\ Creazione d'Impresa \ TODAY IN TOWN: THE NEW COMMUNITY OF EVENTS, SHOPPING AND TOURISM

Indicate an event and choose your gift is the motto of Today in Town, an entrepreneurial new-entry that is entirely female. Incubated at the Innovation Factory, the start-up has just received the prestigious Marzotto Award “From Idea to Company”, reserved for new firms that combine innovation, business and society.

Today in Town is based on the concept of a collaborative city that includes and creates interaction among web citizens, shops, public services, service firms and hospitality structures in one community.

“The goal is two-fold”, says Barbara Razzini at Today in Town, “on one hand to promote innovation through people who, thanks to an open portal contributed to by everybody, become protagonists in the life of their city, and on the other hand to involve small firms in a network and the opportunities it offers”.

The Today in Town initiative was born in Trieste and for Trieste, and aims to give citizens and tourists a tool through which they can get informed about the events, shopping discounts, entertainment and social opportunities the city is rich in. A model that can be replicated across the national territory. The Today in Town community, based on collaboration and the exchange of reciprocal interests, also produces surprises and awards, thanks to the participation of businesses and in virtue of a simple and immediate mechanism that starts, as stated, with the indication of special events.

“After receiving information about an appointment in town not yet present on the web (an exhibit, a concert, a food or wine-tasting event)”, continues Razzini, “a person, after registering on the portal, reports and shares this event, becoming an ‘Event Hunter’, earning IT Points, the currency of Today in Town. When a certain quantity of virtual financial availability is reached, that person can then access the Private Market and choose from among one of the gifts/promotional offers made available by merchants, restaurateurs and service firms, the so-called ‘Supporters’ of the portal.”

Business operators can enlist in the community prior to the payment of a fee. The greater the number of active “Supporters”, the larger the space they will be able to occupy inside the Home page, the square entitled “Today in Town”, in the context of a meritocratic system that motivates active participation and collaboration.

“In addition to Event Hunters and Supporters”, adds Silvio Faion, manager of communication and market for the portal – “protagonists of the community will also be the ‘Promoters’, that is to say hotels and B&Bs. Companies in the hospitality sector will have maps available to them on which a code for their structure will be shown. The higher the number of insertions by tourists of that code into the portal, the greater the visibility of the hospitality structure to which it refers”.