On Wednesday night we launched Creative Social Italy and we had an excellent turn out. For me it was extremely interesting in that it felt a bit like one of the first UK Creative Socials in that many of the issues raised were those that the UK industry faced about 4 years ago – yes Italy really is that far behind. These included penetration of broadband, standardisation of creative formats, file size restrictions (20K limit), the lack of understanding from clients and also a lack of talent (with most of the fresh faces wanting to go and do tv ads as this was all they were taught by their lecturers). However I was met with the same freshness and determination to change things and for a country that is extremely political, a real willingness to work together to make a difference.

The first step was to get the discussion going but I hope that we will see some results over the next six months. In the meantime a big thanks to MSN for hosting the dinner afterwards as well as Marco from IconMedialab who hosted the event in their fantastic offices. Also like to thank the participants who included (in the photo from right to left) Carlo Fasoli (Nurun), Martino Lapini (Proximity), Rita Olivieri (MSN), Nicola Rovetta (Agency.com), me, Stefania Sabbatini (Proximity), Raffaella Bertini (Nurun), Marco Tosi (IconMedialab), Stefano Tumiatti (Cayenne), Maurizio Sala (Armando Testa) and not to forget the photographer, Rosanna Orlando (Profero).

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