Building A Legacy
SINCE 2012
Turin was one of the first cities in the world in which a Global Shapers Hub was created. Ever since, Turin Shapers have been generating interactions, insights and impact locally while building strong connections with Shapers from around the world
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SPRING 2012
The Journey Begins
Our Hub was created by Prof. Adriano Marconetto, the founder and CEO of Electro Power System recognized by the WEF as a Technology Pioneer. As soon as the new GSC platform was announced, he launched a call for Shapers in La Stampa. A stellar team of 30 successful candidates included exceptionary young engineers, researchers, economists, entrepreneurs and artists. On 14 April 2012 the first Turin Hub meeting was held at the startup incubator I3P at the Polytechnic University.
2012 / 2013
Creating The Community
Giovanni Costamagna represented Turin Hub in the 1st Annual Curators’ Meeting attended by 130 Shapers from around the world. At that point, the Community counted 1600 Members in 168 Hubs. Delegates defined and proclaimed Community Values as well as recruitment and governance guidelines and best practices for project implementation and reporting.
Turin Hub started holding monthly meetings, each time in a different location, including: I3P, Unicredit Bank, Eggers 2.0; the Urban Center of the City of Turin; Chamber of Commerce and the Industrial Union; the Salesian Institute E. Agnelli; Pietro Ratti & Associates’ Studio, Consortium for the preservation of Barolo and Barbaresco and winery in La Morra; the Film Commission of Turin and Cineporto; Cultural Association Musicaround, Nobel Dynamite Museum; ITIS G. Natta of Rivoli and Majorana of Moncalieri, Headquarters of La Stampa newspaper.
Shapers spent almost five months brainstorming and pitching their ideas to devise and test their first Hub project, ImprendiTO, dedicated to education for entrepreneurship.
2013 / 2014
Learning How To Have Impact
Hub’s Project Happy Entrepreneur was selected to the semifinal of the “Coca Cola Challenge”, a call for a 50,000 euro grant. Within the pilot, Shapers have held intense entrepreneurship workshops for 40+ students.
Another project, Solar for Syria, aimed at identifying and promoting a social enterprise that could provide refugee camps with solar-powered devices to charge mobile phones. After selecting a Netherlands-based enterprise WakaWaka, Turin Hub collaborated with the Amsterdam Hub and WakaWaka’s Italian distributor Keenergy.
Shapers have also organized a Meet the Leader session for high schoolers with Aldo Mazzia, the CEO of Juventus, and contributed to the organization of the Community’s national retreat in Rome.
2014 / 2015
Leadership Forum
The Hub was incorporated as an Association.
Shapers have contributed to the organization and promotion of the Torino Leadership Forum, an initiative of the United Nations System Staff College and the City of Turin, which hosted the Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson and other stellar guests.
Together with other Italian Hubs, Turin Hub has proposed the refugIT programme dedicated to improving the situation of migrants arriving from Africa and the Middle East. It supported an artistic project of photographer Lisa Boccaccio, Guardo Oltre, aimed at empowering refugees through photography workshops.
2015 / 2016
Solidary With Refugees
Following the largest recruitment session so far, Turin Hub has onboarded a dozen new Members.
The enlarged team has co-organized the national Shapers’ conference at the Università Ca’ Foscari in Venice Together We Shape It, with talks and panels focusing on the phenomenon of mass immigration and the refugee crisis. Italian Shapers have continued to work together on a common framework for assisting refugees.
2016 / 2017
A Referendum Year
Shapers focused on delivering an event Conto alla rovescia per il Referendum Costituzionale organized together with a startup incubator SocialFare and ESCP Europe Turin Campus.
2017 / 2018
Keeping Up With Shapers
Shapers participated in numerous national and international events, most notably SHAPE Europe in Milan, Italian Hubs’ conference in Switzerland, and the Festival of Solidary Europe in Ventotene organized by a Shaper of Turin, Abdullahi Ahmed.
Hub has incubated two new projects: Laboratori di Consapevolezza and Green Team.
2018 / 2019
Generational Change
While many Hub members have reached the maximum age and graduated into the GSC Alumni Network and others moved away from Turin, new Shapers were onboarded.
For the first project after the generational change, they launched Verso le Europee, a series of informative talks about the EU institutions and policies, delivered by Shapers and members of the Young European Federalists.
2019 / 2020
Keeping Up The Momentum
Throughout the year, 18 new Members were onboarded and engaged in new projects implemented with other Italian Hubs and/or local Partners. These projects included: IMPROVE, Heroes Never Sleep powered by Lavazza, Ponte – Bridging Cultures with FAI, Power.Coders and EUnite.
Shapers have attended team-building activities and served as speakers or moderators in hackathons, panels and workshops, most notably Global Inclusion in Bologna and DigiEduHack in Turin.
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced Shapers to reinvent Hub’s meetings, activities and projects to keep the work up while staying at homes. At the same time, Shapers had a unique opportunity to connect more often and more profoundly with peers from around the world without travelling, thanks to numerous WEF and GSC summits and events that were held online.
2020 / 2021
Shaping In Times Of COVID-19
In November Turin Hub hosted the annual national conference for Italian Hubs which, due to lockdowns, was the first one ever to be held entirely online.
Despite social distancing, Shapers continued regular work on projects Heroes Never Sleep, IMPROVE, and EUnite. They’ve organized Skillsharing Sessions for one another and participated in more WEF & GSC summits and events online.
In February, Turin Hub was selected by the WEF to implement a pilot project of the Scale360° Circular Innovation initiative. Within Davos Lab, Turin Hub has organized the Davos Lab Torino online conference.
