(By Emily Backus)
A "Welcome to Italy" social media
project this week began showcasing Italy's artistic, historic
and landscape heritage through 100 historic postcards posted by
the Italian tourism institution Touring Club Italiano.
The idea is to spark interest in visiting Italy in time for
the food-themed Milan Expo 2015, which runs May to October 2015.
Expo's theme is "Feeding the planet. Energy for Life"
focuses on nutrition, food security, sustainable food practices
- and celebrates global culinary cultures.
Promoted by Milan Expo 2015, the virtual tour displays
archival photos of Italy's most beautiful or remarkable sites
every day on Facebook and Twitter through September 15.
A site created on Tumblr is taking Internet perusers
through an album of 200 sight-seeing images of lakes, mountains,
beaches, cities and monuments until Expo's opening on May 1,
2015.
Meanwhile, a project to make all information concerning the
planning, organisation and financial management of Expo 2015
available on internet "is a decisive step forward" for
transparency, CEO Giuseppe Sala said at a presentation this
week.
Open Expo is the result of an agreement between the World's
Fair and Italian open government initiative Wikitalia.
The project will "accompany - by simplifying, going into
greater detail and especially ensuring easier access to data
-the work that already appears in the Transparent Administration
section of the website", Sala said.
In addition, two contests dedicated to women in the context
of Milan Expo 2015 have opened their call for entry submissions.
One competition will honour the best start-up projects
undertaken by women. The second will award the best projects for
promoting women.
The competitions are an initiative of Women for Expo (WE),
a joint project between Milan Expo 2015, the Italian pavilion
and the Italian foreign ministry.
The first three winners will receive 40,000 euros, 30,000
euros and 10,000 euros respectively, in addition to exhibit
exposure in the Italian pavilion at Expo. The third prize will
be reserved for contestants under age 35.
The top 100 entries will receive exhibit space in the
Italian pavilion for seven days during Expo in a dedicated
section of the Italy pavilion as well as online visibility
through a Website.
Contest entries can be entered on the Website
wepadiglioneitalia.ideatre60.it. The deadline for submission is
October 31.
Businesswomen or aspiring businesswomen, associations,
non-governmental organizations and foundations located in Italy
are eligible.
"It will be women, in fact, who have natural familiarity
with the theme of nutrition to take care of and supply energy to
life, the inevitable protagonists of the Universal Exposition,"
said Diana Bracco, general commissioner of the Italian pavilion.
A study this week revealed that Italians increasingly
conscious of avoiding food waste, yet will throw away an
estimated 8.1 billion euros worth this year, the equivalent of
6.5 euros per week per family.
Waste in 2014 is down from an estimated 8.7 billion euros
last year, according to the 2014 Waste Watcher Knowledge report
by survey research companies SWG and Last Minute Market for
Milan Expo 2015.
The report added that 63% of Italian respondents said they
actively try to prevent food waste and 81% reported checking the
expiration date before throwing anything out.
One third of the food produced worldwide - or roughly 1.6
billion tons worth 750 billion US dollars - never reaches our
stomachs, the report said.
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