Exactly one year ago, leap year, on Wednesday of this week the entire group of the Festival was at the Lingotto Congress Center in Turin to work on the set-up of the rooms. Like every year, the last week of February was that of the Food Journalism Festival. Journalists, social media managers, communicators, visionaries, we were in those empty spaces to attach panels and banners, mount banquets, place roll ups, transport crates of vegetables to put on stage, unpack food bags, store welcome bags, test microphones, monitors , sockets, cables, arranging chairs, checking lists, breaking through cardboard boxes to arrange them in the recycling. And then the phone calls from those announcing delays, those apologizing in the name of a minister, those asking for information, those who wanted to know what the hotel room was like. Adrenaline, enthusiasm, apprehension.
Then, we turned off the light and went home to wait for the Festival, knowing that everything we could do had been done and that the next day we would just have to experience the Festival with the utmost professionalism.
The next day, Thursday, and the second day, Friday, more than 1.200 came to visit us. A confirmation of the audience numbers that the Festival has had since 2016, the first year. Always between 1000 and 1.100, a good number of information and communication professionals.
We made mistakes last year. But luckily you didn't let us weigh them. Indeed, these days you are giving us great confidence.
We can't wait to start opening boxes, pulling cables, agreeing on tasks with the hotel trainees, placing bottles of water, checking the cleanliness of the bathrooms.
In short, we can't wait for 22 September: the next day we want to inaugurate a new Festival and we want to do it, as always, with you.
