Crowdfunding of the Trentino Winter Universiade

TRENTINO – The Organising Committee of the 2013 Winter Universiade in Trentino bets on crowdfunding to directly and emotionally involve supporters in the organisation of this huge sport event. The use of this innovative tool to collect funds was proposed by Andrè Silva, young laureate holding a master degree in Economics achieved at Trento’s University and now collaborating with the WU Organising Committee led by Vice-President Bouquet.

The general aim of crowdfunding activities is collecting funds at an international level using the Internet to grant projects, ideas and initiatives. Trentino Universiade is a non profit event in which supporters, willing to take part of the crowd that will fund the event, will have the opportunity of being involved in the organisation of the event by purchasing a number of pixels composing the Universiade’s logo (the ‘U’ combined with Dolomites) on the official website of the event .

Once the supporter bought one or more pixels, he/she will read his/her name on the logo by passing the mouse on it. The more pixels will be purchased the more space for the name will be given. The collected funds will be employed in a number of activities such as highly social projects, innovative research projects linked to University, entertainment events to take place during the 11-day competitions, as well as, the world of volunteers.

Specialised international companies employ Internet operative platforms, through which all funds pass by, to monitor crowdfunding in order to avoid abuses or frauds. According to Forbes magazine, in 2011 crowdfunding collected a total amount of about 1.5 billion dollar that in 2013 will achieve 3 billion, with an exponential foreseen growth till 500 billion within this decade.

Silva, the young Portuguese manager, holding also a degree from Lisbona’s University, Nova School of Business and Economics, highlights the deep link connecting Trentino and his initiative. “Here in Trentino I discovered a world of entrepreneurial opportunities. In this territory one can continuously feel a precise and strong effort towards innovation, rendering Trentino a unique reality, a true gem in the heart of Europe , ideal to develop and launch new visions. This is why I decided to propose the crowdfunding project to support the Universiade, a symbol of the link between University and innovative applications. It is good to know that once again Trento will be innovative – he adds – we are the first global sports event exploiting crowdfunding and the first project in Europe which can be considered to be in the high potential segment. Until now only the USA have successfully launched projects with great visibility and which have collected high sums of money, whereas, in Europe crowdfunding was mostly used for smaller local level initiatives”.

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(Source: Trentino 2013 Winter Universiade)