Maddalena Milone

Over 30 years of professional activity in the meeting industry. From congress assistant to project manager to entrepreneur, my professional path led me to create my own business reality 20 years ago.  Planning and organizing meetings, conventions and congresses has always been my passion. I started when I was 19 years old right after graduation and since then I have never stopped, cultivating my passion for study, research and communication. Graduated in Political Science with honors, I simultaneously carried out the internship journalism that allowed me to enroll in the Order of Journalists. Over the years I have been involved in various projects and have held active roles in the largest trade associations. In 2004 I started my entrepreneurial project founding "Meeting Planner", a company of planning and conference organization that has about 150 events organized per year and a permanent staff of 10 employees, almost all women. In 2013 I started a new project, "apulia2meet", a destination management  company start-up brand with the aim of promoting Apulia as a destination for events. In the same year I helped found "Meet In Action Italia", the first national network of companies in the meeting industry with other 8 Italian agencies, each with specific skills in the design and management of hospitality in events. Founder of the scientific journal Valutare in Sanità, of which I am editor in chief, currently my study focuses on the principles of meeting design and their application in all types of aggregative events. Also for this reason I started the training project specifically for the tourism and conference field "i-am LAB". President of MPI Italia Chapter in 2020-2021, Vice President of the Tourism Section of Confindustria Bari Bat, Member   of the   General   Council of   Federturismo   Confindustria.   Lecturer   in   Meeting Management in various training and refresher courses Faculty member of the i-am LAB project and speaker for various events and seminars at Bari University. In October 2020 I obtained the certification of Meeting and Event Manager (standard UNI 11786:2020) and from November the qualification of proctor for the above certification standard. Author of the book "Gli Eventi: dalla progettazione all'organizzazione" (meaning: Events: From Planning to Organization), a technical manual published in 2021 by an important Italian publishing house. Since 2020 professor at the university (with a specific program on event planning) and faculty member at Master THEM and at ITS Italian Tourism Student Program recognized by Italian Government. Married to Cristiano, I have two wonderful daughters. I love reading, studying and travelling.