The Consul of Italy in Detroit, Paola Allegra Baistrocchi, took part last February 20 in the Talk Show launching the second edition of ROCK, the RetImpresa competition dedicated to Open Innovation and collaboration in Italian supply chains. Moderated by Rai journalist Mattia Iovane and available on YouTube, the talk show was an important opportunity for experts, companies and stakeholders to discuss the trends and opportunities offered by collaborative innovation, particularly through The Perfect Pitch initiative.
As is well known, in 2024 the Consulate of Italy in Detroit collaborated on the first edition of ROCK and hosted the final stages of The Perfect Pitch competition in September, with representatives of the three finalist startups in the sustainable mobility sector. Reporting on the 2024 experience, along with Consul Baistrocchi, were Fabrizio Landi, president of RetImpresa, Davide Ippolito, CEO of Reputation Research, and Rai Italia journalist Monica Marangoni. Together they dialogued and revealed the behind-the-scenes of this new format inaugurated in 2024 and turned into a TV series that will soon air.
Also for 2025, continuing its commitment to promoting Italian excellence in the U.S. territory, the Consulate will facilitate meetings between representatives of Italian innovation and key stakeholders and venture capitalists from Michigan and the Detroit Consular District, which also includes Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee. Consul Baistrocchi remarked that:
“The idea of bringing Italian startups to Detroit to show what is possible in one of the world’s most important ecosystems for the growth of startups is of paramount importance and also allows, at the same time, to highlight how modern and cutting-edge Italy is.”
The Perfect Pitch initiative, in fact, stands in continuity with the work done by the Consulate in recent years to promote an image of Italy no longer tied exclusively to old traditions and artistic and scenic beauty, but to that of an innovative country with strong economic and technological ties to the rest of the world. At the same time, the perception of Detroit and the Midwest in general is also often still anchored to the industrial past, while the extraordinary potential of a region that represents a crucial hub for modernity and technology, capable of attracting investment and strategic partnerships, is not well known.
President Landi concluded the conversation by stating:
“Even in 2025, The Perfect Pitch will be one of the most anticipated events of the ROCK program, especially thinking about the media impact this project will have with the TV series made in the first edition in collaboration with the Consulate of Italy in Detroit.”
The article The second edition of The Perfect Pitch initiative in collaboration with Retimpresa comes from TheNewyorker.
