WIMA2022: call for the third edition
27/12/2021
Lagazuoi EXPO Dolomiti is looking for good ideas and best practices to promote the mountains as the territory of the future. One of the highest cultural centres in the world is starting the 3rd edition of the Lagazuoi Winning Ideas Mountain Awards with many news.
Entries can be submitted until 12th February 2022. Start-ups, companies and associations are invited to apply in one of the four categories: Mountain clothing and mountain equipment, Sustainable tourism, Digital innovation & apps, Mountain gastronomy industry.
From this edition on, the final exhibition will become a permanent exhibition. The most interesting projects in each category - the absolute winners and the special mentions - will be accessible to the public in a dedicated exhibition room at the Lagazuoi EXPO Dolomiti.
The exhibition opens on the last winter weekend in April, followed by the official opening to the public from June 2022 to March 2023.
Cortina d'Ampezzo, 27th December 2021_ AAA wanted: we are looking for brilliant solutions, small and large digital revolutions, innovative materials for high-altitude sport, gastronomic proposals that respect the environment, experiences based on a different tourism concept, authentic and full of love for the territory. It is the vision that underlies the Lagazuoi Winning Ideas Mountain Awards. So begins the 3rd edition of this prize, devised and organized by the Lagazuoi EXPO Dolomiti.
At 2,778 meters of altitude, one of the highest exhibition centres in the world, located in the heart of the UNESCO World Heritage, explores the creative and cultural potential of the highlands, sources of inspiration for different lifestyles. All this in order to initiate a paradigm shift, to transform the collective imagination associated with the mountains and to pave the way for a different, better relationship between man and nature.
The ideal candidates are start-ups, companies, organizations, associations that emphasize the mountains as a place of innovation with a sustainable perspective.
As in the previous edition, there are four thematic categories: mountain clothing and equipment, innovative and sustainable mountain tourism, digital innovation & apps, and mountain gastronomy industry.
Lagazuoi EXPO Dolomiti firmly believes in this project. And the 2022 edition is expanding the format and transforming the final exhibition into a permanent exhibit, which will be restaged after each edition. The novelties also include a different composition of the thematic juries and the participation of three selected partners who share the values underlying the competition, who will support and spread the call for applications in order to reach an even wider audience.
How to participate
As in the 2021 edition, this competition again provides self-promoted applications: engineers, artists, farmers, designers, companies, large and small business realities are invited to make known to a huge audience their good ideas and best practices that will change the mountain world.
Applications must reach us no later than midnight on 12th February 2022. The names of the winners will be notified at least on 15th March 2022.
All self-promoted applications can be registered exclusively online by filling in the form on the web site www.lagazuoiwima.org.
In the meanwhile, a technical selection committee is already working. The committee consists of top-class experts: journalists, representatives of organizations and associations, researchers and entrepreneurs who contribute to the selection by identifying and proposing the most interesting projects at the national level.
The exhibition
The Lagazuoi Winning Ideas Mountain Awards will open with a preview in April, on the last weekend of the Lagazuoi cable car’s winter season. All candidates will be invited to the opening. The projects dedicated to the innovative potential of the mountains are housed in a unique setting: in the mountain station of the cable car - which can be easily reached in a few minutes - with a stunning view of Mt. Lagazuoi and surrounded by majestic peaks and pinnacles that embrace the horizon. The exhibition will then be open to visitors from June to March 2023, then a new staging will be prepared with the winners of the following edition.
All the news of the 2022 edition.
The Juries_ To determine the winners and award the prizes within each category, four juries are set up, one for each category. Each consists of three experts: journalists, entrepreneurs, representatives of institutions and at least one lecturer. All of them have a close connection to the mountains.
The Partners_The Lagazuoi Winning Ideas Mountain Awards are supported by three partners who are part of the project and play a fundamental role: they help us to tell the project, to promote the call for applications and assist us with communicating and spreading the call to a wider range of start-ups and companies. Here they are. Montebelluna Sport System, the Treviso business community which brings together SMEs and large corporations specializing in sports shoes and has created a worldwide unique economic "ecosystem". Legambiente, Italy's most widespread environmental organization which has been in operation for over 40 years fighting climate crisis, pollution and eco-mafias. InnoVup, a network of associations that promotes the development of innovative and sustainable companies by bringing together different realities such as start-ups, SMEs, science and technology parks, incubators, investors.
The winners_For each category, the jury awards the winner plaque to two projects: to the first classifier and the startup awarded a special mention.
The award_An exhibition at the Lagazuoi EXPO Dolomiti will be dedicated to the four winners and the four special mentions. From this edition onwards, it becomes a permanent exhibition that runs alongside the temporary exhibitions organized throughout the year. One room of the exhibition pole is dedicated exclusively to the Lagazuoi Winning Ideas Mountain Awards.
These are the four award categories
- Mountain clothing and equipment: projects of technical clothing and equipment for high altitudes and specific climatic conditions.
Selection committee: Marco Di Marco (Director of Sciare), Pietro Fedon (Vice-President of the Young Entrepreneurs of Confindustria Veneto), Andrea Parisotto (President of the Museo dello Scarpone Foundation).
Jury: Andrea Bianchi (journalist at Mountain Blog), Maria Lorraine Berton (President of Confindustria Belluno Dolomiti) and Antonello Marega (architect and IUAV teacher in the product design and corporate strategy course).
- Innovative and sustainable mountain tourism: economy, environment and culture are new values that characterize the mountain regions. Forms of tourism that meet the needs of travellers and qualify the host locations and at the same time protect and improve the opportunities for the future.
Selection committee: Mario Tonina (President of the Unesco Dolomites Foundation), Paola Manfredi (Vanity Fair journalist), Susanna Sieff (Sustainability Manager).
Jury: Andrea Macchiavelli (Professor at the Bergamo University of Marketing, Economy and Management of Tourism Companies), Vanda Bonardo (President of CiPRA - International Commission for the Protection of the Alps), Giovanni Moro (Editor-in-Chief of Dove).
- Digital innovation & apps: ideas for renewing mountain experiences. From sport to tourism, projects to develop the mountain world using innovation and digital technologies.
Selection committee: Gabriele Ferrieri (President of ANGI, Italian Association of Young Innovators), Cristina Angelillo (President of InnovUp), Bruno Ruffilli (Innovation Editor at La Stampa).
Jury: Alessia Cruciani (journalist at Corriere Innovazione), Iacopo Pertile (founder of AzzurroDigitale and licensee of TEDxCortina), Claudio Lucchese (Ca Foscari Venezia, course coordinator of Hospitality Innovation & E-Tourism).
- Mountain gastronomy industry. The food industry is in the middle of a revolution that includes food production, consumption habits and waste management. In all these areas, you can make a difference.
Selection committee: Anna Maria Pellegrino (President of the Italian Association of Food Bloggers), Simona Rossotti (MEG, food and wine market), Claudio Sacco (blogger and gourmet traveller).
Jury: Cristina Mora (Professor at the University of Parma, Food System course), Massimiliano Tonelli (Editorial Director of Gambero Rosso and Artribune), Giorgio Colli (Vice-President of the Agro-Food Press Association).
Development and coordination of special projects Lagazuoi Expo Dolomiti and DOC-COM Press Office
