I love IT: the surprise of small businesses
“I Love IT” is a registered trademark, in all the UE country, created to promote Italy’s small businesses and crafts trade on the national and international market, with the aim of surprising people and debunking the countless clichés about a key sector of the Italian economy, one that is often underestimated with respect to its true scope. Today, more than ever, small businesses – with their strengths but also their structural limitations – have become a driving force of the Italian economy, ambassadors of true Italian craftsmanship and quality, both at home and around the world, despite the fact that, often, they do not have the support of large-scale marketing strategies and commercials brand names that consumers instantly recognize.
I Love IT was established in Turin as an exhibition/event on the calendar of Esperienza Italia. With the support of the Comitato Italia 150 and the Turin Chamber of Commerce, I Love IT was on show from 26 July to 25 September 2011 at the prestigious venue of the National Automobile Museum in Turin. Attracting an astonishing 39,000 visitors, the exhibition was transformed into a cultural and economic phenomenon that gained great visibility with the media and inspired the organizers and the Turin branch of the CNA, the National Confederation of Small Businesses, to develop new initiatives under this name, which was soon registered as a trademark owned by the Turin CNA.
I Love IT thus became a commercial exhibition held in the Sala Mostre of the Regione Piemonte in Turin at Piazza Castello 165 from 1 December 2011 to 12 January 2012. Perfectly timed for Christmas shopping, it allowed over 9,000 visitors – many of whom tourists – to get to know the small businesses and artisans of Piedmont and Turin, and make zero-kilometre purchases of hundreds of products that are usually impossible to find on the market, some of which also custom-made. The successful show is being repeated in December 2012, in December 2013 and in December 2014, again in the Sala Mostre of the Regione Piemonte.
