The 2010 Premio Venezia recipients are revealed

Montréal, November 3rd, 2010 — The Italian Chamber of Commerce in Canada and its partner, Investissement Québec, are proud to announce the recipients of the 8th edition of Premio Venezia, which recognize annually the excellence in partnerships between Italy and Québec in various sectors of activity. The winners were announced Wednesday evening, during a special award ceremony held at the Marriott Château Champlain hotel, in front numerous distinguished guests from the business, academic and research communities.

The honorary president of Premio Venezia, Mr. Jacques Daoust, president and chief executive officer of Investissement Québec, was impressed by the high quality of the collaborations with Italy, one of its top five export markets in Europe, which contribute to the province's economic development. « In a world that is more competitive than ever, we must strive for excellence and never stop innovating on our constantly expanding world stage. The Premio Venezia winners have understood this fact and succeeded in leveraging the strong bonds between Italy and Québec. »

For his part, the president of the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Canada, Mr. Albert de Luca, underlined the growing complementarity between Québec and Italy, as well as the interest from both sides of the Atlantic for designing the future together. « Every year, for the past 8 years, we have been privileged to discover more and more quality initiatives, wide-ranging and innovative international partnerships.»

2010 recipients

• Bruni Glass Packaging Inc.
• De Marque
• IDS North America Ltd
• Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, INRS-Énergie, Matériaux et Télécommunications
• University of Montréal - Faculty of dentistry
• University of Montréal - Interdisciplinary Center for Emerging Technologies (CITÉ)

A first Premio Venezia prize was awarded to Bruni Glass Packaging Inc., recognized as a leading company in glass container design, technology and innovation, for its collaboration between the Italian and Canadian division resulting in the design and production of the distinctive maple syrup bottles, in the maple leaf shape « Autumn ». Already more than 100 million of the iconic bottles have been sold worldwide as a result of the partnership between designers in Italy and the market analysis team from Canada. The success of this project over many others, has allowed Bruni Glass to consolidate its leadership in the glass container industry in Italy, in Canada and internationally.

The Premio Venezia jury rewarded the Québec area company De Marque, specialized in technological tools which promote and improve learning. In recent years, De Marque's most significant advancements concern the e-book industry, more specifically the distribution of educational and cultural publications in digital form. Together, De Marque and its Italian partner Edigita created the Italian electronic book market which did not exist previously, and they now offer more than 5000 Italian titles, available on all types of digital media support. This Italy-Québec partnership promotes Italian reading and culture not only within the country, but also around the world.

The Italian company Ingegneria dei Sistemi S.P.A., specialized in electromagnetic technologies and innovations for over 30 years, was awarded a Premio Venezia for its successful implementation in Québec. In fact, since opening its Québec-based subsidiary barely 2 years ago, IDS North America has effectively and profitably penetrated both the Canadian and American markets. In addition to its initial areas of expertise, the division has recently entered the transportation engineering industry. With its experienced and specialized team, IDS North America manages multi-year, multi-million dollar contracts and is already planning a long-term strategy as the next step to its successful venture in North America.

The Energy, Materials and Telecommunications Research Center of the INRS received the Premio Venezia for the collaboration between its NANOMAT group, specialized in the laser synthesis of nanostructured materials, and the University Tor Vergata in Rome. The partnership aims to better understand nanomaterials and their use in efficient solar energy collection, and has already brought forth many positive results : joint publications, regular academic exchanges, the training of a highly qualified work-force in the emerging fields of nanoscience and nanotechnology, and notoriety for both institutions as leaders in these fields within the global scientific community.

The jury also rewarded the unique complementarity of the collaboration between the University of Montréal's Faculty of dentistry and the Faculty of medicine at the University degli Studi of Parma. This five year-long collaboration is illustrated by the joint study of Québec dentists and Italian neurologists on the causes of bruxism, the involuntary grinding of teeth during sleep, relative to brain activity during sleep cycles, as well as the effects of pain and wearing down of teeth. The specific expertise of each partner, and the clinical results have already produced a number of explanations as well as potential methods to prevent it. In addition to the scientific findings, the partnership has also yielded many joint publications in some of the most prestigious scientific journals, an increasing number of student exchanges and increasing international recognition for both institutions on this topic.

The final Premio Venezia of the evening was awarded to the Interdisciplinary Center for Emerging Technologies at the University of Montréal (CITÉ), for a collaboration which began five years ago with the Department of education and training sciences at the University of Bologna, within the framework of the Marco Polo program. This partnership seeks to share knowledge relative to the social impact of emerging technologies on young people and the integration of these technologies in their lifestyles. The agreement brought together CITÉ's resources and research project funding with the Bologna teams' unique expertise on media and the growing use of new technologies by Italian youth. Both universities now enjoy increasing international visibility and reputation as research specialists on this topic.

Jury

Presided by Mr. Claude Demers, former president and CEO of ADRIQ, and currently a senior consultant in innovation, the 2010 Premio Venezia jury included : Yves Lafortune, Director Europe, MDEIE; Annie Raymond, Director, Business development & Taxation, Samson Bélair/Deloitte Touche; Éric Dequenne, Director, Foreign subsidiaries, Investissement Québec; Paul E. Legault, lawyer and partner at Fraser Milner Casgrain; Federico Stroppiana, President of operations, North and South America, Mondo America Inc.

Partners

The Italian Chamber of Commerce in Canada extends a heartfelt thanks to its official sponsors, whose continuous support and generous participation strongly contribute to raising the profile of this unique event and, moreover, of the many partnerships involving Québec and Italian counteparts: Investissement Québec; the Ministère du Développement Économique, Innovation et de l'Exportation du Québec; Aéroports de Montréal; Deloitte; Fraser Milner Casgrain and the Montreal Port Authority.

Press and medias :
Roxana Cirstea
514.844.4249, 514.844.4249, #231