Sportzine, Andreban and Ethnic Ethics
on the podium of the Lorenzo Toma Prize 2024
Radio commentary for the blind, digital services and help for students The areas of intervention of the winning startups are Afghan
Competition for micro entrepreneurial ideas under 18, both business and social
First Prize to “Sportzine”, created and founded by Filippo Milanese and Francesco Pio Manca
LECCE – On Friday 31 May, the evaluation of the startups and the awards ceremony of the 7th edition of the “Galilei-Costa-Scarambone” Institute in Lecce took place in the prestigious Dante Hall in Lecce.Lorenzo Toma Award”, a recognition of 500 Euros which the Toma family donates every year to best business idea conceived and conducted by the enterprising students of the Salento school. Taking to the podium this year were the very young budding entrepreneurs who gave life to three radically different startups.
In addition to the startups in the competition, out of competition, the guys from Team Mabasta were able to present to the entire audience in the room the latest astonishing results obtained by the very young anti-bullying movement born in the school (and winner of the 1st edition of the Lorenzo Toma Prize), such as the hundreds of schools visited in recent months in Sicily, thanks to the project “1none100giga” totally financed by the Sicily Region and USR Sicily, like the many awards, articles and recognitions that the team leader Mirko Cazzato has deserved in this last school year and, above all, the great victory of the “Mutuality Award” from 100 thousand eurospromoted and financed by Royal Mutual And ITAS Mutua.
Coming first, winning the cash prize of 500 euros, was “Sportzine”, www.sportzine.it, conceived and founded by Filippo Milanese and Francesco Pio Manca and conducted by 5 other very young team members. Sportzine has the mission of experiencing and talking about sport from the perspective of “teens”, especially aimed at the beloved Lecce Calcio team. The service that allowed the boys to win the important challenge is probably the one called “See you at the Stadium”, with which Filippo and Francesco Pio, in all Lecce’s home matches from November onwards, carried out a detailed radio commentary service intended exclusively for all blind and visually impaired fans who go to the stadium. In this way the fans, in addition to experiencing the emotion of the sounds of the stadium, were also able to “see” all the actions of the match through the heartfelt and accurate description of Sportzine’s young startuppers from Salento.
Taking 2nd place was “Andreban”, www.andreban.com, led by Andrea Amato (17 years old), whose team is made up of around ten other young people aged 14 to 18. Andreban specializes in offering innovative digital services in the fields of 3D modeling and printing, video making (including with drones), digital business cards and web design. This year you focused the presentation on the new services offered together with the collaboration of the humanoid robot “NAO”, to help and support children with autism.
Ranking in 3rd place was the social startup “Ethnic Ethics”, www.eticaetnica.org, conceived and conducted by six girls and boys aged 13 to 18 (Alessia Petino, team leader, Arianna Stomeo, Tania Nobile, Luigi Carratta, Valentina Petino and Francesco Pio Manca). Ethnic Ethics helps 10 girls in Afghanistan who wish to go to school, study and realize their dream of the future (remember that in Afghanistan girls are not allowed to attend schools or universities). The girls of Etica Etnica buy in advance (paying a significantly higher price than the Afghan market) and sell in Italy ethnic bags designed and made by Afghan students, in this way they take on 100% of the business risks, safeguarding their work and profit of female students in Afghanistan
The members of the jury, composed of Carla Gentilemother of Lorenzo Toma and Administrative Manager of the INFN Lecce – National Institute of Nuclear Physics, Debora de Falco – INFN Lecce e. Administration Service Fulvio Ricciardi – INFN Lecce Computing and Networking Service, evaluated the creativity, innovation, feasibility, sustainability over time and, last but not least, the ability and expository effectiveness in presenting the idea, what in the jargon of sector is defined as the “pitch”. The winning project is awarded a cash prize of 500 euros each year to be allocated to the creation of the startup itself.
«The meaning of the Award – says Lorenzo’s mother, Carla Gentile – it is first and foremost to preserve a trace of Lorenzo. In recent times he was very fascinated by the web and startups, by everything that could be original and innovative and he dreamed of having a brilliant idea, the one that would lead him to success. I like to give it to curious kids who are passionate and enthusiastic about their project. I hope that the Lorenzo Toma Award can be an input so that the chosen startup can evolve and perhaps stabilize. For raising the funds for the seven editions of the Prize I would like to thank the generosity of my colleagues at the National Institute of Nuclear Physics.”
The 2024 edition of the Award saw 6 micro entrepreneurial ideas from the various classes of the economic sector of the Lecce school competing: Innova Fablab, SOS – Style Our School, SalentIA, Sportzine, Andreban and Etica Etnica. Some are real business inventions to be launched on the market, others are social enterprises aimed at addressing and, possibly, resolving social problems.
.
.
