct participants included Alberto Mattioli, Vice President of the Province of Milan, Marco Accornero, member of the chamber committee representing Carlo Sangalli, President of Milan's Chamber of Commerce, and the MEPs Pia Locatelli, Cristiana Muscardini and Patrizia Toia.

 

Gianna Martinengo, creator and chairperson, brought the conference to a close:

“We need to design infrastructures that are able to include people, with all their social and collaborative dimensions, in the production cycle. This is why technological research requires integrating, as prescribed by what is termed a “holistic approach”, the contributions of diverse disciplines; not only logic and mathematics, but also psychology, the social sciences, cognitive science, education, anthropology and literature. This is where true innovation is born, in the ability to consider different points of view that create new questions and new solutions. Women, the bearers of a vision that always perceives the “humanistic” components of any given problem, can make an original contribution in this sense, as the words of the speakers at Women&Technologies have been able to show.”

 

The end of the proceedings saw the Le Tecnovisionarie® 2008prize, conferred by a panel of experts and opinion leaders in the fields of business and technology, be awarded to Fiorella Operto (School of Robotics Association, Genoa) for her focused efforts to involve young women in scientific and technological disciplines, particularly in the field of robotics.

 

Ample visibility was guaranteed to the institutions and companies that supported the initiative; the contribution and participation of the speakers generated significant media attention, as shown by the over 200 articles published and the 342,334 visits and 28,330 visitors, from 50 countries, currently registered as having accessed the web 2.0 portal (www.womentech.info), created to fuel the buzz surrounding the conference.

 

The portal will remain active and will become the fulcrum of an open discussion on the themes covered by the conference, gathering and diffusing the contributions of those involved; it will thus constitute and important element of continuity in the build-up to an expected “2009 edition” of Women&Technologies.