Dear friends:

First and foremost, we would like to wish all of you the most sincere Happy Holidays and a great 2019!

This holiday season is very special to us as it marks the first anniversary of our project.

It was on November 29th, 2017 that MEET ITALY was launched with its first major event at the Italian Cultural Institute in Los Angeles by hosting as a key note speaker Silvio Angori, CEO of iconic Italian design and engineering house Pininfarina.

Since that first step into the limelight, MEET ITALY accomplished quite a lot…for a 1 year old! We grew in numbers and in depth of professional background. Our database now shows close to 300 high level executives, professionals, scientists and entrepreneurs who are also sympathizers with our idea of professional excellence with an Italian matrix.

MEET ITALY was successful in attracting a diverse set of speakers, from Hollywood experts and power brokers to scientists, from journalists to university professors. Our gracious speakers were able to convey their expertise and charisma in different environments; we had large events at the IIC with different formats – key note speaker and panels – but we also leveraged each other’s expertise and vision in smaller settings such as the “brainstormers.” We also ventured out of our “home” in Westwood to produce a great debate on the stock market at the Skirball Center in collaboration with the American Association of Individual Investors and Pepperdine University.

MEET ITALY was also present in Silicon Valley with an intervention at the June 5th SVIEC event when Master of Ceremonies extraordinaire, Jeff Capaccio invited Genoa’s Mayor Marco Bucci.

So it was a busy year… and it’s about to get busier. In fact, we are already planning more developments for 2019. More details will follow but we can already pre-announce that our first major event should happen on March 7t, in collaboration with the IIC, when we will be hosting a presentation by Maurizio Vecchione.

Maurizio symbolizes the MEET ITALY ideal by having distinguished himself as a global scientist, entrepreneur and now as a philanthropist in collaboration with Bill Gates.

MEET ITALY is also working hard to develop more “brainstormers” as a form of targeted and high-level networking opportunities. Ideas and direction from our members in this area are welcome.

As we grow in relevance and possibilities, we encourage our base to interact with our team closely to develop new ideas and naturally more corporate sponsorship opportunities.

MEET ITALY is also working toward meaningful bridge building with other related constituencies and geographical areas. On the digital side of the world, we are inviting our members to continue to contribute to our website white papers and executive analyses in their field of expertise, in an effort to elevate the vision building process of our platform. As far as social media, MEET ITALY is currently working on the setting up of a LINKEDIN group and invitations to join will go out shortly.

And so we thank you all for the support and interest in our idea but we would also like to express our special and most sincere appreciation to Valeria Rumori, IIC Director and MEET ITALY co-founder, for her relentless passion and work.

We hope you will all have great and peaceful holidays and we look forward to seeing you again in the new year!

Davide Accomazzo

MEET ITALY Co-founder