The Award

The Award

The Oscar Pomilio Forum was born with the goal of bringing together intellectuals and representatives of different fields and cultures to represent and, if possible, to interpret the scenarios of change which characterize globalized societies, uncovering their ethical and moral  roots that can act as connective tissue for a new conscious and humane development.

The challenge tackled by institutions, coping with the new demand for social and political evolution, the enhancing role of business for the expected re-launch of the European system, the importance of deontology for a true renewal of professions and the value of responsibility as a driving force to a balanced development of art, science and culture: these are some of the lines of thought raised by the Forum.

With this spirit, following cross-disciplinary traces and communication as a tool for dialogue, we will meet, debate, reflect. With the ambition to understand before and better in what direction we’re moving.

Ethic Award

The Ethic Award, which embodies the objectives of the Forum, is given every year to internationally notable figures who have shown their ability to interpret and promote ethics and morals, in innovative ways, in their respective fields. These very topics lie at the heart of the Forum itself.

During the 2012 edition the Prize was awarded to Nils Ole Oermann, in 2013 to Pier Paolo Pandolfi, in 2014, it was awarded to Benedetto Falsini and to Andre Singer during the 2015 edition.

Oscar Livio Pomilio

During the 60s, with his brother Gabriele he founded Pomilio Idee, the first advertising agency in the Abruzzo region. Oscar Livio Pomilio was among the pioneers of Italian modern advertising: cosmopolite entrepreneur, he embodied the century-old values of a family who has always combined - according to Paolo Smoglica in his book 'Le ali della libertà' (‘The wings of freedom’) - the vocation for ambitious industrial projects with the constant attention for the cultural growth of society, also thanks to a story made of cooperations and special affinities with some of the greatest minds of the 20th century: from brilliant inventors such as the Wright brothers to famous poets like Gabriele d’Annunzio, popular architects such as Giovanni Michelucci, the famous artists Francesco Paolo Michetti and Marcello Dudovich and great finance men like Raffaele Mattioli.

Among the first ones who understood and interpreted the importance of institutional communication, through his personal and professional experiences Oscar Pomilio has always explored the relationship between merit, ethics and values, which lies at the heart of a healthy relationship between society and institutions.

From the past to the present: Pomilio Blumm's ethical vocation

The vocation to entrepreneurial ethics and the awareness for the social and cultural development, animating the Pomilio family and Oscar himself, is confirmed even today, unchanged throughout the ages, by Pomilio Blumm, "heir" of Pomilio Idee. In the same spirit, Pomilio Blumm is the first company of the field to have an ethical certification, whose strict rules preserve professional and ethical processes.

The vocation to the social corporate responsibility is confirmed also by Pomilio Blumm's choice to invest in the new generations, with the launch of a professional school inside the agency itself, as well as the many initiatives dedicated to young people, such as the Under 20 Art Award for young talents who are awarded every year on the very occasion of the Forum.

Creativity as business

It is since the beginning of the last century that a common thread binds many representatives of the Pomilio family to a daring entrepreneurial inspiration. Numerous business initiatives are united by the same core idea: "creativity as business".  We can trace this back to an early aircraft factory of Pomilio, in the beginning of the twentieth century, which marked a glorious phase of the Italian  industrial development, that first worked in Turin and then in the US, in Indianapolis. We can see the same approach in the " Pomilio process", at the base of a system of paper mills developed in the East and South of the world for the extraction of cellulose from sugar cane. And we can talk about “creativity as business” when we think of Aurum, an idea that, even before becoming industry, was an enlightened cultural enterprise that united, during its construction, the poetic genius of Gabriele D'Annunzio, the graphic genius of Marcello Dudovich and, perhaps more importantly, the architect genius of Giovanni Michelucci, the founder of Italian modernism.

The contemporary Pomilio Blumm, founded 50 years ago, in a region that is in many ways marginal in relation to the economic and cultural systems of the country, has developed both during the economic booms and periods of recession, leading the way to the development of regional service sector and institutional communication on the national level. In the 80s the vocation to courageously explore far away markets and cultures has prompted Pomilio to launch a daring pilot initiative, the first Italian company of its sector, Ameen Blumm, in the complex market of Saudi Arabia that is still among the most fundamentalist Muslim countries. It was from this experience of Ameen Blumm in Jeddah, that a more recent business project was born: The Bridge, the first example of a 100% made in Italy network that was established in Dubai in the emerging market of the UAE in order support some of the most important brands “made in Italy”: ranging from Pirelli and Assicurazioni Generali to Maserati and Luxottica. The Bridge project continues to develop in the East and the South and expands to other "emerging markets" of the world. Its constant trait is that of an entrepreneurial vision always looking forward to challenges and new explorations.

The rhino, future prehistory

Since the sixties, with its thousands evolutions the rhino has a symbol of entrepreneurial history linked to the field of communication. A history summarized today by Pomilio Blumm. It was in the sixties that Pomilio Ideas was established and the African black rhino was chosen as the symbol of the company. With time passing, it came to represent the ever more complex project Pomilio Blumm that, with its continuous evolutions, has confirmed the original choice of this symbol to  enhance the company’s image.

The rhino is a strange combination of values, and to many it is a symbol of how the prehistory is capable of being contemporary. To others it is a sacred animal, magical or illusory, to others a symbol of power and an animal able to set a goal and never step back.

The rhino has interpreted in all forms and collected by different members of the Pomilio family for many years: they’ve been collecting versions and artefacts of any sort, as well as masterpieces signed by artists from different times, giving life to a "rhinoceros gallery" which can be also visited on the website www.pomilioblumm.it