I had the privilege to be amongst the participants at the dinner organised by the Italian Embassy in London and the Italian Consulate General in Edinburgh, in cooperation with the Scottish Government, to promote the Milan Expo 2015. 

The event , held on 27 February 2015 at the Science Centre in Glasgow,  was preceded by a two day seminar, “Doing Business in Scotland and Italy: The Legal Perspective”, organised by the British Chamber of Commerce for Italy together with the Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry for the UK, which took place in Edinburgh on 26 and 27 February 2015. 

Although mainly addressed to solicitors of both Italy and the UK, the seminar was open to anyone operating between Italy and the UK, and represented a great opportunity to gain a better insight into the differences characterising the Italian and Scottish legal and business systems, also addressing cross border issues that might arise in transactions affecting different countries.  I cannot comment on the contents of the seminar, as I have not managed to attend it.

In my experience (and I have being practising in Scotland for almost twenty years), it does not happen very often that cross border issues are being specifically addressed in seminars organised in Scotland, despite the fact that they occur more often than one might think.  The approach I often observed by practitioners, especially in the past, was to ignore such issues and attempt to deal with them applying the domestic legislation.  However, it seems to me that this approach is gradually changing and the initiative of the British and Italian Chambers of Commerce certainly proves that.  Hopefully there will be many others to follow.

The Milan Expo 2015 is an exhibition which will be hosted by Italy from 1 May to 31 October 2015 and is aimed at providing information and answers to the ever so pressing question as to how succeed in granting food to the whole planet, healthy, responsibly sourced and sufficient for all. 

The Milan Expo 2015 will involve over 140 countries and international organisations and will be characterised by an exposition area of approximately 1.1 million square metres.  The event will give the opportunity to all the attendees to get to know and taste dishes from all parts of the world and to benefit from musical and artistic events which will be held in Milan for the whole duration of the exhibition.  Although at this stage it is not possible to estimate the long term effects that the Expo will have on the food trade, the scale of such event is bound to increase the awareness of the general public on important aspects of the food production chain, not least, the increasing need to monitor its source.  

The event of last Friday, to which the Rt Hon Nicola Sturgeon MSP, First Minister and H.E. Pasquale Terracciano, Italian Ambassador to the UK, also took part, gave a taste (in every sense) of what awaits the Expo attendees.  The dinner menu, designed by one of the most renowned Italian celebrity chef, Fabio Campoli at “Tony Macaroni”, was colourful, unusual and able to convey our passion for food and its intrinsic connection to our Italian culture.   The dinner was accompanied by the evocative music of the Italian born guitarist Antonio Forcione and his band. Winner of numerous awards, Antonio Forcione tours internationally in festivals and for charity performances and has released at least eighteen albums of largely original material.

I was personally very impressed by the organisation of the event, considering that 400 invitees were expected to attend but, I understand, the guests actually present were almost twice as many.  I found the menu unusual and, for me, very well executed.  To me the evening allowed the strong connection between art and food that characterises our Italian culture come through once again.  Very well done to the organisers!