Wee still have in our eyes the snowfall at the Concordia Theatre in Venaria (TO) the funny caricatures made in the foyer, the show with the soap bubbles… we all returned children for a moment
For those present it is easy to understand what I am referring to; for those not there, I can tell about a really exciting celebration that Sea Marconi, for its 40 years, provided for itself and the people near it. About 350 people participated including employees, friends, partners, suppliers, all of them sharing, in some ways, a contribution to the outstanding results achieved by Sea Marconi.
Since the afternoon of the 19th December, the Company opened its doors to who wanted to pay a visit. The guests learnt with surprise all the symbologies enriching the Collegno Headquarters, visited the analyses and research laboratory, among the most advanced worldwide in its sector and saw first handed the offices providing daily a very particular service, surely considered quite complicated by most of the visitors, but also the best at international level. I refer to diagnostic service and the decontamination of fluids in electric transformers, the equipment providing the transportation and the distribution of electric power to large industries, cities and houses.
However, the real celebrations on the exact anniversary of the foundation of the Company (18th December 1968) took place at the Concordia theatre in Venaria (TO) starting at 7 p.m. We tried to study all the celebrations in detail to offer the participants an happy and relaxing evening, as everybody expects from such an occasion.
The aperitifs were delighted by the musical background provided by the Eco Beat, a band reanimating re cycled objects making the into musical instruments. Also in the foyer, a great success was obtained by the caricatures and the sketches by the silhouette artists, capable of reproducing perfectly the profiles of persons, but not using a pencil, as one can imagine, but a cutter; really astonishing!
Just before 9 pm, the guests took their seats in the theatre to attend the show.
Lights out, perfect silence. The notes of a piano started, and after a few seconds, images started showing on the main screen: a high flying kite, a child hardly trying to make his kite fly and finally both of them flying together. The images were supported by some phrases:
– since 1968 through today, a lot of things have changed
– however, one thing did not change
– and we are sure shall never change
– the will to “Grow in the future”
– since it is really in the future that Sea Marconi continues every day to fulfil its dreams.
It was the video strip celebrating the forty years of Sea Marconi, a way to take outside the company’s walls and to communicate to outsiders the will to fly high, the passion and the desire of who forty years ago started a dream made of challenges, success and satisfactions.
The last notes of the video strip were taken over by a real orchestra( the Cororchestra of Piedmont). The curtain opened showing slowly the 35 young musicians who, with their melodies, enchanted the audience.
At the end of the first piece, the show entertainer and host entered the stage: Luca Regina. His funny and humorous manners, never over shooting, coloured with happy and amusing tones the entire evening, distinguishing the event from the typical company conventions. We asked for an entertainment and Luca Regina gave us vivacity, sympathy and a lot of MAGICS.
The start by the host marked the official beginning of the entertainment, emphasizing its purpose, explaining, as an example, why the Cororchestra was chosen: Sea Marconi is a young company strongly believing in young people and it intends betting on them.
During the central part of the event, the attention was shifted toward the person who really made the Company: Vander Tumiatti, founder and soul of Sea Marconi.
Mr Tumiatti knew that he had ten minutes for his speech, in the same way happened to him hundreds of times in front of technical audiences all over the world. He had a script for his speech, but, once on stage, with the lights in his eyes and the emotion gripping him, he realised the appreciation and the esteem of the people in front of him. The script became useless, his voice and heart were enough. During those ten minutes, Mr Tumiatti followed the important steps of his road as an entrepreneur and a man, thanking his family, a standing point in his life, and his co-workers. His words went through the past, the evolution of his company, mentioning the challenges, the successes acquired, stopping also to remember less happy times. Just a few minutes to show being a great person in his simplicity. The remainder of his speech was all targeted toward the future: eco-sustainability, clean energy, nano technologies; a future already in progress in Sea Marconi.
The institutional moment left place to a more entertaining part. This time, the curtain made appearing on stage a series of scenographies showing an ugly, tenebrous ambient. In a short while, thirty very young dancers represented the Divina Commedia, in a very exciting show. The dancers, directed by the Dance School “La Rosa dei Venti” of Pianezza (TO) wanted to give a present to the company sponsoring them since 2006 The show that made them winning the world championship in the category. Everybody appreciated the poetry, the technique and the effort by the young talents.
Surrounded by the applauses by the youngsters, the components of the Tumiatti family, Vander, his wife Graziella Gardini, representing the other half of Sea Marconi, and their daughters Cristina and Michela, who are continuing the challenge to bring the company to the next fortieth anniversary, were called on the stage.
The lights were dimmed, the theatre dropped in total darkness, and slowly a great cake with candles and a number 40 appeared from the back of the stage. Its was nice to see the surprise in Mr Tumiatti’s and Mrs Gardini’s eyes. The surprise was not over, the music took force and the candles became real fireworks. Just a few seconds and the cake exploded sending a rain of coloured confetti into the theatre. Good anniversary, Sea Marconi!
The feasting of the time introduced a witty gag set up by Mrs Gardini and the host. A briefcase descended from the sky. The two opened it discovering that it contained books, but not only. It contained a scrolled used to illustrate a very worthwhile initiative promoted by Sea Marconi. To incentivise the enrolment in the Chemistry faculty of the University of Turin, constantly declining in the last years, Mrs Gardini decided to offer a grant (thus the briefcase filled with books) to a freshman student with determined merit requisites. In thinking how to designate this grant, the choice has been a Sea Marconi’s co-worker, who had already decided on his own, to restart his studies. The person involved was totally unaware of what was going to happen and he didn’t even dream that he was the one going to receive the grant for his entire university path. The moment of the award was really emotional; the surprise and the gratitude in the winner’s eyes were evident. The gag continued, Luca Regina offered his back to allow Mr Tumiatti to sign a gigantic cheque to be delivered to the winner.
The second part of the event was allocated to professional artists. A magic, poetry and art show was on stage. A series of actors represented a metaphor of Sea Marconi, half-way between dream and reality. With very effective lights, smoke, sweet and involving music, the artists transformed the theatre into a fantastic world made of plays with soap bubbles fluctuating all around the theatre, petals dropping on the head of surprised spectators, a gymnast suspended in the air and a disturbing looking alchemist.
And then the grand finale. The artists from the stage invited the spectators to show the gadgets received in the foyer: the glass snow ball. After a few seconds, in the theatre a magic snow fall started. The music emphasised the surprise contributing to generate a dreaming atmosphere that we intended to give to the spectators. The scenic effect was fully successful: every person was looking surprised to see the fine white blanket (very tiny pieces of paper especially developed) depositing on the spectators heads.
Sea Marconi’s 40 years, Luca Regina was repeating among the applauses of the crowd. The celebration was at its top and it was successful in fulfilling the desire to share an unforgettable memento celebrating the road travelled by a company so far in an extraordinary manner. A path that, like for some people on the stage, was a trip between dram and reality, always with the will to fly high.
S. Girolamo
