Feb. 28 – There is always a first time, even for the New York Stock Exchange. Wall Street is about to host its first barcamp, an international network of open conferences for which participants themselves propose the contents. The initiative is promoted by ItaliaCamp as part of the international mission UsaCamp; and it sees 14 Italian startups participate in a presentation by Riccardo Luna, vice president of the Make in Italy Foundation, to then meet with over 20 venture capitalists and investors. The start-ups, all with high potential for development in the fields of telecoms, internet, life sciences and green economy, will introduce themselves to investors and venture capitalists to attract international investments and new business partners. During a first phase, held in the Wall Street dining room, a plenary session gave the companies the opportunity to present themselves in a 90 seconds speech. James Pallotta, chairman and managing director of Raptor Group and president of the Roma football club, and Guido Fienga, strategic advisor highbridge principal strategies and head of strategy and average for AS Roma, were present. “The Italian market is for American investors a primary reference point in Europe,” said Pallotta, who wanted to emphasize the interest of the Group in its search for new business opportunities in social media, entertainment and tourism, all areas in which Italy still has ample room for growth. The plenary session concluded with the presentation of Italian best practices innovation thanks to Cosimo Palmisano’s Ecce Customer startup and the portal “StarsUp.it.” Ecce Customer won in 2011 the “La tua idea per il paese” prize organized by ItaliaCamp and then funded in 2012 with an American round of $15 million from the Axel Johnson Inc. of New York Fund. StarsUp.it is the first equity crowd-funding platform authorized by Consob and the first website in the world authorized by a regulatory authority to raise money online. The barcamp then continued on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange, where 4 thematic area corners (telco, internet, life sciences and green economy), where the startups used the elevator pitch technique to illustrate their project to a panel of investors including Raptor Group, Highbridge Capital Management, Axel Johnson, Quotidian Ventures, Axa, Global Isreael Ventures, and LDJ Capital. The barcamp kicked off the international UsaCamp mission, sponsored by ItaliaCamp and scheduled until March 3 in New York and Washington. Accredited by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Embassy of Italy in the US, the Embassy of the United States of America in Italy and the American Chamber of Commerce in Italy, the initiative is supported by Cnr, Enel Green Power, Eni, Ferrovie dello Stato, Finmeccanica, Gruppo Unipol, Invitalia, Inps, Padiglione Italia di Expo 2015, Poste Italiane, Rcs MediaGroup, Sace, Sisal, Terna and Wind Telecomunicazioni.
