Bologna, 22nd-24th November 2017
This year, the annual Coopstartup meeting, called Visions, was over three days. It was held in Bologna, at FICO EATALY WORLD – the largest agri-food park in the world.
Day 1 opened with a presentation of two innovative projects carried out by the co-promotors of the meeting – Coopstartup by Coopfond and VICOO (linking universities and cooperatives) by Legacoop Bologna. Then, there was a round table of experienced cooperators about how the cooperative world is facing the digital transformation, maintaining its distinctive values. After this institutional opening, the meeting got to the heart in the afternoon session. It began with the moving personal story of a young woman, who, born without arms, has succeeded in becoming a dancer and painter with the support of her family, which she likened to a startup. This introduction, called “It can be done”, was followed by four talks – in TED style – regarding the necessary skills to survive in the digital era, the research on the Coopstartup organizational model, cooperatives in the sharing economy and the use of digital platforms. The afternoon closed with the thirty cooperative startup pitches divided into six areas concerning their core activity – environmental sustainability, quality organic products, architecture and design, new technologies, social inclusion, innovative services.
Day 2 was devoted to the Speed Meetings – Meet, Share and Go – in which startup participants circulated from expert table to expert table every thirty minutes. Eight different expert tables responded to participants’ questions about legal and labor contract issues, private funding, digital and social innovation, institutional funding, HR and training, Legacoop networking, marketing and stewardship. The day closed with an open meeting in which startup participants shared their thoughts and decided what questions to ask the association leaders the following day.
Day 3 opened with a summary of the issues raised during the speed meeting tables conducted by eight facilitators that had assisted the experts. Finally, there was the concluding roundtable with six startups representatives and five Legacoop and Coopfond top managers discussing how to work towards a common vision overcoming their many differences. An important question raised by the startups was the need for further post startup assistance.
As well, there were many informal opportunities to meet and exchange ideas among startup participants and speakers from both cooperative and non-cooperative worlds. One of them was the get together dinner on the second day involving about one hundred participants.
