About Pontignano
The History of the Pontignano Conference
The Pontignano Conference was founded by the British Council and St Antony’s College Oxford in 1993.
From the outset, it has aimed to bring together current and future leaders from the UK and Italy to address common challenges and develop networks and close relationships. Its scope is deliberately broad, spanning the worlds of politics, defence, business, media, culture, technology, education, economics and academia.
Now organised by the British Embassy in Italy and the British Council, the conference has developed a network that includes Ministers, Prime Ministers, Presidents and leaders from the business and academic worlds.
About Pontignano
The Conference
The Conference is traditionally organised in Tuscany, in partnership with the University of Siena, with most of the programme based in the quiet and beautiful setting of the old monastery of Pontignano. In 2024 the conference will be held in Rome at the British Ambassador’s Residence, Villa Wolkonsky.
The Conference is designed in such a way as to provide a structured yet informal opportunity for conversation, debate and relationship-building over the course of two or three days. Most of the proceedings take place under the Chatham House Rule – in other words, participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed.
Workshop sessions are at the heart of the Pontignano approach. Moderated by leading Italian and British figures in each field, they are highly participative, round-table occasions. The programme also includes plenary sessions with key representatives from both countries.
For 30 years, Pontignano has been the leading UK-Italy discussion forum.
We started in 1993, just after the end of the Cold War, with the theme ‘Europe: Enlarged or Divided?’. Since then our themes have tracked the key issues of the day e.g. ‘Democracy and its discontents’, ‘Changing climates’, ‘Better together or better apart? Italian and British views of Europe’. In 2020 and 2021 respectively we examined “UK and Italy: working together for a prosperous, secure and sustainable future” and “UK and Italy: building back better.” In 2022, the Russian invasion of Ukraine reminded us once again that freedom and peace in Europe – or indeed anywhere – can never be taken for granted. Most recently, in 2023, we focused on the impact of technology and particularly artificial intelligence.
