Italian British Association – 14 Ottobre 2014
«Whatever you are, be a good one». Abraham Lincoln
Well, many lives have passed by, but my motto it’s still there.
No matter the idea, the job, the role (wife, mum, friend, director…), I wouldn’t and couldn’t make it without trying to pursue my best.
I’ve been started working at 21. And never stopped since then. Always worked in the Marketing and Advertising industry. Always thought is the best job on Earth. Always will. Obviously you don’t start your career from the best creative agency though. Even if you love your job you still have to work hard.
So, here I was in 1998, making radio ads for a small studio in Rome, while studying at the University. The following year I was copywriter at a fairly good creative agency and after that I was blessed enough to make good progresses and be hired by even bigger places (such as McCann) in Italy.
Infinite ideas have crossed my mind, some of them luckily have been fulfilled (like publishing Writhink – a book written by 300 hands). Other ones were way too tough to be realized. Although, there is always hope.
Then I moved to London, in 2002. After winning the Art Directors Workshop Club and working in a creative agency in the West End for a while (lying on my Curricula and improvising myself art director as nobody would have accepted an Italian copywriter), I finally got pregnant and manage to stop. It’s good to stop, especially for people who never do it. It makes you think where you are and where, actually, you want to be.
So after having my first kid in 2005 I founded Idea188.com – full creative and marketing services agency in London.
We are very proud of our mission – Carbon neutral creativity© – as our team is made of experienced freelancers and specialised firms, all handpicked across the World – we operate in an innovative and efficient way in our agency’s virtual space. This contributes to minimize consumption of energy and stationary products and to reduce the emissions related to traditional office and travelling habits.
That’s why we particularly welcome clients in the renewable energy and clean tech space who share the green philosophy with us. And of course we welcome Italian ventures, helping them to grow up internationally.
Directing Idea188 has been 8 years of pure pain and pure joy, but the craziest idea was yet to come. Not that the idea was crazy, I believe that was a good one. Crazy was the fact to add a new parallel role and job into my already hectic busy working life and two small kids (and a husband).
But you know, the more you do, the more you can do.
The good idea was launching the first business directory for Italian people in the UK – The Italian Community United Kingdom. Offering free subscription and free online visibility to Italian businesses (particularly the small realities, professionists and freelancers), obviously the pilot project turned into an intense reality pretty soon.
Today (October 2014) the directory counts 1,053 businesses, 10,000+ quality followers in our social networks, partner with the Italian Chamber of Commerce for the UK, operates under the auspices of the London Italian Consulate and collaborate with the Italian Cultural Institute, the Italian Medical Society, the Italian Bookshop and more private and public realities of interest to our Community.
At this point you may doing some counting wondering how old I am now. Well, in the UK when you professionally write about yourself, revealing your age it’s considered anti-ethic.
So guess what?
The Italian Community United Kingdom
