🇮🇹 Ci vediamo a Roma?

Rome is the city that puts things into perspective: the techno-oligarchs who failed to stage a fight at the Coliseum will be long gone, cursed by their own children, while the Coliseum will remain where it is. Had the management of Ubisoft walked the ancient cobbled streets of Rome more often, they would have never wasted the studio's money on the short-lived glitz that were the NFTs. Such is the power of Rome: to serve as the benchmark for what will last (such as the meritocratic distribution platform for games small and big), and for what is just (such as the drive to escape the new age feudal tax on software developers).

In this issue, we'll talk about the upcoming Summit On Tour III, set for April 1-3 in the Eternal City. Wherever you come from, this trip will restore your faith in the world, and strengthen your confidence in our industry: not only will you meet your peers from other countries, who retain their sanity in the face of the wave of rabid populism and the poison of ethnonationalism, but you will also see that a pizza marinara at Trastevere still costs €6.50, an ice-cream an Campo de' Fiori still tastes like childhood, and a glass of Lazio wine is reliably good, whether or not you can understand what's scribbled on the label.

And now, off to the races –

Gli ultimi biglietti

As of this morning, the number of registered attendees for Summit On Tour III in 🇮🇹 Rome has exceeded the number of attendees that we have had at Summit On Tour II in 🇨🇾 Limassol last year. Thus all future applications turn from an opportunity (to meet someone new) into a challenge (to make sure that every attendee gets to taste tiramisù all’arabica without queuing much).

If you intend to attend, we have just 35 seats remaining at the conference, and we now will prioritize:

• in-house counsels
• lawyers from the sponsoring firms
• under-represented regions
• local (Italian) attendees

As the venue is a closed courtyard space, we have a hard limit on how many people we can have there.

Tutto il mondo

At this time, we expect attendees from the following countries:

🇦🇺 Australia, 🇦🇹 Austria, 🇧🇪 Belgium, 🇧🇷 Brazil, 🇨🇦 Canada, 🇨🇱 Chile, 🇨🇳 China, 🇭🇷 Croatia, 🇨🇾 Cyprus, 🇨🇿 Czech Republic, 🇩🇰 Denmark, 🇫🇷 France, 🇩🇪 Germany, 🇬🇷 Greece, 🇮🇳 India, 🇮🇪 Ireland, 🇮🇱 Israel, 🇮🇹 Italy, 🇯🇵 Japan, 🇰🇷 Korea, 🇱🇻 Latvia, 🇱🇹 Lithuania, 🇳🇱 The Netherlands, 🇳🇴 Norway, 🇵🇱 Poland, 🇵🇹 Portugal, 🇷🇴 Romania, 🇷🇺 Russia-focused (but based outside of the region), 🇷🇸 Serbia, 🇸🇬 Singapore, 🇪🇸 Spain, 🇸🇪 Sweden, 🇨🇭 Switzerland, 🇹🇷 Türkiye, 🇬🇧 UK, 🇺🇦 Ukraine, 🇺🇸 USA.

Our industry is global, and so is the legal community that supports it.

L'Orario

Here's the precise timeline of the conference, which offers 12 sessions, 2 breakfasts, 2 lunches, 2 receptions, a dinner, and a whole bunch of coffee breaks for the quarter of what it costs to attend D.I.C.E.:

The access to the venue is by badges only, so the first order for anybody attending the conference is to get yourself registered. If you've attended before, you will recognize Alma, Titas and all the other usual suspects at the security gate. If you attend for the first time, we ask you to please bring a photo ID.

Attenzione: siamo a fuori!

If you attend the Summit for the first time, please pay attention: the whole conference happens outdoors! In the photo above, you can see the venue where we will build 2 tents – one for the program, and one for the catering area.

It is quite possible that in April, in Rome, there could be a bit of 🌧️ rain in the morning. It is also quite likely, that the afternoons will be rather ☀️ sunny. Thus we highly recommend to bring both a windproof jacket, and a pair of sunglasses.

And if you attend the Industry Dinner, please make sure that you have something warm with you just as well: the tables are all outdoors, and the sunset is just 36 minutes after the start of the dinner. Pro: the candles on the tables will look great. Con: unless you have a warm jacket, you may drink one glass too many.

La Cena

As usual, the Industry Dinner is organized in three zones, based on the preference for the main dish that you have indicated in your application: red tickets are for the carnivores, blue for the pescatarians, and green – for the nicest people of them all, vegetarians. You will find your ticket in the conference bag. Please bring it for the dinner, to access the venue and the specific zone.

As a bit of a tease (why not?), here's what we plan to offer:

We'll start with what our chef calls "Roman Fried Food" –

We will continue with the starters typical for the region of Lazio –

We then proceed to the first course –

Followed by the second (depending on the table you sit at) –

We hope that you save some space for the deserts –

All of the above to be accompanied by local beers (alcoholic and 0%), as well as local Lazio wines from Capolemole Marco Carpineti (plus a 0% sparkling wine).

If you registered for the conference, but opted out of the Industry Dinner on April 2 – you can still change your mind until the end of this week. While we can take 35 more people to the conference, we have just 15 seats remaining at the dinner, and there, we simply have no opportunity to extend the offer: as it stands, serving everyone at the same time is already a major challenge.

La Corsa

In the schedule above, Corsa at 07:00 every morning indicates the traditional Morning Runs, which are going to be somewhat more challenging in Rome – because Rome is big, and getting together in one spot for the run will take some coordination.

If, like me, you're not an ultra-sportive lawyer like 🇪🇸 Andy, 🇵🇱 Przemysław or 🇮🇪 Rachel, you can just do a relaxed jog around Villa Borghese at your own pace.

If, however, you're up for the additional thrill of the team effort (and a caffè afterwards), then please coordinate with the leader of the Summit's running team – 🇨🇾 Evelina Georgiades. We will most likely end up on a path around Circo Massimo which is, conveniently, pretty close to the venue.

Le Deadlines

As we approach the dates of the event, plenty of things are in motion: we're running print tests for both the bags and the notebooks, we've already sent to the manufacturer the enamel pins, and so on. Aligning a bunch of different items from different manufacturers on the same "blue" is a major effort that reminded me of hunting for the elusive "princess pink" under a license from Disney, which used to be a major headache for our publishing team two decades ago.

Here's what we settled on, for the pins: it's our Romulus and Remus from the key art of the Summit, re-drawn by Aurélia at Bandit Bandit in the frontal projection:

We will offer 300 of these pins at the registration table, free of charge, while the supplies last. And here's our ambition for the attendee bag, still in the making (as we try to combine the stitching in Warsaw with the printing in Vilnius):

We aim for a reusable item that can be upcycled (I did my part this summer in Corsica, relying on the bag from the Limassol event as my all-purpose beach bag!).

If your firm would like to join the Rome conference as one of the sponsors:

‼️ Please talk to Alma before Feb 15 ‼️

This is our cut-off date for most things printed/stitched/molded.

Gli Sponsor

Speaking of sponsors, we are grateful to our community for the strong show of support for the Rome edition of the Summit, as it allowed us to keep the registration price unchanged from 2024 (despite the higher op costs).

A part of our mission is making the industry more accessible to new talent and accelerating the careers of young counsels and associates everywhere. This includes the annual moot court, and this also includes placing a cap on the On Tour's registration price.

Many thanks to our top-tier supporters at Fenwick, Frankfurt Kurnit, Latham & Watkins, MSK, Osborne Clarke & Perkins Coie:

Much appreciation to our long-term partners at ADVANT, Chrysostomides, DLA Piper, k-ID, Karamanolis, Norton Rose Fulbright, Planzer Law, Taylor Wessing & Wiggin:

We are also grateful to our international supporters: A&O Shearman, 🇯🇵 City-Yuwa Partners, 🇩🇰 DAHL Law, DWF, 🇺🇸 Odin Law and Media, and 🇮🇳 Saikrishna & Associates:

Finally, this event would not have been possible without the assistance of the teams at both Lazio Innova and ADVANT Nctm!

Il Catering

A big (HUGE!!) part of planning for Summit On Tour III was dedicated to food: first of all, because we're pretty sure that, coming to Rome, most of you would expect to be impressed by the offering. And secondly, because we will run the conference at a venue that's not a hotel or a restaurant, and thus, the menu had to account for the logistics of timed deliveries and on-site preparation.

We are lucky to confirm that Alessandra Lanari, the veteran CEO & founder of Aesperta Group, is on board to offer to you the best of the traditional Lazio fare, across the whole conference!

From the dishes that you probably expect, such as the Roman focaccia (all the photos below are from our proof-of-concept session) –

– which is not like a focaccia that you may be used at your local Italian (or shall I write, "Italian"?) spot –

– to the dishes that some of you are yet to discover, such as one of my personal favorites, puntarelle –

– we aim to offer to you both the lean-and-green options, such as the local stews and salads –

– as well as the comfort food, such as this (absolutely best in my life) ricotta & spinach pie –

– and, of course, cacio e pepe ravioli alongside other pasta –

– all the way to the desert table:

This will be the first time when we'll release the full menu on the website, just so that you can get ready for bottoncini di pane al latte con melanzana grill, lasagna con carciofi romaneschi e scamorza affumicata and maltagliati con carciofi e mentuccia romana, crema di pecorino.

L'Agenda

Finally, on the agenda:

We're currently in the middle of finalizing the sessions, and expect to publish the agenda in early March once all the panelists are confirmed. As always, it's a combination of local and global, fundamentals and hot takes, practical guidance and mental models.

That's it for today – a dopo, e ci vediamo a Roma!

[Sergei @ Charlie Oscar]