Summer Series: Engaging Young People in Regional Communities, with Paolo Galelli

Hi #smartcommunity friends! Welcome back to the Summer Series here on the Smart Community Podcast. As you know, we're taking a little break from new content over the Australian summer holidays, and instead we are sharing the replays of a few of our all time favourite episodes. This week we're sharing my interview with Paolo Galelli, from way back in episode 148, which was released in December of 2019. In this episode, I have a great chat with Paolo, who at the time of recording was a Building Energy Efficiency Engineer at BuildTech s.r.l., and is now a Project and Construction Manager at ​​Comune di Sestri Levante and Research fellow at the University of Genoa in Italy. Paolo shares with us what sparked his interest in Smart Community concepts and why he feels they are so important, especially for engaging with young people. Paolo tells us about how he sees Italy embracing Smart concepts, and the reason he thinks his town, Sestri Levante, is a great example of a Smart Community. We then discuss the ways that proactive participatory approaches to engagement are even more important in small and regional towns than in metro areas. Paolo tells us about the app he is working on called Nassa that helps engage young people and how they've integrated across governments and disciplines. We finish our chat discussing the emerging trend of the different and often technologically-driven ways young people engage in community and civic life, and how Paolo and his team have used that to their advantage. This episode was part of my spotlight on the regions in December, so we hope you enjoy this perspective from a regional town in Italy. We will be sure to get Paolo back on the show in future for a full update about what he has been up to since we recorded this episode and how our thinking has progressed since our conversation. But in the meantime, as always we hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it! Find the full show notes at: www.mysmart.community Connect with Paolo on LinkedIn or via email paologalelli@gmail.com Connect with Nassa Sestri on Instagram @nassa_sestri , Facebook @nassasestri or LinkedIn Connect with me via email: hello@mysmart.community Connect via LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook @SmartCommHQ The Smart Community Podcast is produced by Perk Digital.