"Ladies and Gentlemen, the revolution is served": here is the theme of Identità Milano 2023

Themes like economic and environmental sustainability, and attention to the work conditions of employees have been crucial in every field of society for a few years now. But first the pandemic and then the war started by Russia have shaken the roots of the catering and hospitality industry with a force that was impossible to imagine. All that has happened in the past three years, and is still far from being overcome, forces us to think in a completely different way, to question what we have we built so far.

Nothing will ever be like the autumn-winter 2019/20, so here is the theme of Identità Milano 2023: Ladies and Gentlemen, the revolution is served. And those who still have not understood this, need to open their eyes so as not to be overcome by the events. Indeed, because there are times in life that have the destructive force of a tsunami, and against which, nothing in our will, can oppose immediate resistance.

Any serious person will think how to face one or few difficult moments; yet no catering entrepreneur, in its wider definition, in this exact historical moment, with the pandemic first and the war later, can think of opposing the drama by themselves. It’s like thinking you can put out a fire with a hose that would be perfect to water your lawn.

In this sense it is natural and essential to help each other, to collaborate, to find new ideas, joining people and entities, to avoid isolation. We have said and read countless times that the contraposition, now as ever, is between those who build walls and those who build bridges. At Identità we have always had at the heart of our commitment Italy, Europe, the World, without worrying about geopolitics, without believing that a hamlet or a city, a region or a country are better than another, perhaps because they are further north, or because of religious or political or economic reasons.

The undergoing revolution pays no attention to this, and will not stop in front of something or someone only because that someone is important, or considered as such. Even more so now that we are getting a glimpse of a new global order, of those who want to build it, almost denying globalisation, and of those who will suffer this. Terracotta vases stuck between metal vases, quoting Manzoni’s Don Abbondio [from The Betrothed].

But this, like all the great crises in history – it is not a coincidence that after the crisis of the 14^th century (plague, famine, climate crisis and wars) the Renaissance arrived – can also be a time of great rebirth and renovation: the revolution is taking place and in the coming months and years we will see some right and wrong responses, worries and renovated enthusiasm. It is hard to foresee or judge. It is time to observe and discuss, to analyse and suggest, to give voice to the change.

The Identità Golose congress ever since its birth has existed first of all for these reasons and today returns to fully accomplish its mission of illustrating change and innovation. The 2023 edition, from the 28^th to the 30^th of January, from Saturday to Monday, will see us going back to dates that are more logical for exhibitors, speakers, public and ourselves. We’ll all meet at MiCo, the congress centre in Via Gattamelata in Milan, to test ourselves with the current and future revolution. Having well in mind that we will never cease to seek quality, wherever it may be. Let us not let circumstances, commonplaces, and traditions condition us.

As usual, our intention is to offer a stage to as many people as possible, and it’s natural that in the past few years, so tragic and hard, this was not easy. This edition, on top of focusing on many young people and on a strong desire to reclaim one’s place, will see the return of international speakers who will testimony how we must fight the temptation to close up, to put limits everywhere, as if it were easier to face, or even solve, dramas and difficulties by ourselves. Egoism is never a good choice. Nobody survives alone.

Translated into English by Slawka G. Scarso