A sneak peek inside the mind of Riccardo Donadon

Hi dear readers! Today we have the pleasure to have a chat with Riccardo Donadon, the person without whom none of this would have been possible, the visionary entrepreneur that founded H-FARM in 2005. In today’s interview he opened up about his unique approach to innovation, as well as his vision for the future.

H-INSIDER: You told us that you had large expansion projects for H-FARM, the construction of other student housing, an Olympic swimming pool, a pedestrian and bicycle bridge that connects the campus to Portegrandi. Do your projects also include the implementation of augmented reality in the educational process of PYP, high school and college?

Riccardo: Hello, we are waiting for VR goggles to take a few more small steps forward to make the user experience easier. It should be a matter of a few weeks to see the definitive product from Apple and understand if it’s ready. We have been working on these topics for several years thanks to the support of BigRock that is extremely competent on these technologies. In 2019 we started implementing some Oculus goggles in our schools to be used by teachers to increase some lessons. They’re tests, and we’ll keep testing for a while. In the spring of 2020 during the acute phase of the COVID pandemic, two classes of the MYP of school in Venice took lessons from home in a virtual classroom together with their classmates for a week. It was very cool but we can do more. We are also looking for startups on this topic. In September 2023 we will have to start with some more important tests that will involve college students, but the jump will be taken in September 2024 with dedicated classrooms and use extended through the entire educational process, therefore also at College.

H-INSIDER: How do you relate to a country that is still too back in time to deeply understand H-FARM? Have the constant limitations, like those for campus expansions, ever led you to think about giving up or stopping?

Riccardo: Unfortunately I’m aware of these things, I realize that H-FARM can be complicated to understand for people who have no relationship with us or don’t live it from within so I have no huge expectations. I never thought about giving up because I would never dare to be the person who tells a young man that in Italy you can’t do the things we’re doing in our campus. H-FARM was born thanks to the fact that I have succeeded in a remote past and it’s here today because someone we believed in, Depop, did very well. You owe it to yourself, you can do it too.

H-INSIDER: Within the campus we breathe constant innovation and informed future. What do you recommend to FARMERS who will have to deal with a world that is 20 years behind us?

Riccardo: Try to take this positive view with you, out of here. Now you’re aware that you can create environments that live their time capitalizing on all the opportunities there are, bring this awareness outside and design the future in harmony with innovation. If you stay in the country be aware that in tradition there is so much uniqueness and richness, be the agents of positive change. If you look far away, there are so many areas that are going to change dramatically, from medicine, to genomics, to agriculture, to transportation, robotics, energy, not to mention space. You’re spoilt for choice, and maybe we can grow or bring these things around campus.

H-INSIDER: Can you share a story about a time in when you failed or faced a serious obstacle, and how you were able to overcome it and learn from experience?

Riccardo: Mistakes are necessary, only mistaken learn. If you’re not wrong it means you’re not risking anything and if you’re not taking risks it means you’re repeating a process. The software will eat the processes. You must be unique, use your critical thinking and innovate. So never be afraid to make mistakes. I’ve been wrong so many times. Often the timing of what I did. I held on ;-)

H-INSIDER: Many people feel a deep sense of unease that leads them to never settle, a constant active motion that guides them towards important projects. Constantly pervaded by a feeling foreign to pure selfishness, aimed at bringing a positive impact. Have you always felt that you were destined to create great things? To be destined for something more?

Riccardo: When I was your age, I had a dream of making something of mine and a tremendous anxiety that I was going to change the world with computers. I was lucky because I did what I liked and it went well. To achieve the results, however, you have to focus and truly believe in what you do. I literally didn’t sleep the first few years. I don’t know if with my team of Mall Italy Lab, E-TREE and then H-FARM we were the best, for sure we worked twice the hours of the others. We were on Californian time and also on ours ;-)

H-INSIDER: Given the blocking of ChatGPT in Italy, do you think that in the future AI and privacy protection will coexist?

Riccardo: I think very badly of the block. I can agree with the need to set rules but I consider it an idiotic act of presumption and protagonism that was decided the advice of the guarantor for privacy. If I were your age today, I would be dealing night and day with this AI revolution. A new era of the Internet is opening up. It’s like being in 2003, a major crisis is coming to an end and new actors are about to be born that will make the history of the network. AI and AR will be two pillars and everything will be played on the new user interfaces.

H-INSIDER: What are your personal ambitions for the future? Beyond H-FARM.

Riccardo: There’s still so much to do. Now I have to focus on training the new generation of FARMERS, this project must last hundreds of years and there must soon be a next generation that starts taking over this thing. In the future I’d like to try to understand something more about the reason of everything.

H-INSIDER: As a last question we propose a lighter one. We know that for a certain period you worked as a gardener, what is your favorite plant?

Riccardo: I have so many plants that I love. Last year I put down a lot of tamarisk to recall the lagoon on campus, however each plant has its season and especially its scents. I’ll tell you two, Dafne, which is the first of the year to be smelled with her amazing scent. We’re putting some in the shade on campus. You will learn about it next year around February. The other is Olea Fragrans, always green bushes that will welcome you in September when you come back after the summer break with their orange yellow flowers and their fabulous scent.

Riccardo reveals the passion and determination that have driven him to create and lead H-FARM, his insight into the evolving digital landscape and his emphasis on experimentation, focus and hard work offers valuable lessons for anyone seeking to bring a positive impact to others today. We’re at the gates of an enormous digital revolution, the only suggestion I want to give all of us is Carpe diem.