The Polo innovazione Cassiodoro Tourism (PIC) was established on 19 December 2018. The PIC is an enterprises network made up of a series of private companies and a research organization that work in synergy to encourage innovative activities in the field of Culture and Tourism through the promotion, the sharing of structures and the exchange of skills. It aims to make effective the transfer of knowledge, the dissemination of information and the collaboration between the bodies that make up the Polo at various levels in order to create new products, goods and services for the areas concerning Cultural Heritage and activities, the tourism and cultural industry, the transfer of innovation; food and wine and typical products; Production of an industrial and artisanal nature; the offer in Tourism Promotion; transversal activities such as training, orientation, company creation, transfer of innovation. Within PIC, advanced technologies, materials, application protocols, integrated methodologies and know-how developed by partner companies are integrated with systems and ways of operating to monitor the state of conservation and degradation phenomena, for the development-diffusion of functional strategies for the conservation, restoration, enhancement, use and promotion of the cultural and environmental heritage. The application areas outlined for the Tourism and Culture sector have connections and strong synergies also with other areas of innovation; in particular:

• ICT and innovative tertiary sector: the trajectory of digital ecosystems, based on the advanced management of large volumes of data and processes, finds points of contact with the enhancement and management of cultural, tourist and environmental resources also through new business models focused on the network; from the point of view of enabling technologies, micro-electronics, advanced materials and nanotechnologies for applications on safety and monitoring (diagnostics, …) are certainly of particular importance.

ICT plays a prominent role, especially with reference to innovations in the areas of social and semantic web, sentiment analysis, IoT, extraction of relevant information and data, content virtualization, geolocation, management of online services, including on demand services;

• agri-food: quality, uniqueness, traceability and typicality of food products represent an important component of the tourist offer and traditional regional culture; culture and “agricultural hospitality” represent in themselves a tourist asset with respect to which it is possible to create synergies with other regional attractions for the creation of new destinations and tourist circuits;
• sustainable building: renewable energies and components for energy saving; recovery and enhancement of buildings of historical value (new materials…);
• environment and natural risks: the mitigation of natural risks, in the articulations of monitoring, safety and management of emergencies, finds among the areas of direct interconnection, the enhancement of the heritage of historic buildings, monumental, archaeological and artistic heritage.

The Polo Cassiodoro offers itself as a tool for territorial, interdisciplinary and multisectoral development that connects companies, start-ups, researchers, talents, professions. It has created a qualified, inter-regional and international network aimed at consolidating in line with the processes of growth and implementation of technological innovation, technical-scientific relationships and collaborations between:

• enterprises in the cultural heritage sector;
• enterprises in the tourism sector;
• service supply companies;
• public and private institutions operating in the context of the production of new knowledge, innovation and technology transfer in the reference sector: universities, public research bodies, Italian and foreign public and private research centers; corporate representation bodies;
• consortia with public participation, with territorial development functions;
• cultural institutions and associations;
• other subjects.

A new vision of development enters, focused on the protection and promotion of diversity and cultural expressions as a resource for a common heritage that must be valued and safeguarded for the benefit of all. Since its foundation, the Polo has taken on the role of guiding “active” social policies to promote the improvement of the quality of life, the re-appropriation of the territory, practices of responsibility and care of the cultural and environmental heritage, dissemination of knowledge, construction of development networks and social capital. The Polo is an expression and place of enhancement, for the region, of the “intangible” cultural heritage understood as: practices, representations, expressions.

The Governance of the Pic is structured as follows:

• President: Mr. Fortunato Cozzupoli
• Director: Mr. Santino Pascuzzi
• Management Committee
• Managing Company
• Ats Group of Companies