Innovation Fair in Rome returns for successful 2024 edition

It’s the twelfth anniversary of the legendary Maker Faire in Rome, the European Edition which has been organised by the Rome Chamber of Commerce  It is hard to describe the event; it’s more than a fair, not a conference, and in its current geography, it feels more like a social gathering attached to a major music festival – only without the music. Maker Faire Rome is the largest of its kind in Europe and is dedicated to the makers and their inventiveness and imagination. Part engineers, part geeks, part craftspeople, part student, part inventors, and part artists, they all share a love of technology and have an eye on the future.

Innovation Fair 2024 review

This year there was a breezy range of exhibitions stands and halls spread across the old Gas Works. The weather was fair and sunny despite damp weather warnings, while the clouds held off and the sun graced the crowds with her favour. Day one, on Friday, was thronged with school children and university students. It reminded me of the Ploughing Championship here in Ireland where all country children take out of school and visit the sprawling fair with every kind of farm machinery, livestock and everything in between, but especially farm machinery.

Maker Faire is on a smaller scale with circuit boards over combine harvesters on show. However, Maker Faire Rome has been on the schedule of the Italian  Ministry of the Education since 2015 as an educational Stem activity. Some 900K students attended the show on the 25th of October together with their teachers.

There were also many students exhibiting as this show begins with ideas and travels through to fully fledged businesses in want of serious funding.

My personal favorite corner of the show was the circular building named Level -1 of Gazometro G3 – filled with ideas for medicine, design, fashion and everyday ideas.

One stand that impressed me was the Bi-rex Srl Società Benefit, or simply Bi-rex, a female-led innovative startup founded by Greta Colombo Dugoni and Monica Ferro. They were addressing real world issues of creating paper and other objects from recycled waste but not from trees in order to reduce the need for virgin resources and help prevent deforestation.

They cited a report from the European Commission that the food processing industry in the EU generates 173 kg of agri-food waste per capita annually. They identified this waste as a valuable resource for paper production. Currently some 37.5 tones of cellulose of which 44% comes from virgin fibres are consumed annually.

Bi-rex focuses on upcycling by-products from the agri-food sector, including brewery waste, rice husks, citrus peels, coffee grounds, pasta, and cookie production waste, transforming them into sustainable fibers. These fibers are used to create eco-friendly tableware, paper, and packaging, reducing environmental impact and promoting a circular economy.

Bi-rex paper conserves 95% of energy and water and reduces CO? emissions by 70%, offering an eco-friendly alternative while maintaining unique mechanical performance compared to virgin pulp and recycled cardboard.

The stand had product examples on display as the project is beyond prototyping and is working with industrial paper mills, including multinational companies, for fiber industrialization.

They have big plans and aim to capture ten percent of the paper market within the next five years.

Another gem was Light Hole, while an unusual name with possible limitations if sold in Ireland as the name might convey other ideas, the actual product is both practical and innovative.

Claudio Gioserio, the founder of the ambient light company, had very little English and I had no Italian. And so betwixt us both, we licked the platter clean. Gioserio explained in halting English that his invention meant the light seeped from the holes thereby creating soft diffuse lighting. As he spoke I was reminded of Spike Milligan’s poem, Bump.

Afterwards he emailed me some videos to explain the genesis behind the lamps. In the video, he explains that light is what makes us see things. It reflects shapes straight into our eyes. It is pure energy, made of particles and waves. And that ‘onda’ means wave and that is where it all started.

The design of the lamps reflect the wave spray in droplets. And in his video he too quoted a poem, the famous Two Roads poem by Robert Frost. It seems poetry was bringing us together.

At the basement of the circular building and exhibition was Tesselis (The Circle of Life) by Angelo Bonello. An immersive installation, Bonello sought to explore themes of sustainability and technological advancement highlighted as part of Maker Faire.

The installation was accessed by walking down the wide curved ramp and immediately the atmosphere was different, sounds were diffused and sometimes loud (although one was not always sure if the sounds came from the school children or the actual art piece) and immediately facing the entrance was a digital clock constantly counting down from to zero.

Tesselis is based on an intricate system of illuminated panels that harmonise with the rugged, industrial architecture of the Gazometro, creating a striking contrast between light and the building’s post-industrial textures. The installation synchronises 18 luminous panels with a carefully programmed soundtrack, guiding the audience through a 130-metre circular journey that revolves around the building’s core. This geometric alignment symbolises the planet’s rotation and speaks to the circularity humanity needs for its future, both in terms of economic models and the energy cycle

Each of the 18 large panels placed between the pillars features primary shapes, which, animated by a full spectrum of coloured light, morph from primordial symbols into contemporary signals.

Through a process of composition and decomposition, Bonello constructs a modern “Noah’s Ark,” where abstract shapes transform into representations of animals. This dynamic interplay between abstract and figurative art reflects the delicate balance between nature and technological development. As visitors move through this continuously shifting environment, they are led by animal symbols within the circular geometry of the building. The space itself becomes a massive, moving compass, guiding us towards an ideal future.

Tesselis is more than just a visual spectacle; it’s a profound statement on the future of our planet. Bonello’s work, with its seamless fusion of technology and nature, encapsulates the critical message of sustainability and innovation, aligning perfectly with the spirit of Maker Faire.

The installation seems a fitting place to close on the most recent edition of Maker Faire Rome the European Edition . Rome basked in the sun and the exhibitors changed profile over the course of the Faire from the roving hordes of students, to families with buggies and finally serious VC types scouring the exhibitions for good ideas and eager founders. A showcase for makers and Rome alike, until next year.

Maker Faire Rome can be described by the following numbers 2024′ edition:- 45.000 visitors in 3 days

– over 9,000 secondary school students on school trips the first half a day;

– over 350 exhibition stands;

— 57 live-streamed events;

– over 100 talks, workshops, and performances;

– 3 Contest award ceremonies;

– 1,124,114 unique page views on the website, accessed from 105 countries

– over 61 sponsors

– 87 projects from Italian and international universities and research centres, among them the European Space Agency

– 28 countries represented, from Japan to the United States.

– over 55 secondary schools; IIS and ITIS institutions

– over 70 applied Artificial Intelligence projects

– over 100 projects in the fields of circular economy and sustainability.

– over 80 innovative startups presenting their prototypes, projects, and patents, 45 for the first time ever

See more breaking stories here.