Opening of the second edition of Space Meetings Veneto. President, “Veneto becomes the reference point for space technologies in Europe. We make ideas and investments land here”

Source: Veneto Region press office

‘We are getting bigger and bigger, and year by year we will make this event the main reference for space technologies in Europe. Thanks to the partners, buyers, and all those who are working on Space Meetings Veneto, which this year has doubled the numbers of the first edition, registering, to date, 5 thousand B2B meetings with space and non-space companies, 1700 accredited people, and 500 young people present. And with the VeneTo Stars project, we have created a moment to get the ideas of young European innovators off the ground, who here in Veneto will have the opportunity to ground their projects related to the use of space data. A fertile ground with a chain of companies ready to support the development of big business in the space economy’.

This is how the President of the Veneto Region opened the second edition of Space Meetings Veneto in Venice, the international summit that brings the most important global players of the New Space Economy to Venice to discuss the latest developments in the world of satellite applications, innovative technologies, supply chain and investments.

‘This second edition of Space Meetings Veneto represents a significant step forward, not so much for the increase in the number of participants – over 2,200, including 500 young people – and companies present, as for the achievement of the primary objective of the event, which I believe, as Veneto, we have fully achieved,’ commented the President of the AIR Regional Innovative Network. In fact, we have strengthened the alliance between the Region, the University, and companies, whose synergy now allows us to have all the opportunities to participate in national and international projects, involve the entire supply chain, and take part in the next missions, such as the construction of the International Space Station, the new lunar mission, and the one to Mars. An event of this magnitude allows all the companies in our region – and those in our Regional Innovative Network, whose over 65 companies and 5,000 employees generate more than one billion in turnover – to get in touch with prime contractors: today there are 20 of them, out of a total of over 250 exhibiting companies, which are estimated to hold more than 5,000 B2B meetings’.

Also present at the inauguration, among others, was the Minister for Enterprise and Made in Italy and the authority delegated to Space Policy, Adolfo Urso, who emphasised, ‘Italy was the third power at global level to have gained access to Space, and today we can be one of the leading countries in space colonisation and in the application of technologies for terrestrial activities. The widespread presence of Italian companies operating in this sector has fostered the birth of real aerospace districts in the regions, such as the one in Veneto, one of the largest in terms of number of companies and volume of business. Space is a priority for the government: by 2026 we will allocate around €7.3 billion, including contributions to ESA, ASI, PNRR funds, and European funds. I will also present in the coming days in the Council of Ministers the law on the Space Economy, which we had planned as a link to the economic manoeuvre last December. We will be the first in Europe to provide ourselves with an organic law on the subject, in line with the one soon to be presented by the European institutions, which will also regulate the presence of private individuals in Space, today increasingly present in orbit and even more central to the dynamics that characterise this sector’.

The President of Confindustria Veneto Est; the President of Agenzia Ice; the President of Asi; and the Chief of Staff of the Italian Air Force also brought greetings to the inauguration ceremony.