Innovazione

📈 Carrie Tharp of Google Cloud and Gary Wiseman of Sabre Travel Solutions discuss AI's role in travel at a webinar. AI uses millions of data to personalize travel instantly. Over the next decade, AI will be applied at every stage of travel, not as a differentiator, but as a customer expectation. Travel Email IQ and Sabre’s 'Booking Engine Concierge' set for 2025 release, will automate travel planning processes and provide AI-based bots for direct customer interactions.

💻 In 2024, Regione Umbria launched the revised "Bridge to Digital" grant with a 6 million euro budget to aid micro and small businesses in commerce, dining, crafts, and manufacturing sectors to digitalize. Applications open 25 September 2024. Eligible expenditures include cloud services, ICT professional services, and ICT instrumental goods. Examples demonstrate digital engagement in restaurants through customized apps, tablets for orders, cloud-based POS, and AI chatbots for customer service. For more info, contact Confcommercio Umbria offices.

🌮 Taco Libre, not just any Mexican restaurant, is the brainchild of Mexican chef Lina Jimenez and CEO Davide Luchetti. Chef Jimenez, trained by Yuri de Gortari and Edmundo Escamilla, offers an authentic Mexican culinary experience with a gluten-free menu featuring homemade tortillas, tacos, quesadillas, burritos, and nachos, including vegan and vegetarian options. The iCombi Pro oven, handling 70% of cooking, significantly cuts preparation time while preserving traditional flavors, with benefits like reduced cleaning time due to its AutoDose system.

🍝 Pasta fresca sales in Italy, influenced by factors like seasonality and tourism, increase by 28% in the North and 30% in the South during winter, with a pre-Christmas and New Year's surge of 65% in the North and an impressive 188% in the South. In summer, tourist-favored Alberobello sees a 91% jump compared to residential Bari. Promotions on ready-made sauces can boost pasta sales by 11%. Tuidi's AI platform Delphi helps stores predict and optimize stock, with one client reducing their average inventory by 23% from 2021 to 2024 without affecting sales value.

🍪 HIFOOD won the Global Food Industry Award for "Most Innovative Process" at the 22nd World Congress of Food Science and Technology in Rimini, Italy, from 8-12 September 2024, with its “Micro Protein” solution. The IUFoST organized event annually recognizes pioneers in food innovations, and HIFOOD's Micro Protein is a clean label, allergen-free, plant-based protein with a fine particle size under 30 microns and a protein content over 70%. HIFOOD, founded in 2012 and part of CSM Ingredients Group since February 2022, specializes in natural ingredient solutions for various food applications.

💻 Gruppo Impresoft updated Babbi S.r.l.'s sales and service system, enhancing business efficiency and reducing errors through an agents' app and a 24/7 B2B digital hub. Babbi, founded in 1952, specializes in Italian sweets, operates in over 80 countries, offers 1000+ products, and has a turnover of €50 million/year. The challenge was to create an e-commerce portal for B2B clients in Italy and Germany, supporting 200 agents. Impresoft's forSales suite enables easy data and order management and personalized B2B customer experiences.

🍷 Bugin, a gin designed to enhance the flavor of meat, was born in Piedmont with 8 botanicals complementing those used in meat cooking. Mauro Schiavo, a barman and butcher, initiated the concept in 2017 at TASTA in San Mauro Torinese (Torino), with the product launching in 2019. Bugin (45% VOL) is a compound gin that rests for a month before bottling and offers two limited editions: Barrique Old Tom (40% VOL, 70 cl) and Barrique ex Timo (45% VOL, 70 cl). Additionally, Bugin Ready To Drink Gin Tonic is available in 250 ml cans (7.8% VOL).

🍻 Legend Kombucha, an Italian craft kombucha brewery, partners with scientific communicator and chef Marco Bianchi of "Al Torrazzo da Marco e Peppe" in Rezzanello, Piacenza, to create Kombucha al Pomodoro. This new addition brings the unique flavor of tomatoes and basil, expanding the range to 14 different flavors including seasonal options. Available at KombuchaBar, a food truck near the home restaurant, the product offers vitamin C and carotenoids, catering to health-conscious and culinary enthusiasts. On Friday evenings in September and October, patrons can explore dishes that enhance the kombucha's probiotic benefits at the food truck turned mini-restaurant.

☕ Rancilio Group, led by Coffee Competence & Product Manager Carles González, released two videos detailing the extraction systems of Rancilio and Rancilio Specialty professional coffee machines using advanced 3D animations and graphics. The first video covers the Steady Brew (SB) system in single-boiler machines from Classe 5 to Classe 20 and Invicta, showing manual T-Switch temperature adjustments and Pre-infusion and Post-infusion available only with Rancilio Specialty Invicta. The second video explains the Advanced Steady Brew (ASB), Xcelsius (XTP), and Advanced Temperature Profiling (ATP) in multi-boiler machines, particularly focusing on Rancilio Classe 11 and Rancilio Specialty RS1. The videos aim to enhance training for internal staff, authorized technicians, baristas, and industry operators, showcasing the innovative value of Rancilio products.

🍽 Corporate canteens increasingly use self-service with automated checkout systems utilizing AI and machine learning for swift and accurate transactions, enhancing employee lunch breaks by reducing queue times to about five seconds and improving stock management through real-time, error-free data collection. Integration with apps allows for employee payments via badge and table reservations to further streamline the dining experience and eliminate waiting times.