A reception was held yesterday evening at the Embassy of Italy in London to present concepts for the next Pontignano Conference. The conference, a British public-diplomacy initiative, is held annually at the Pontignano Charterhouse in Tuscany and brings together government figures, entrepreneurs, journalists and opinion-makers from the UK and Italy to discuss key issues of mutual interest.
The opening address by the Italian ambassador, Raffaele Trombetta, was followed by speeches by Jill Morris, the British ambassador to Italy; Paul Sellers, the director of British Council Italy; and the two co-chairs of this year’s Pontignano Conference, Lord Willets and Carlo Calenda, the Italian minister of economic development, who spoke from Rome by videolink. The 2018 conference, the 26th edition, will be held in September, with a theme of “Bridging the Gap”.
