Event
DIGILAB: Meetings for a Lombard Digital Creative Ecosystem
October 27 in Lodi and October 30 in Varese, from 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM
A project by MEET Digital Culture Center, Regione Lombardia, and Unioncamere Lombardia.
Are you developing immersive projects, XR, VR, AR, or new forms of digital storytelling and interested in participating? Send us an email at info@meetcenter.it
Technology is redefining the boundaries of creativity and the way we experience culture. To accompany this transformation, MEET, together with Regione Lombardia and Unioncamere Lombardia, is launching DIGILAB Lombardia: a project organized into two participatory consultation sessions with Lombard cultural and creative digital enterprises.
The aim of the initiative is to explore the needs of this sector and provide useful guidance to support its development as a competitive digital hub both locally and internationally. It will also be an opportunity to delve into the fundamental importance of enabling artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in the digital transformation of local cultural and creative economies.
The Methodology
The two days that make up the stages of the first edition of DigiLab will begin with an inspirational keynote by international guest Luigi Ferrara (CEO of Conifer Futures Group, Toronto), who will provide a comprehensive overview of emerging international trends in the digital cultural and creative sector, translating global trends into concrete inspiration for our local community.
This will be followed by a vision session using the Charrette methodology. Creativity needs co-design spaces, which is why this methodology was chosen: a Charrette is an intensive, collaborative workshop where participants, guided by facilitators and visualizers, work at shared tables to develop ideas, suggestions, and strategies to enhance Lombardy’s regional excellence in the digital creative economy.
All insights that emerge will be gathered into a final report shared with the Region and workshop participants. This report will enable Regione Lombardia and the Chamber of Commerce system to outline interventions and measures for the development of the sector.
The Two Stages
The two meetings will be held in Lodi and Varese, focusing on two distinct areas of cultural services. Specifically:
Lodi | October 27 — “Artificial Intelligence and the Creative Economy for Cultural Institutions”
This session will focus particularly on creating innovative, immersive, and interactive educational content and experiences for museums, educational institutions, archives, and libraries. Transforming audience engagement models, educational materials, and artistic content for the institutional sector is essential to leading internationally in cultural creation. Emerging global best practices will be presented during the session, alongside a participatory workshop to explore strategies and forms of support aimed at developing new content creation formats using AI, immersiveness, and other forms of digital transformation.
Varese | October 30 — “AI and the Immersive Experience Economy”
This session will explore the emergence of new experiences and formats for the entertainment, cinema, performing arts, mobile content creation, and publishing sectors, discussing how to transform content production. The worlds of media, branding, events, design, fashion, and communication are undergoing a major transformation—not only from a production standpoint, but also in terms of creative processes and language. In this second meeting, emerging global best practices will be presented, and a strategy for developing new formats using AI, immersiveness, and other forms of digital transformation will be drafted during the participatory workshop.
DAILY SCHEDULE
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14:00 — Welcome and registration
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14:30 — Welcome remarks by Regione Lombardia, the Chamber of Commerce, and MEET Digital Culture Center, featuring a reflection on policy implemented in the territory to date, an introduction to the DigiLab Lombardia program, and a report on international ecosystems starting from research funded by Regione Lombardia at the end of 2025, alongside select examples presented during The New Atlas of Digital Art 2026.
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15:00 — Inspirational keynote by Luigi Ferrara, CEO of Conifer Futures Group, Toronto.
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15:30 — Vision Session using the Charrette methodology. Companies and participants will be split into two or three groups of 15 people, coordinated by a team of experts. Ideas and past experiences will be collected, and analyses and suggestions from businesses will be mapped out.
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17:30 — Debrief & Presentations. Presentation of the work carried out by each group (10 minutes per group).
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18:00 — Final summary report by Luigi Ferrara and closing remarks.
