[p3] invited to Milan Design Week!

Milano is Design. Design is Milano.

Earlier this year I received a phone call from Aiforia, one of the partner organizations from the SEE ME IN PROJECT letting me know, ever so excited, that we have been chosen and were being invited to Milan Design Week! 

It was almost too good to be true. We decided not to get excited, since we are still in Corona-year and it could at any point get canceled, but prepared for it, regardless, of course! 

p3atmilan

We had originally planned to bring two of our Azubis (in the vocational training with [p3]), who are lucky enough to have a legal residency. However, when we asked them if they wanted to come, we quickly found out that regardless of the legal residency, they are not allowed to leave the country! That was a huge surprise and also a disappointment. We worked closely with one of our advisors and experts on legal status of refugees, and we tried some options, without success. We have placed some options in place to solve this for the future, so we are not giving up so easily on this topic, but it will take some time.

So about two weeks ago, we packed up our van with the [p3]-mobile Küche and our bikes and set out for Milan. Five hours later we were filled with sun, a modern air and welcomed by the SEE ME IN organizers and left the [p3]-mobile Küche at our exhibition place. 

That evening we met almost all of the 5 other companies who have been chosen and invited from 5 different countries: I am linking their social media for y’all:

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All entrepreneurs originally from a different country, who have learned a new culture and now lead/started their own business facing all of the challenges that come with starting a business plus in a different language/tax system/cultural barriers. It was great to see how their design and creativity reflected their background and how successful their businesses have become through the years because of them being proud of their roots and their cultural intelligence. Hence, that is why we picked the name that united us: Multicultural Intelligence.

[p3] also fitted perfectly there, since [p3] also faces challenges generally with our pedagogic costs and daily cultural differences within our bright team. 

Here is a video of our Interview in Milan, where all Entrepreneurs got to introduce themselves and answer some questions:

https://fb.watch/89s9ETG7Zw/




#SEEMEIN is a project co-funded by the Interreg Central Europe Programme that aims to help enterprises with a migrant background. Partner organisations working towards this goal together are: Fondazione Politecnico di Milano, Consorzio Nazionale CGM, Comune di Milano, Fakulteta za uporabne družbene študije (FUDŠ), ACT Grupa, Budapesti Kereskedelmi és Iparkamara (BKIK), Budapest Chambers of Commerce, Aiforia, RRA Severne Primorske doo Nova Gorica and Zavod Iskriva, iskrišče za razvoj lokalnih potencialov.

This year and for entrepreneurs from the industry Handwerk, they decided to support all 5 of us and finance our trip to Milan Design Week and gift us the chance to show-case our products in such an important global platform, organized meet-ups with successful companies in the industry to be able to learn from them and also kindly gave us a tour of two of the District within Milan Design Week. We could not be more thankful for their organization, mission, professionally and that they chose us!

This year Milan Design Week and the famous Furniture Fair Salone del Mobile.Milano were the exact same week! Does not usually happen this way, but it is a Covid-year. This turned out perfect for us, since we were also to attend the fair and be totally inspired by the top 400 designers in the industry. We were able to exchange contact with the ones that are also interested in the topic of Hydro-Furniture and are looking forward to what may come of it.

During our week there, we also visited and met the Hydroponic-Based Company called Agricooltur. They are doing some exciting things in Turin, Italy and recently also in Milan. It was so great that we got to sit with them and chat about our concepts and get excited of what the future might hold for the industry.

All in all, we could not be more thankful to the SEE ME IN Project for gifting us this opportunity to come back to Freiburg after those 3 days, renewed, with more creativity than ever and encouragement of how far we have come and knowledge that there is much more for us in the coming years. 

PS: The [p3]-mobile Küche was a hit in the streets of Milan and fits beautifully as a complement to the ISOLA District next to the Vertical Forest tower— both statements for a better future in areas of sustainability. 













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