The award The Tech Visionaries®

The conference "Women & Technologies" concluded with the awarding of the prestigious prize

"The Technovisionary Award" ® 2008
BlackBerry® "Women and Technology Award"

Milan, September 8, 2008 . The conference "Women&Technologies: research and innovation" ( www.womentech.info ), which involved 360 participants in a day of interesting reflections and best practices on women as "technology creators", found an exciting conclusion in the awarding of the "Le Tecnovisionarie®" 2008 – BlackBerry® "Women and Technology Award" to a woman who has been able to demonstrate through her work in the world of research, business, or Public Administration the ability to combine creativity, innovation, and quality of life.

The jury of the prize was composed of: Cristina Bombelli (University of Milan Bicocca, Expert in Organizational Behavior, Personnel Management, and Gender Differences in Organizations); Diana Bracco (President of the special project Research and Innovation and Expo 2015 of Confindustria); Luca De Biase (Editor-in-chief of "Nova24", supplement of 'Il Sole 24 ore' on research, innovation, and creativity); Elisa Greco (Expert in Communication and Public Relations); Gianna Martinengo (Chairperson of Women and Technologies and ICT Entrepreneur); Giorgio Monaci (Director of Economic Activities and Innovation Sector of the Province of Milan); Eugenio Occorsio (Editor-in-chief of "Economy and Finance", supplement of "La Repubblica"); Roberto Vacca (Consultant in system engineering and technological forecasting); Federica Villa (Manager of the Presidency and Institutional Relations of the Chamber of Commerce of Milan).

Under the presidency of Professor Roberto Vacca, the jurors, using the online voting system set up by Didael, have indicated the most deserving candidate for each of the 3 Sessions of the conference: 1) Women and ICT in Europe; 2) Art and Affective Computing; Interaction and Dialogues in Communities on the future; 3) Innovation in Enterprises and Institutions.
In this way, 3 finalists were identified: among these, the one who received the most votes was declared the winner of the prize.

This is Fiorella Operto (Scuola di Robotica Association, Genoa), winner of the Women and ICT in Europe Session and overall winner, who has been named "Technovisionary 2008" with the following motivation: "Fiorella Operto's activities aimed at motivating women to take an interest in science and technology and to work in the field have considerable value, especially given that they have been complemented by significant offerings of tools (collections of books). The choice of robotics as a predominant field of professional commitment and as a leading sector to propose to young people and especially to women, represents a unique example of how it is possible to raise average cultural levels and at the same time motivate young people to choose advanced and fascinating topics. Fiorella Operto is doing an excellent job of reconciling science and humanities studies. She is thinking about today's technologies for tomorrow's women."

For the Session Art and Affective Computing; Interaction and Dialogues in Communities on the future, the finalist was Nik Nailah Binti Abdullah (National Institute of Informatics, Tokyo) with the following motivation: "for the creativity in identifying paths not yet taken in computer research and for the tenacity in pursuing results of extraordinary potential applicability."
For the Session Innovation in Enterprises and Institutions, the first place was awarded to Fiorina Facchinetti Berti (President of Faber System S.r.l.), with the following motivation: "She is a remarkable example of an innovator who has conceived and concretely implemented successful measures and enterprises. The value of the results she has achieved surpasses that of reams of paper containing interesting and positive ideas but with no concrete impact."

A big thank you to all those who made this initiative possible and see you at the 2009 edition!