A smart city is not only safer, more efficient and sustainable, it is also a place that preserves and promotes its beauty, takes care of its culture and its works of art, welcomes and integrates tourist flows and creates new opportunities to experience art and culture through innovation and digital solutions.
It is to give shape to this vision and share it with an ever-widening audience that, this year, we are renewing our partnership with Taobuk, the International Festival now in its 14th edition which, between 20 and 24 June 2024, will enliven Taormina's most iconic venues to celebrate the encounter between literature, art, science and technology.
At the centre of this edition's debate is the theme of 'Identity', understood as the heritage on which to base our being a community. A multidisciplinary reflection will take place, as is in the spirit of this festival, with over 200 guests including writers, artists, scientists, intellectuals, politicians and managers from around 30 countries.
TIM's contribution will highlight how fruitful the alliance between culture and technology can be and will show some use cases made possible by the Cloud, Artificial Intelligence, 5G and IoT. With TIM Enterprise —TIM Group’s business unit targeting large companies and the Public Administration— we will show how digital technology can give new perspectives to Italy's artistic and cultural heritage, which is among the richest in the world, starting with our art cities.
For the duration of the Festival, the public will be able to be transported into an immersive and involving experience between past and present in Piazza IX Aprile, to discover the symbolic places of Taormina. Thanks to the eXtended Reality platform developed by TIM Enterprise and the special Virtual Reality visors that will be made available, visitors will in fact be transported inside an interactive virtual path where actors Donatella Finocchiaro and David Coco will illustrate the artistic wonders of Taormina through texts of famous works.
In the TIM Enterprise space, it will also be possible to learn about the potential of applications dedicated to smart cities, such as the TIM Urban Genius platform.
The appointments not to be missed on the Taobuk stage include :
- Friday 21 June, 18.00 | Piazza IX Aprile
ChatGPT and Identity. What makes us enviously human?
CWith: Maria Enrica Danese, Director of Corporate Communication & Sustainability at TIM, Derrick de Kerckhove, sociologist and former Director of the McLuhan Program in Culture & Technology at the University of Toronto, Andrea Prencipe, Rector of the Luiss Guido Carli University, Giorgio Metta, Scientific Director of the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT).
- Friday 21 June, 19.00 | Piazza IX Aprile
Rethinking the city as a new social contract, between sustainability and ethics
With: Elio Schiavo, TIM's Chief Enterprise and Innovative Solutions Officer, Elvira Amata, Councillor for Tourism, Sport and Entertainment of the Sicilian Region, Marco Bentivogli, expert in industrial and labour innovation policies, Carlo Cottarelli, Director of the Observatory on Italian Public Accounts of the Cattolica University of Milan, Cateno De Luca, Mayor of Taormina, Carlo Ratti, architect, Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston.
- Saturday 22 June, 21.30 | Taormina's Ancient Theatre
Taobuk Award – Gala Evening
Elio Schiavo, TIM's Chief Enterprise & Innovative Solutions Officer, will present the TaoTIM Award to an internationally renowned artist.
The evening will be broadcast on Rai 1 on 3 July, at 11.30 pm.
