Today, the Giro d’Italia, with its Borgo Valsugana-Treviso stage, takes us to explore the heart of innovation, as it arrives just a few kilometres from H-Farm CAMPUS, Europe’s largest technology hub and the world’s first Venture Incubator. It is a Made in Italy entrepreneurial platform that transforms innovative ideas into digital projects designed for companies and a training hub that prepares young people to be protagonists of the change and challenges they will encounter.
The creator, CEO and President of H-Farm Campus (where H stands for Human) is the brilliant entrepreneur from Treviso Riccardo Donadon, born in 1967.
A firm believer that “technology is progress only if it develops around people,” Donadon has always been involved in creating virtual platforms, including Mall Italy Lab, the first system for secure payments across Italy.
A campus based on a unique model
Donadon founded H-Farm, a technology campus and international college built in a beautiful agricultural estate (51 hectares) on the outskirts of Venice, in 2005 with only eight collaborators. Sustainable and state-of-the-art technologically, the campus occupies a total of 30,000 square metres of covered area, thanks to the recovery of abandoned buildings already available in the area. It can accommodate up to 3,000 students and is based on a unique model in Europe that combines investment, counselling and training.
Looking for new solutions
H-Farm is a place where young people, teachers and professionals from all over the world continuously research, study and experiment with new solutions to make companies more sustainable and ready for the future. ‘Sometimes people fail to understand what we do here,’ Donadon said in an interview. “Is it a consulting company? Is it a school? Is it a start-up? You can’t give the right value to these three things together.”
What is certain is that today, H-Farm is the most important innovation centre in Europe.
Congratulations to those who ‘look the future in the eye’ and bring Made in Italy innovation to the world!