Enterprises. At the Colonia Paradies in Cerevia a model of regeneration

"The best time to address problems is when there aren't any, so we thought ahead."

This is the entrepreneurial philosophy that guides Technacy, a telecommunications company founded in Cervia, near Ravenna, in 2011 by Vittorio Foschi. This philosophy led to the Connecting Place project, presented today, Saturday, September 23, at the Walter Chiari municipal theater in Cervia, with the conference "Regenerate to connect: colonies, businesses, and the territory."

Specifically, regenerate the former Paradies colony to make it not only the new company headquarters, but also a space open to entrepreneurial creativity.

As Technacy founder and CEO Foschi explains, "The need arose a long time ago, from the belief that the best time to address problems is when they don't exist, and so we thought about the future in advance."

The company, growing and facing the problem of working space, thought it was a good idea to "Look for an area to regenerate to make it part of the headquarters". But an area that was "Interesting, because it's on the seafront, and thus responds," Foschi continues, "to personnel needs, which are difficult to find and develop.

The colony seemed to us to be the intersection of all these dots and an excellent opportunity to find our space, improve the lives of those who work with us and try to create a place where we can bring other companies and create new opportunities."

Foschi hopes to obtain approval for the project within six months so that the first stone can be laid in the summer of 2024, perhaps for the iconic Tour de France's passage through Romagna.

And a year later, the first step will be taken to make the former Paradies colony once again available to businesses, employment, education, and civil society. The Region believes in the project, with the President of the Legislative Assembly, Emma Petitti, present at the Cervia theater: "The public sector," he observes, "can network with private entities because it's a challenge of our time. Redevelopment, regeneration, and conversion of spaces, which ultimately means enhancing the history and culture of the area while generating jobs."

Behind this type of investment, he adds, "There's also a social challenge. But it's also a new perspective that speaks to the transversality of politics.".

Officina Meme Architetti and the Palloncino Rosso association also collaborate on Connecting Place. Maria Cristina Garavelli of Officina Meme explains that "Architecture is connection. It offers the possibility of connecting not only places but people. It creates the conditions for places, even disused and abandoned ones, which need to be rekindled, with new creative energy, to accommodate people's needs."

Therefore, in a historical moment in which it is necessary to rethink the territory with a view to zero land consumption, it is "Good design, which architects are capable of managing, is crucial. We are a firm that focuses on urban regeneration, a great creative opportunity to convert spaces like the summer camps that are a defining feature of the Romagna coast."

The Red Balloon knows something about it and, between 2018 and 2020, it remembered Luca Zamagni of the association's board of directors, "We oversaw a participatory urban regeneration project at the Colonia Bolognese in Rimini. It was a place exposed to decay, and we turned it into a sort of civic hub, filling it with culture, events, and initiatives, also incorporating proposals from civil society." Therefore, it's "a pleasure to see that in Cervia there's a project guided by the same values ​​and principles and promoted by a company that involved us."

For Technacy, creativity, research, and innovation are key words in its business model. The goal is to create technological solutions that improve the way we use the data channel provided by a SIM or e-SIM. Over the past 10 years, the company has grown steadily, both in terms of its team size, which has grown from four to 18 employees, and in its profitability, which has achieved a growth rate of 58,92%.

In 2022, the turnover will reach 3,8 million euros. Technacy IT and digital solutions process and manage the data needed for open Innovation processes and in Italy they are used by Tim and Vodafone, with more than 400.000 SIM cards connected by 1.500 companies. At an international level, this spring it signed agreements with the Dutch group Calvi, one of the world's leading companies in digital invoicing, and with the German Axiros, leader in the mobile work service.