Crossing Cultures, Meeting Talents: when talent attraction also means listening to their voices
20 November 2025On November 12, 2025, at Villa Guastavillani, Bologna Business School hosted “Crossing Cultures, Meeting Talents. Practices for attracting and enhancing international talent in business”, an event designed to explore how companies, institutions, and academia can work together to make the region truly attractive for those who study and work across geographical and cultural borders.
The evening opened with remarks by BBS Dean Max Bergami and Vincenzo Colla, Vice President of the Emilia-Romagna Region with responsibility for economic development, green economy, energy, vocational training, universities, and research. Colla recalled how the region has built its competitiveness on high-quality products and companies able to compete in global niche markets, but now faces a structural limit: stagnant demographics. Hence the decision to introduce a regional law for the attraction and development of talent, approved unanimously, which places human capital and investment in knowledge at the center, and focuses very concretely on housing: regenerating unused public assets, creating new affordable housing, revising short-term rentals, and supporting company guesthouses.
This institutional framework was complemented by an analysis of corporate practices. Ulrike Sauerwald, Head of Research and Knowledge Management at Valore D, presented a study on multiculturalism as a competitive lever. In Italian companies, she explained, cultural diversity is already a fact of life – from first-generation migrants to second generations, expats and teams spread across different countries – but it often remains barely visible in data and processes. The research highlights both the challenges (language, non-inclusive recruitment procedures, episodes of discrimination) and concrete solutions: recruitment processes in English, training on inclusive language, and onboarding policies that take into account people’s real needs, from administrative support to access to housing.
Gabriele Marzano, Senior Executive – Project Manager at the Emilia-Romagna Region, brought the discussion back to the figures behind Europe’s demographic transition: an inverted demographic pyramid, a decline in young people, a growing over-60 population, and increasing difficulties in finding qualified profiles and skilled workers. In this context, the regional “talent law” focuses on a network of dedicated local services, on strengthening university placement, and on skills intelligence systems that better align education with business needs. At its core lies a key message that emerged from dialogue with social partners: a region’s competitiveness depends not only on wages and productivity, but also on its ability to be a beautiful, welcoming, and inclusive place to live.
Daniele Panzeri, from the International Organization for Migration, widened the perspective to the supranational level, highlighting how migration has evolved from a “one-way journey” into a more circular model of mobility, made up of exchanges, returns, and long-term relationships. In this view, cultural diversity is not just a variable to be managed, but a driver of innovation when organizations recognize its value and embed it in their strategies. Panzeri presented international internship projects such as WYMED, which connect universities, young people, and companies on both shores of the Mediterranean.
Weaving together the threads of these contributions was Daniela Bolzani, Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Bologna Business School and moderator of the event. Drawing on her research on migrant entrepreneurs, she refocused attention on the idea that a territory’s attractiveness also depends on its beauty and its capacity for hospitality, not only on economic indicators. In her closing remarks, she brought the conversation “back to people”: the event, she stressed, was conceived for those working in companies and for those who have chosen to study at BBS, in a region where public policies alone are not enough unless businesses are genuinely willing to embrace inclusion. From there came her direct invitation to the companies in the room to work with the School in identifying talent and building concrete pathways for integration and multiculturalism within organizations.
When talents speak
The most powerful moment of the evening came at the end, when the floor was given to a group of Bologna Business School students, both Italian and international, invited to share first-hand what it means to be “talents in mobility” and what they would like to ask of companies and institutions.
Breaking the ice was Eleonora, a Human Resources Master’s student from Tuscany, who spoke on behalf of the Italian student community. Moving to Bologna, she said, was a natural yet profound transition: leaving her home region to escape a rigid definition of herself and finding, at BBS, “a place where the whole world meets.” Hearing different languages over coffee each morning has become, for her, a small daily miracle and tangible proof that it is possible to belong to something that goes beyond borders.
Her speech touched on a crucial point: feeling valued means being truly listened to. It is not enough to acknowledge the presence of students and professionals from different backgrounds; it is essential to understand their stories, aspirations, and expectations. Eleonora called on universities, future employers, and the local community to build contexts in which diversity is not only tolerated, but recognized as a resource. She reminded the audience that “leaving is a privilege, but also a challenge,” especially in a country where prejudice and resistance to what is perceived as “other” still persist.
Her most direct message was addressed to her Italian classmates: smile, reach out to people, listen. In a school that offers, every day, the opportunity to encounter distant perspectives, she said, the first step towards inclusion is choosing not to stay among those who are similar to us, but opening up to dialogue with those who have different stories.
She was followed by a group of international students from various programs and countries around the world. Speaking in English, they described what it is like to live between cultures and to build a new everyday life in a place that often requires them to navigate different languages, habits, and social norms. They stressed how challenging it can be to find common ground – starting with language barriers – and, at the same time, how this experience equips them to work in complex teams and to come up with new solutions.
Their message to companies was clear: international talents bring a global mindset, a sensitivity to different markets and contexts, and a familiarity with hybrid ways of working and using technology that can make a real difference in innovation-driven organizations. For this potential to be fully realized, however, companies and recruiters must learn to look beyond accents, beyond occasional linguistic uncertainty, and beyond the stereotype of the “perfectly aligned” profile.
From policymaking to everyday relationships
The transition from institutional speeches to students’ voices made it clear what it truly means to “attract and enhance international talent”: not only to fill demographic gaps or meet skills shortages, but to enable people to build a meaningful part of their lives here.
The event at Bologna Business School showed a region that is seriously questioning itself on these issues, bringing together the Emilia-Romagna Region, organizations such as Valore D and IOM, companies, and the student community. Housing policies, talent laws, circular migration projects, and research on multiculturalism all ultimately find their true measure in the words of those who are studying in classrooms today and will enter companies tomorrow.
The challenge for the future will be to translate these voices into established practices: in HR processes, career paths, corporate investment decisions, and long-term alliances between universities and institutions. Crossing Cultures, Meeting Talents marked an important step in this direction, reminding us that talents are not just skills to be measured, but people looking for places where they can genuinely feel part of a community.
