Participants will meet representatives from organisations such as the Reebok Innovation Center, MIT Media Lab, PTC, LinkedIn, Airbnb and Uber.

Thirty-four entrepreneurs, managers and representatives of the Lombardy economy are preparing for a technology mission to Boston and San Francisco, two of the world's leading technology hubs. The mission will take place from Saturday 13 to Sunday 21 October 2018 and is part of the World Manufacturing Forum 2018 side events in Cernobbio (held on 27-28 September 2018). The trip to the United States is promoted by Confindustria Lombardia and the Digital Innovation Hub Lombardia.

All organisational aspects will be managed by the Unione degli Industriali della Provincia di Varese, which has been organising technology missions, known as #TechMission, to Silicon Valley and other global innovation hubs for years.

The most recent trip, a few months ago, combined attendance at the Consumer Electronics Show 2018 in Las Vegas with visits to major companies in Seattle.

The mission has several objectives:

• to understand how major US industrial companies and research centres are approaching the transition to Industry 4.0 and digital transformation, and to examine how universities are fostering this process. These new technological paradigms are reshaping the structure of all economic sectors, with particularly significant effects on the manufacturing industry, which is the backbone of Lombardy's economy;
• to gain first-hand experience of the Boston Area technology district, which has focused on automation and robotics for years, and the Silicon Valley ecosystem with its powerful entrepreneurial environment;
• to explore how digital transformation, driven by new technologies, is changing both working methods and market approaches, scenarios that participants will experience first-hand in Boston and San Francisco.
• to initiate specific networking activities among participants to foster mutual understanding and lay the foundations for future collaboration, inspired by the insights gained during the mission.

Participants will be able to engage with innovative experiences, solutions and technologies to adopt within their own companies to gain a competitive advantage, including by sharing the experiences of Italian companies operating in the US.

The organisers are in contact with organisations such as the Reebok Innovation Center, MIT Media Lab, PTC, LinkedIn, Airbnb and Uber to arrange meetings with the Lombardy delegation.