2002-2022 Twenty years with you! Interview with the co-founder of Trevisobellunosystem Ing. Donato Bedin

Twenty years is a long time (editor’s note: Mr. Bedin smiles), it was a long time ago, we were young and the idea came about then, not from big assignments or preparations, but from an intuition we had at the time, within the Treviso Chamber of Commerce, following one of my activities (editor’s note: Director of Treviso Tecnologia), so I always wanted to propose new things. New projects that could attract the attention of companies and thus overcome any criticism.

And in fact, speaking at the Chamber of Commerce, this idea of promoting our territory and its excellence came to mind, especially with regard to small and medium-sized enterprises abroad.
So, to promote them not only through the presentation of individual companies, but also through the presentation of a system that knew how to innovate. We had districts that cooperated in our territory, we had considerable added value that was not known outside. Over the weekend, I put down, so to speak, the guidelines for this portal that was to promote our system abroad, and I discussed it with Prof. Ferruccio Bresolin of Ca’ Foscari University to get his support, especially to help with promotion, based on a minimal business model that would also allow for forms of sustainability.

I remember that I took Linda, who had listened to me carefully, and told him, “There’s a lot to do, but also a lot of money to invest.” Of course, I replied immediately, but pointed out that the budget was not high enough for this type of initiative. We continued talking, involving his colleagues as well, and he said yes, if you help me, you can count on me. So I contacted the Secretary General of the Chamber of Commerce again, Dr. Renato Chahinian, who has always supported this type of initiative, and we decided to go ahead. For 4-5 months, we developed the platform and, of course, presented it to the stakeholders of the Chamber of Commerce.

I can say that the President of the Chamber of Commerce and the representatives of the associations approved the initiative with enthusiasm and certainly with appreciation, and the project got underway.

Of course, I then took on different work responsibilities, so I did not directly follow the development of TrevisoSystemOnline, as it was called, but I did follow the actions that were subsequently taken and that led to the current Trevisobellunosystem, almost as a form of affection for my own creation that survives over time.

I must say that the success of this initiative depended greatly on the presence of a team, all young people involved in both the design and launch, who were highly motivated and clearly eager to create new things and also to try their hand at things they had no experience of, but which naturally interested me greatly because they were new and because they could also be seen by others, so they could be appreciated and they could say, “I worked on this. What you see is also part of my insights.”

I would say that the DNA of the territory naturally supported us because everything that was done many years ago and that could promote, let’s say, exports was appreciated and well-liked by small and medium-sized enterprises, and I think that the fact that after twenty years the trevisobellunosystem portal still exists, naturally thinking about how this initiative started, must be an example for many young people to, let’s say, implement new initiatives, go beyond normal expectations, get together, get involved, and take risks, especially because we need to do new things, take a few risks, get involved, and then achieve goals that go a little beyond what is normal.

It is important to reiterate that the success of the initiative depended on the fact that there was dialogue between the actors at the basis of the innovation. The economic actor was the Chamber of Commerce, the Ca’ Foscari University, the professor Ferrucccio Bresolin, the technology partner Treviso Tecnologia, which I was managing at the time. This relationship between these institutions was also based on a relationship between individuals, so obviously two phone calls back and forth and it was already an agreement, a meeting that could obviously lead to valid initiatives, without, let’s say, having to evaluate balances, decisions that could not alter what might be different positions of other competitors and so on. When something seemed good and feasible and useful for the territory, it was done.

We wanted all companies that had a presence, or let’s say wanted to have an online presence, to have a place on this portal so that the portal could be their best first introduction. To be, let’s say, accessible to web surfers around the world and therefore, let’s say, the quality of the portal for this type of business, even micro and small unknown ones, could really be a key to their future development.

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