L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2017 www.italoamericano.org L'Italo-Americano 14 LOS ANGELES ITALIAN COMMUNITY Sport, fashion, tech: Italy awards its excellences in the USA Alessandro Del Piero awarded by councilman Joe Buscaino. Photo: Riccardo Siriano Entrepreneur Roberto Basilico awarded by Genny Nevoso. Photo: Riccardo Siriano N ot only the Italy- America Chamber of Commerce West, but also many members of the Italian and Italian-American community of Los Angeles met on Friday, December 8th in Beverly Hills to attend the usual Gala Dinner. Promoted by the Extraordinary Italian Taste cam- paign and strongly supported by the Ministry of Economic Deve- lopment, in collaboration with Assocamerestero, the event's aim was to award Italian talents in the United States, and also to cele- brate the 30th anniversary of the Chamber of Commerce. "We have chosen to reward athletes, start-uppers and entrepreneurs," the executive director of the Chamber Genny Nevoso explains to L'Italo-Americano, charity partner of an event which also had the patronage of many spon- sors such as Di Stefano, Ferrari, Campari, Urbani, Bertani, Smeg, Baci Perugina, and Veneto Hills. The event embraced Italy's food and wine excellence, with Chef Fabio Ugoletti and Chef Parker proposing a menu based on Umbrian truffle, Parma DOP ham, Adria IGP burrata, honey from the Aquila Apennines, Trento DOC, Prosecco Superiore C o n e g l i a n o - V a l d o b b i a d e n e DOCG, and Primitivo DOC. "Los Angeles is a peculiar city, very big and spread out, and there's plenty of events. Business is increasing, as well as attention to what the Italian community has been doing: this certainly rises the profile of our activities and events." "We need to create something special to attract people," Nevoso says, underlining how invest- ments by Italian companies in California have considerably increased in recent years. "Many entrepreneurs want to come here to invest, we get daily requests from companies interested in entering the American market. Food and beverage is the predo- minant sector, but there are also new realities entering our panora- ma, like the human resources startup that opened here this year. Another important emerging sec- tor is that of Clean Tech." During the evening, the presi- dent of Italy-America Chamber West, Dino Gaudio, rewarded Italian talents, starting from those who distinguished themselves in the sports' field, as the former Juventus and Italy' s player Ales- sandro Del Piero, and the young Italian NBA player Danilo Galli- nari, who recently joined the Los Angeles Clippers. "It is a wonderful recognition and I am very pleased to be awar- ded by the Italian community, I hope to make them proud." Galli- nari says to L'Italo-Americano: "I like it here, and I am happy with my new team. I've been living in the United States for ten years now, it's a different country with a very different culture, with pros and cons, just like Italy. I would like Italians to get more recogni- tion for their contribution to sports, just as they do in other sectors where we are already considered the best, like that of food and wine." Two young entrepreneurs, Diego Abba and Roberto Basili- co, were also awarded along with the two Italian athletes. Abba is CEO of Italist, an e-commerce platform with 150 Italian stores selling 750 luxury brands in more than 85 countries worldwide. "We are based in Los Angeles but everything started back in 2014 in San Francisco, thanks to an investment we obtained in Silicon Valley. In 2015 we moved to Los Angeles and our business has grown a lot in these past years: we have about 50 employees here," Abba tells us. " We got an award for innovation in the fashion world: our method of online distribution is, indeed, very different from what custo- mers usually expect when shop- ping on the high street. We made unique Italian products, once purchasable only in Italy, availa- ble all over the world." The fourth award was given to Rocco Basilico president of Oliver People, a company owned by Luxottica, at the tender age of 28. Basilico has been recently included by Forbes in its presti- gious 30 Under 30 List. "We have been awarded for the work we carried out in the past two years, when we doubled our business, going from 15 to 30 stores. It is a beautiful story about an Italian company that owns an historic brand from Los Angeles. The goal is to become the most prestigious eyewear brand on the market: people like the fact this is a no logo pro- duct, but with a strong identity, chic and trendy. We have about 60 employees in Los Angeles, 200 worldwide." Dino Gaudio, organizer of the event, tells L'Italo-Americano about the Chamber's goals in relation to an event like the Gala Dinner: "We are rebuilding the Chamber of Commerce, we've been typically involved in the food and wine industry, but now we are expanding our horizons, we are getting more into tech, fashion, and we want to expand the scope of this Gala Dinner which, in the past, was just for the Chamber's members. Our aim is to bring in more of the Ita- lian and the Italian American community. A lot of people here tonight are not members, but friends of members or of the honorees. We want to promote not only the Chamber but also the tremendous accomplishment of the Italians that are moving here: it's a completely different kind of migration, much more professio- nal. There are great enthusiasm and energy coming from Italy, and it is something we want to encourage and be a part of. This is why we felt the necessity to award certain people with whom we feel a connection. It's extre- mely important to bring the Ita- lian and Italian-American com- munities together. It's not two separate communities, it's one community." To hand in the awards to all four Italian talents was Joe Buscaino, a San Pedro native, representative on the Los Ange- les City Council and a well- known spokesman of the Italian- American community in California. "In Los Angeles, we value contributions from all cul- tures. We also have an opportu- nity tonight to focus on the Ita- lian community and the contribution made by Italian businessmen and women in sport, fashion, technology and so forth. The Chamber allows us to focus on building relationships between Italy and Los Angeles and to pro- mote an exchange idea. Tonight in particular, we are awarding two amazing athletes, Alessandro Del Piero and Danilo Gallinari. As the son of an Italian immi- grant, I believe it is important to continue to focus on building up our relationship with Italy. I am doing all I can to work with orga- nizations like the Chamber, and I also represents the Port of Los Angeles which is an international gateway for the movements of goods. But we need to concentra- te also on ideas. We value the fact that Italy has been really excelling in technology and medical business, and of course in the food industry. It is a shame that the second largest city in the country, Los Angeles, doesn't have a Little Italy, so my goal for 2018 is to establish a Little Italy in San Pedro, an area that's been experiencing a sort of renaissan- ce. A one hundred million dollar investment is going into the new waterfront development, which will be the heart of our entertain- ment area and, at the same time, I would like to create a Little Italy which doesn't only focus on retail and restaurants, but works as an "Italian incubator" in downtown San Pedro. We will begin the effort in January. The Italy-America Chamber West endorses our Little Italy in San Pedro." SILVIA NITTOLI

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