Entrepreneurs’ Café meetings: uniting Bicocca University and business for innovation

To create networking between students and experts by initiating a community of best practices between the main players linked to entrepreneurship and innovation with researchers and students at the Bicocca University of Milan. This is the aim of ‘Entrepreneurs’ Café‘ , aMusainitiative that provides a series of meetings with a distinctly informal aspect, an added value that encourages dialogue between these two worlds.

The first event ‘Technology transfer, instructions for use: the market perspective‘ was held on 28 February at the FrancoAngeli Academy in Milan, a space open to the neighbourhood where cultural events of various kinds are organised. dealing with the topic of technology transfer. The two guests at the Café were two technology transfer experts at two companies PwC Tech Transfer Hub and Deloitte Officine with different backgrounds, namely Luca Passoni, Senior Manager at Innovation PwC Tech Transfer Hub, and Gabriele Secol, Partner at Deloitte Officine Innovazione. The next appointments are scheduled for 28 May and 17 September. The first will be on topics related to finance and the other on topics related to idea generation.

“There is asharing of experiences and a debate with questions and answers, from our point of view the participation was qualitatively and quantitatively very satisfying,” explain the organisers. “From these meetings we also expect the participation of students with entrepreneurial ideas, in itself the setting assumes that the audience has curiosity but also an idea, there were mostly PhD students and academic staff dealing with these issues.”

“For us, the contribution that these meetings can make from the point of view of building an entrepreneurship-oriented culture within the university is very important,” they continue. “Bicocca already has this vocation in itself, but it is always necessary to work to strengthen and reinforce it, hence the reason for opening up to these professionals who are external to the university. One of the main advantages of these events is the ability to open up the academic world to the outside world, to get researchers out of the laboratory, let’s say , toenter a market logic, tobring their idea, their new technology into new environments compared to those they are used to, perhaps finalising their technological solution‘.

Thedistinctly informal aspect of these meetings should be emphasised; this is what characterises them and gives them added value. Even the chosen location was identified to favour this informality, a choice due to the fact that it is within the district but also a tradition of hosting exhibitions and debates or events of various kinds. It is, of course, also possible to connect via web, speak and ask questions to the guests. Participation in the event is free, but registration is required.