From March 20 to 22, professionals and experts in the field of education and digital learning from all over Italy participated in Fiera Didacta, the trade fair event dedicated to innovative projects in education. As per tradition, Fiera Didacta was held in Florence at Fortezza da Basso.
The event was promoted by Firenze Fiera, with the scientific patronage of INDIRE, the National Institute for Documentation, Innovation and Educational Research.
We at WhoTeach also had the opportunity to participate in the event to present our professional Digital Learning platform and its new Artificial Intelligence features. This opportunity was given to us thanks to Edtech Italia, the association that promotes and supports the most innovative projects in the field of education in Italy.
Fiera Didacta: the success of the seventh edition
The seventh edition of Fiera Didacta Italy marked an important milestone for the national and international educational landscape. The event, which saw an unprecedented participation with over 20,000 visitors, confirmed its role as a catalyst for innovation and development in the education sector, from primary education to higher education.
During the event, Fiera Didacta Italy presented a wide range of content, with a particular focus on the latest trends in the field of Artificial Intelligence, robotics, and coding, laying the foundations for an in-depth reflection on the evolution of teaching methods in the digital age. The more than 1,780 events organized and the 430 exhibitors, which registered a 26% increase compared to the previous edition (source: INDIRE), offered participants a unique opportunity to discover the latest innovations in the sector and to discuss innovative strategies and solutions for teaching and learning.
The program of the fair highlighted the importance of current themes such as sustainability and education on climate change, through seminars and workshops that stimulated a critical reflection on how to integrate these global challenges into educational curricula. Equally significant was the attention given to physical and mental well-being, with events dedicated to promoting a culture of movement and wellness within the school context.
Edtech Italia and the Italian start-ups dedicated to education
At Fiera Didacta 2024 the Start-up Area was managed by Edtech Italia, the reference community for promoting the Italian Education ecosystem both domestically and abroad. Thanks to EdTech Italia, as many as twenty-one innovative projects had the opportunity to present their solutions and progress.
In the 2024 edition of Fiera Didacta Italy, EdTech Italia played a fundamental role in enhancing innovation in the education field, demonstrating how the start-ups in its network are revolutionizing the learning process through cutting-edge technologies.
In particular, EdTech Italia contributed to the fair by organizing workshops on very current topics led by start-ups, and by promoting events with investors and influential stakeholders in the sector, such as Gruppo Spaggiari, Sanoma and Mr Digital.
Participant statements
Francesco Epifania, CEO and co-founder of WhoTeach, states: “A rich experience of contacts and opportunities: this is what our participation in Fiera Didacta 2024 represented for us. WhoTeach is the intelligent Digital Learning platform that supports training institutes and HR managers in creating online courses and delivering corporate training with a complete solution for every educational activity. This year we presented our new generative Artificial Intelligence features in Florence: a system that allows generating new educational materials such as lessons, slides, videos, quizzes, and assessment activities via prompts, basing the information on the content already available as chosen by the trainers. In this way, we combine the ease of conversation with the reliability of the selected sources. We are very satisfied with the public’s response and interest in our new system. Even the high participation at our workshop “AI in education: the advantages and potential of Digital Intelligent Learning” demonstrated that there is great curiosity towards these new technologies: we are happy to have contributed to the EdTech Italia community and to the Fiera Didacta audience.”
Cristina Angelillo, CEO and Co-Founder of Marshmallow Games, declares: “Didacta opens minds and offers a new perspective on the latest innovations in the school world. It is a unique opportunity to consolidate business relationships and forge new collaborations. At Didacta, we presented our STEM software for schools, ranging from early education to high school: Smart Tales and ZenCreate Edu. Smart Tales offers STEM activities for kindergarten and primary school children based on gamification; while ZenCreate Edu is a software tool for teachers and students to create interactive presentations with a strong gaming component. The welcome from school administrators and teachers was exceptional, we recorded a high participation in workshops and had very productive discussions. We return home with interesting insights and new ideas to innovate the world of teaching.”
Miriam Torregrossa, COO of Sirius Game, comments: “Sirius Game is a project born at Harvard in 2021 with the idea of creating a digital tool based on Playful Learning that can support secondary school students and teachers. This year at Didacta we also presented a new upcoming product, Sirius in Wonderland, dedicated to primary schools. This experience is always very important to showcase our solutions, as well as to meet potential partners with whom to build something new.”
Daniele Angeloni, General Manager of Docendum, says: “Our experience in the EdTech start-up area was incredible. The contact with other sector players and the enthusiasm with which schools responded energized us. Our training, delivered in person across all Regions and customized to the specific needs of each school—as well as our support in the administrative processes of DM65 and 66 and on MePA—has been greatly appreciated. By not offering only standardized training packages but also tailoring the intervention of our Experts and Tutors not only to the Institute as a whole but to individual classes (we request an online meeting before launching our courses to understand the available multimedia tools, robotics systems, and which classes have already experienced STEM programs), the schools that met us at Didacta greatly appreciated that from this discussion emerged a more detailed program capable of meeting the needs of every teacher and every class of students involved.”
Marco Cappellini, CEO and co-founder of Artcentrica, states: “A great experience for ArtCentrica at DIDACTA! Our booth in the EdTech Italia space was always crowded with teachers and partners, eager to try Artcentrica EDU and the many innovations, among which the ArtCentrica Stories were favorites: ‘What are ArtCentrica Stories?’ and Botticelli’s ‘The Birth of Venus’. The events ‘Art to Know the World. The three-step didactic approach with ArtCentrica’ at New Line, ‘cARTE in Play: between cards and screens, art reveals itself’ and ‘The Regional Council and the school. Innovation and student participation: ArtCentrica, Generazione News and the promotion of reading’ were very successful, particularly FutureArt Education, which attests to the value that students and teachers attribute to our platform for innovative art education and learning.”
Ines Lazzarini, CEO of EducazioneDigitale by CivicaMente, declares: “The Didacta experience has confirmed that it is a great moment for Edtech and that teachers know how to customize the use of content, applying it to the specific needs of their classes. Even the use of Artificial Intelligence will follow this direction, and we are pleased to integrate it into EducazioneDigitale.it precisely to foster personalized study and a new way of assigning homework. Didacta has confirmed that teachers are ready for this challenge while remaining at the center of the relationship with their students. We look forward to meeting them again soon with the strong support of EdTech Italia in the upcoming phases of Didacta!”
Michela Barbieri, Cofounder & President of bSmart Labs, states: “Didacta was a valuable opportunity to introduce to the school world bSmart Books, our new app for the educational use of digital textbooks and their resources. We are pleased to note that the feedback received during the numerous presentation and personalized technology transfer sessions was positive, with much appreciation for the new features introduced. Great interest was also generated by bSmart School, the project that simplifies access to digital content through the direct involvement of schools. Furthermore, the rich calendar of events organized alongside our partners confirmed the uniqueness and distinctiveness of the bSmart platform: an Italian, integrated, complete, and secure proposal, open to all publishers in the educational field.”
Raffaella Silbernagl, CEO of Feed Their Minds, declares: “Feed Their Minds proposes education and training projects aimed at promoting talent and soft skills starting from early childhood, doing so through educational paths as well as tools for assessing the soft skills present and those needing improvement in children. At Didacta we presented our two tools: Junior Ability Games, to identify gifted children, and Skill Games, to recognize soft skills in children. We received a positive response that encourages us to move forward.”
Raimondo Lapillo, CEO of Solion, says: “Our start-up, Solion, is transforming the way people make important life decisions by providing insights and analyses on hundreds of thousands of institutions of all levels—from early education to universities—making career guidance and choice a more transparent process. Before the fair, we had high expectations regarding networking opportunities, the promotion of our products, and the ability to discover the latest trends in the industry. We were determined to highlight the distinctive value of our products and to establish new strategic collaborations. During the fair, we had the opportunity to meet numerous industry professionals, exchange ideas, and present our innovative solutions. We received positive feedback on the quality of our products and our corporate vision, confirming that we are moving in the right direction.”
Natalia Iudina, co-founder and COO of Edudoro.eu, states: “At Fiera Didacta in Florence, our Edudoro.eu team had the opportunity to present our platform, a space where creative Italian teachers can publish their digital teaching materials and receive compensation for these creations. Our project was launched 3.5 years ago in Poland under the name Zlotynauczyciel.pl. Since then, our community has grown to include 1,000 authors and over 19,000 teaching materials. Our next goal is to unite Polish and Italian authors and, with the help of an advanced translation system, adapt the materials for both markets, overcoming language barriers and offering new educational ideas in both contexts. We also plan to expand into new markets, extending our creative education community on a global scale. In the near future, the platform will also provide tools that will allow us to adapt our materials according to the level of difficulty. Our presence at Fiera Didacta was fundamental: we established numerous significant contacts and forged potential partnerships that will prove invaluable for the future expansion of our platform.”
Carmen Dal Monte, CEO and co-founder of Takeflight, declares: “Didacta ’24 was an inspiring opportunity for discussion and a showcase to introduce more people in the sector to Takeflight, an innovative start-up in education and training. ‘Our long-standing decision to develop ethical and respectful AI has proven successful in facing the new challenges and needs of schools,’ said CEO Carmen Dal Monte. ‘During the event, we had the opportunity to strengthen ties and present our solutions to an interested audience. Our proprietary AI for class profiling proved to be an innovative and effective method for clearly identifying the needs and solutions for teaching, personalized for classes or groups of students. This tool is particularly useful for career guidance and reorientation, providing scientifically valid and rigorously collected data. The fair was also an opportunity to discover new solutions and teaching proposals that can be integrated with our services. We built new relationships with key players in the growing sector, exchanging ideas and inspiring effective collaboration.’”
Conclusion
As Fiera Didacta Italy successfully concludes its seventh edition, attention is already turning to future events. The first is scheduled in Puglia, at the Fiera del Levante in Bari from October 16 to 18, marking the event’s expansion into southern Italy for the first time. Subsequently, the next national edition will return to Florence from March 12 to 14, 2025.
These future events demonstrate the ongoing commitment to providing spaces for dialogue and growth for education professionals, technology innovators, and all stakeholders involved in the education sector.