Progresses of Artificial Intelligence in science and everyday life, robotic zoos, time travel in Virtual Reality, and even science-themed escape rooms, insights on medicine, sustainability, and novel points of view: that’s Visions, the theme that will be explored and experienced at Focus Live 2023, a project created by Mondadori Media, Mediamond and Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci in Milan, scheduled November 3 to 5. 

The Festival of Knowledge conceived and organized by Focus – the Mondadori Group magazine directed by Raffaele Leone as well as the most widely read monthly magazine in Italy by enthusiasts and those curious about technology, science sustainability and innovation – reaches this year the sixth edition and confirms its successful format that, in 2022, won and involved more than 15 thousand visitors in attendance and obtained more than 250 thousand interactions on social media.

“Having reached the sixth edition, I can say that this knowledge festival is increasingly Focus and increasingly Live,” says the director Raffaele Leone. “More and more Focus because the spirit is that of the magazine: to increase knowledge by stimulating curiosity and fun. More and more Live because we are striving to find formats and events that are not just a live meeting with scientists or popularizers but in which we experiment with all available technologies (augmented reality, viewers, samples of the metaverse) to “immerse” ourselves in knowledge. If we then add other disciplines that we enjoy such as music, theatre and science, you go a full circle.”

Focus Live, open to the public and completely free of charge (reservation required), for the past six years has aimed to illustrate with popular language the horizons of human knowledge: from physics to medicine, from biology to genetics, from environmental advocacy to technology to digital communication. Innovation, creativity and curiosity will be the guidelines of this special edition, which will feature over a thousand square meters available to visitors, with 40 installations, five thematic areas and a very rich program of meetings, talks, workshops, performances, in the company of nationally and internationally renowned scientists, popularizers and creators.

This year’s Festival of Knowledge once again comes to life at the Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia, the largest technical-scientific museum in Italy, a bridge between the past and future of scientific culture for 70 years. In this edition, the audience will be able to range between artificial intelligence, interactive digital art installations and Virtual Reality.

Among the protagonists of Focus Live 2023 will be, among others: navigator Giovanni Soldini, who will speak in the form of a hologram, Ilaria Capua, who will bring her show on circular health together with actress Antonella Attili, immunologist Alberto Mantovani, the physicist Alessandro Vespignani, the botanist Stefano Mancuso who will try his hand at a performance straddling science and music with an ensemble of the Milan Symphony Orchestra, the president of the CNR Maria Chiara Carrozza, the philosopher Luciano Floridi who is one of the foremost experts on artificial intelligence, disclosers such as Barbara Gallavotti, Silvia Moroni (sustainable talk), Massimo Temporelli, TikTok star professor Vincenzo Schettini, explorer, mental coach and environmental popularizer Alex Bellini and TV host and author Carlo Conti, who will receive the Telegatto from the director of Tv Sorrisi e Canzoni, Aldo Vitali.

Also on stage will be astronauts including Roberto Vittori, sportsmen such as Mike Maric, former world freediving champion, and former AC Milan and national team coach Arrigo Sacchi, who will talk about technology and artificial intelligence in soccer.

Closing the packed three-day schedule will be evolutionary scientist and popularizer Telmo Pievani and actor Marco Paolini, in a science show dedicated to Charles Darwin, one of the most visionary scientists in history.

What’s new
There are many new features in this edition, starting from new formats on stage: from Ted’s with VR experiences to quizzes with the audience-for example Stefano Bartezzaghi will engage the audience in a space-themed crossword puzzle -to special events, to exclusive theatrical or musical performances. The exhibition area will enclose five major thematic islands, Technology, Sustainability, Science, Space, Health curated by scientific or publishing partners that will alternate with sponsor activities: visitors will be able to attend interactive workshops, as well as interface with robots and bots powered by Artificial Intelligence, experience the thrill of simulators for time and space travel, and experience science-themed escape rooms and games. The works of Cracking Art will animate the Museum’s outdoor spaces, marking the 30th anniversary of the art movement that has always linked its creations to the themes of the relationship between nature and artifice, sustainability and the environment. More than 200 square meters will, finally, be dedicated to the Kids area,with experiments, workshops, meetings and games by Focus Junior to bring the youngest children closer to S.T.E.A.M. subjects.

Reservations to events can be made starting from today, Tuesday, October 17, at www.focuslive.it. Two shifts: morning (10 am to 2 pm) and afternoon (2 pm to 8 pm). Those who wish to stay all day can of course book tickets for both half days.

Looking forward to Focus Live 2023
There will be many initiatives leading up to Focus Live 2023. After the meeting on dinosaurs at the Museum of Natural History in Milan, the concert lecture on Mahler organized by the Milan Symphony Orchestra and the real time travel in Virtual Reality by You Are Verdi, which allowed the many people present to experience the Milanese city, between the premiere of Nabucco at La Scala, the turmoil of the Five Days and the spirit of the Risorgimento of those years,on October 21 at the Civic Aquarium of Milan double date, at 18:30 and at 20:00, with La musica del mare: an unmissable opportunity to listen to the voices and songs of fish, corals and cetaceans, with marine biologist Sabina Airoldi, head of research at Tethys Institute in the Pelagos sanctuary. And not to feel too nostalgic about Focus Live 2023,on December 2, at the Ulrico Hoepli Planetarium in Milan, at 21:00, Adriano Fontana, an Inaf astrophysicist, and one of the scientists who routinely use the Webb telescope, will explain to the public how it works and present us with the latest findings.

This edition of Focus Live is realized thanks to the support and collaboration with Acquario Civico di Milano, Aeronautica Militare, Biokip Labs, CNR, Enea, Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Giotto (Fila), IIT, Il Piccolo Teatro, Infn, Joint Research Centre, Navy, Milan Civic Museum of Natural History, Milan Symphony Orchestra, Shake srl, Milan Civic Planetarium, Politecnico di Milano, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, University of Padua and Way Experience.

Focus Live is a Mondadori Media event organised in partnership with the Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci, Mediamond and numerous others:

MAIN PARTNERS: Koelliker Group
PARTNERS: Carglass, Honor, Humanitas University,
INSTITUTIONAL PARTNERS: European Commission
CONTENT PARTNER: AIRC, Mondadori Education, Opera San Francesco, Rilegno, TUV SUD
ART GUEST: Cracking Art
TECHNICAL PARTNER: Lete
OFFICIAL RADIO: R101
KIDS AREA powered by Focus Junior