With the Ruralthon, Give Back - Giovani Aree Interne brought together in Bagnoli Irpino more than 50 young people, aged between 18 and 30, and many experts, entrepreneurs and citizens with the intention of stimulating them to reflect and discuss on the future of rural communities and how they can interact with the spaces and enterprises of the territories.
RuralHon is a hackathon designed to facilitate learning and the development of key skills through competition. 
The contest includes:

• - an initial exploratory phase involving young people, citizens, public administrations, third sector organisations and entrepreneurs with the aim of deepening knowledge of the historical and socio-cultural heritage of rural areas and generating awareness of its economic potential;
• - a second creative phase in which the young participants - supported in the theoretical realisation by project mentors - try their hand creatively and concretely at imagining and designing an entrepreneurial idea for the development of the area.

The phenomenon of depopulation is an indicator of poverty and the social and economic marginalisation of rural areas. To counter this phenomenon, it is necessary to take responsibility for the management of our country's inland areas by proposing actions inspired by sustainability and diversification of the local economic system. To stimulate the growth of rural communities and areas, it could be virtuous to continue pushing the agrifood and tourism sectors and, at the same time, promote the strengthening of those craft-industrial capacities that produce wealth and attract strategic skills to the territory.
Ruralthon is an initiative capable of triggering the development of strategic skills thanks to the connections it activates between schools, universities, businesses and social actors in the territories.

Intesa Sanpaolo, which has always considered territorial rootedness and the centrality of relations with people and local communities to be fundamental, thanks to the expertise of colleagues from the Campania, Basilicata, Calabria and Sicily Regional Directorate, supported the young participants in the design of business models, focusing in particular on the aspects and methods of qualifying and quantifying the KPIs of social and environmental impact and the recovery and enhancement of local cultural heritage.

The Intesa Sanpaolo - Give Back collaboration helped to make the dialogue and confrontation between the young people and all the local stakeholders concrete and aimed at valorising the past in order to transform today's critical issues and challenges into opportunities for revitalisation.

Held in Bagnoli Irpino - an area rich in cultural heritage and territorial challenges typical of inland areas - it involved a large and varied group of young people in discussion with citizens, entrepreneurs and experts on inland areas. 

First, with an urban tour, the young men and women accompanied by local guides got to know the history, beauty, activities and entrepreneurs of the Campania town.
Afterwards, immersed in the extraordinary beauty of the naturalistic oasis of Laceno Lake, the young people and local entrepreneurs were able to listen to the experiences and learn about the projects of the guests of Futuridea, the European Commission, the Oriental University of Naples, the Diocese of Sant'Angelo dei Lombardi-Conza-Nusco-Bisaccia, and local institutions.

After these moments of exchange and interesting interactions, the creative phase began.
The young people, divided into five groups, imagined as many brilliant business ideas starting from individual and collective reflections on what had emerged and been learnt in the previous phase.

All the entrepreneurial ideas capitalise on the historical and cultural heritage, scenic beauty and existing economic practices, while imagining them with more organic and futuristic visions.
These are the entrepreneurial ideas:

• - Interna Wellness Solutions - an idea that aims to regenerate villages and stimulate the local economy by offering the wealth of landscape, history and architecture as spaces and frames that companies can use to implement their corporate wellbeing programmes.
• - Borgo del Faggio - idea inspired by careful reflection on the theme of demographic change and depopulation, phenomena that - framed in the trend of the silver economy - are to be tackled with approaches aimed at generating new energy and stimulating new practices, an example being cohousing for the elderly.
• - Glaid - an idea that intends to trigger the extension and implementation of the railway infrastructure system in areas where current national carriers do not arrive, enabling new rail transport players to connect what today remains isolated, disconnected and unknown.
• - Hiking - an idea that aims to bring the digital world to the trails, creating a virtual environment, an innovative model of communication between guides, experts and less experienced ones, and gamification practices capable of breaking down the barriers to entry for those approaching - hiking and making it even more attractive to those who already know it.
• - Restanza - an idea aiming at innovative bottom-up education practices, particularly for the young and the not-so young, aimed at creating knowledge and providing visions and insights that make the conditions for staying in rural areas attractive.

The creative phase ended with a visit to Acca Software, a leading Italian software company for construction, architecture and engineering, and the presentation and awarding session for the projects.