An international recognition for the Italian chapter of the Association for Information Systems

It is the top ranking European chapter for the number of members and of conference participants; it was able to gain an undisputed international status; over the last few years, it has hosted both AIS' European Conference (twice) and the International Conference (in 2013, at Bocconi). This is the visiting card of ItAIS, the Italian chapter of the Association for Information System, whose chair is Ferdinando Pennarola, of the Department of Management and Technology. These standards earned the Italian chapter the 2014 Outstanding Components Awards, which AIS confers every year to those chapters and special interest groups that distinguish themselves for the quantity and quality of initiatives and for their academic contribution to the association.

"Every year the Italian chapter organizes three conventions, including the annual conference, which in 2015 will take place in Rome. In particular, in 2013 it was at Università Bocconi that we hosted 1.800 participants on the occasion of the AIS Global Conference. Since I became chair, I have committed myself to raising the number of accepted papers presented to the annual conference – their number has reached 120 by now", explains Pennarola, who has directed ItAIS since 2010. "Our best works are also published every year by Springer, and this year' edition is the fifth." Internationalization surely played a crucial role in the achievement of the award: "Although we are based in Italy, all our activities are carried out, and our papers submitted, exclusively in English. Our conferences' guests are themselves the embodiment of the international positioning of the Italian chapter: along with the association's various chairs, our French, German, Greek, and even Australian colleagues contribute to our events on a regular basis."