“Without human capital, every other capital is worthless,” said Italian Ambassador in Copenhagen, Luigi Ferrari, on opening the seminar “Business in Society. Human capital training and growth: innovative opportunities and models for sustainable development”, which was hosted at the Italian Cultural Institute in Copenhagen as part of the celebrations of the 18th Week of the Italian Language in the World (15-21 October).
The event, co-organised with the Dante Alighieri Society under the High Patronage of the President of the Republic, focused on human capital as the key element of global change, fostering the sustainability of companies and, more generally, the wellbeing of the community. Language is the key expression of this change: in the seminar, language was compared to the tip of an iceberg while the bulk of its cultural background is represented by the submerged portion. Italian is in good health in Denmark and it ranks among the most studied languages with 650,000 Danes (almost 12% of the population) spending at least 5 days in our Country. The Round Table, which was moderated by Oriana Perrone, a consultant to the Ministry of Economic Development (MISE) and an expert in Sustainable Development Strategies, highlighted the fact that Italian has acquired a new image of “usefulness” in the Country, no longer only associated with culture but also with business.
Caterina Rocca, from Rockwool International, and Paola Riccò, from Reggio Children, presented innovative success models of sustainable development, education and training. Barbara D’Annunzio, manager of the PLIDA project (Progetto Lingua Italiana – Italian Language Project) of the Dante Alighieri Society Rome, and Rosalba Favara, an expert in educational models, underscored the centrality of language as a means of integrating cultures, with a focus on the transformation of the Italian language across the centuries. The event was held in Italian with simultaneous translation into Danish.
