Held from March 8th to 10th in Florence, “Fiera Didacta” took place, organized under the patronage of the University of Florence, UNICEF, Confartigianato Firenze, and Confcommercio. It represents the most important Italian event in the sector for innovation in the world of schools and education.
Now in its sixth edition, it attracted thousands of visitors, hosting over 1000 events and more than 300 exhibitors over three days of meetings, workshops, and presentations.
We at WhoTeach were present for the second consecutive year in the Startup Arena in collaboration with EdTech Italia.
At the fair, we had the opportunity to meet and engage with various players in the sector—not only startups, but also schools and training institutions. Here’s how it went.
Didacta Fair 2023, Education and Technology for the Challenges of the Future
Didacta Fair is the sector event on new technologies in Education and training for all levels of education, from early childhood to higher education. It covers many aspects of education, such as nutrition or school architecture.
For innovative startups working in education, particularly those connected to the EdTech Italia community, it was an excellent opportunity to showcase their innovations in the field of education.
EdTech Italia: the Community for Digital Transformation in Schools
EdTech Italia is the ecosystem of Italian companies for education and future skills. It comprises over 400 Italian companies, such as Zanichelli Venture, Italian Tech Alliance, and H-FARM, that focus on educational innovation.
The startups in the EdTech network are innovating the way learning happens—thanks to their technologies—to better meet the new needs that emerged especially after COVID in the field of education.
EdTech Italia enables entrepreneurs and their innovative solutions to connect and gain exposure on a national and international level, also facilitating contact with academic and scientific communities. All of this is accompanied by continuous monitoring of the innovation landscape and its related trends.
This year, EdTech was also a partner of the fair, along with other important organizations such as Smart Building Italia, INDIRE, and MIUR.
Right within the EdTech Italia Startup Arena, we at SocialThingum promoted “WhoTeach.”
During the three days of the fair, we were able to interact with the sector’s market and other startups present, observing which needs were being met and how.
Education Technology: Why Choose and Support It
The fair was not only an exhibition but also an educational event, featuring workshops, conferences, and seminars designed on various themes, aimed at different professional figures and their fields.
Particularly innovative were the workshops dedicated to new teaching methodologies, such as one on using the metaverse as an educational virtual space, others focusing on STEM, and still others on new school architectures and furnishings.
As demonstrated by the high attendance—over 50,000 visitors—the educational technology industry is experiencing growing popularity, and at the same time, research and development activities in the sector are on the rise.
In particular, Italy is the fastest-growing market in Europe in the field of technological innovation for education.
Especially after COVID, the education technology sector expanded rapidly, creating a significant shift from traditional teaching to digital education—consider that 79% of Italian schools use platforms to manage classrooms in support of integrated digital teaching. This is why EdTech Italia was founded in April 2022, to support all companies entering and developing innovations in the field of education.
The Startups’ Comments
Francesco Epifania, CEO and Founder of WhoTeach, states: “It has been a great pleasure to bring our product WhoTeach to Didacta Fair for the second consecutive year. With our innovative solution, we aim to help teachers create highly personalized and effective online courses. For this reason, our Recommender System, powered by Artificial Intelligence, offers resources suited to achieving educational objectives, allowing entire e-learning courses to be developed while saving time and costs. Like other organizations, we also recognized the need to address the new requirements of training institutes and companies, which are not always fully aware of the potential of innovative edtech solutions. Didacta Fair was therefore an opportunity for us to promote a culture of innovation, helping people understand and appreciate the real potential of Artificial Intelligence in e-learning.”
Daniele Capogna, CEO and Founder of GECO, states: “At Didacta, we presented GECO For School, a 3D virtual green education pathway aimed at high schools across Italy. We are a startup that firmly believes that achieving sustainability objectives first requires developing sustainable education.
We combine Edtech and Green Education with the aim of creating a community that unites schools, universities, companies, and institutions.
At Didacta, we expected to expand our reach by connecting with more teachers to present our initiative, as well as meeting companies and educational stakeholders to develop synergies.
Participating in Didacta met our expectations: we engaged with numerous teachers for our training program, and the B2B interest was high.
Being in the EdTech Italia pavilion allowed us to have significant representation, which is difficult to achieve for a young startup. In fact, thanks to the association, we were even able to conduct two content sessions—a seminar for teachers on the importance of green education in schools and a pitch presentation in the startup area.
For future participation, I would expect personalized matching services based on exhibitors’ objectives to further optimize involvement.
In the future, we aim to develop training pathways, blockchain-based certifications, and green jobs, perhaps by collaborating with some well-known entities at Didacta that share our values.”
Miriam Torregrossa, COO of SiriusGame, states: “Sirius Game is already in its second edition of Didacta, and while last year we were admittedly more inexperienced and uncertain about what to expect, this year we were definitely more mature and ready to approach these three days with the right spirit. We were pleased to see many students who had the opportunity to try our platform and app for humanities subjects, giving us valuable feedback that we will certainly use in the future. The high presence of teachers and administrators gives us great hope and makes us believe that even innovative digital learning platforms like ours, along with other startups present, can truly find their space in the Italian educational landscape.”
Leonardo Guidoni, CEO and Founder of Matematica Superpiatta, states: “We are a spin-off from the University of L’Aquila and have developed a video game and a teaching methodology for Mathematics education. We also participated last year at Didacta Fair, but this year, thanks in part to the visibility provided by EdTech Italia, we received exceptional feedback in terms of contacts with schools and visitor participation. It was truly a great opportunity to introduce our educational video game, Matematica Superpiatta!”
Carmen Dal Monte, PhD, CEO and Founder of Takeflight, states: “Participating in Didacta 2023 was a significant milestone for Takeflight’s development in the Italian school market. The company organized two workshops—one for teachers, where the student questionnaire was presented and tested, and one for experts, which summarized the significant achievements of the startup over the past two years: two international grants won, and the latest significant recognition from America Innovazione, awarded by the Italia-USA Foundation in collaboration with the Chamber of Deputies.
Didacta is a unique opportunity for industry players,” said Carmen Dal Monte, CEO and Founder of Takeflight, “we met the major players in the sector and garnered significant interest in our innovative tool for analyzing the school environment, which combines attention to the individual student with that of the classroom context. The teachers who tested our solution were enthusiastic about its speed and the accuracy of our analysis.
Takeflight is active in both the Italian and US markets with its profiles for schools and businesses.”
Sara Ollani, Sales & Marketing Specialist at ArtCentrica, states: “As the ArtCentrica team, we participated in Didacta Italia in the area managed by Edtech Italia.
ArtCentrica is an interactive platform for Art education, aimed at Schools, Museums, Institutions, and Universities. The platform allows exploration of over 7,000 high-resolution images of artworks preserved by Italian and international cultural institutions. Through its unique features, ArtCentrica facilitates teaching and lesson creation, making them engaging and dynamic. At the same time, it enables students to study Art actively, making them the protagonists of their own learning.
The fair was an emotional experience: an environment where we built relationships with many teachers and forged friendships with other startups. We are thrilled with the positive feedback ArtCentrica received, which confirms how effective the platform is as a teaching tool.”
Raffaella Silbernagl, CEO of Feed Their Minds, states: “Feed Their Minds is an innovative startup that offers edtech solutions designed to provide assessment tools and enhance talent and divergent thinking in children and adolescents. Our activities include training tools for teachers and parents, as well as video games for children. At Didacta, we presented our talent enhancement initiatives for the K12 segment and a PCTO project carried out with a humanities institute. The seminar on Philosophy in primary school, which served as an occasion to present our skill games, was particularly successful. We are very pleased with the EdtechItalia network, which has proven to be particularly fruitful not only on this occasion.”
Daniele Angeloni, Educational Coordinator at Docendum, states: “Pooling different experiences and sensitivities is the hallmark of Edtech Italia, and our experience at Didacta Fair reinforced that approach.
It was extremely interesting to see how other startups are tackling a market unique in its kind—the school sector.
We at Docendum, for instance, are pioneers in disseminating modern coding concepts using the most traditional medium available: in-person training.
This duality is our strength, as it keeps us closely aligned with teachers’ needs while maintaining the vision of a school that harmoniously blends tradition and innovation, adapting its educational approach to the requirements of the times; a school that is open to social and business realities and bold in proposing new educational and technological solutions.”
A Fair for Innovative Education
Didacta Fair is, therefore, a major launchpad for innovation in education. As this is our second year participating in person, once again, Didacta Fair provided us with the opportunity to understand the market’s opportunities and needs, offering us an overall view of the world of education—which, for us at WhoTeach, is not limited to school education but embraces continuous learning suitable for everyone.
The world of education must be innovated, and this is possible thanks to the new technologies offered by startups like SocialThingum and valuable solutions like WhoTeach.