Meet and Code · Innovazione Digitale

Meet and Code is an annual international grant — backed by TechSoup and Amazon Future Engineer — funding free digital-education events for young people aged 8 to 24. neu [nòi] has taken part since 2024, bringing workshops to Palermo every year that combine technology, creativity and active citizenship, guided by a principle that shapes all our educational work: learning by doing, not by lecture.

In 2024 we ran three events, covering all three of the grant's thematic categories. Intergenerazion-AI used generative AI to build a bridge between grandparents and grandchildren — stories, games, shared slang, aimed at beating loneliness and the tech gap between generations, with 20+ participants per session spanning ages 8 to 82. Fare Report con l'IA involved 18 young women aged 18-24 using Google Gemini to automate admin tasks like meeting minutes, freeing up time for leadership and active participation — a project entered under the GirlsdoIT category. Enjoy the Scilence, no AI but pure hardware, had participants build micro:bit-based acoustic sensors to map noise pollution across the city.

In 2025 the register shifted more toward digital fabrication: among the projects delivered, Segnali Urbani da Ricordare combined graphic design, 3D printing, laser cutting and Arduino programming to create poetic, interactive street signage installed around Palermo, aimed at a mixed 8-24 age group.

For 2026 the grant has set a mandatory theme — artificial intelligence — and we're working to bring back the 2024 approach, when two out of three projects were centred on generative AI. That's the trait we care about most in Meet and Code: not just another coding workshop, but a way of making technology's impact tangible — weighing data, physically mapping a neighbourhood's noise — breaking down linguistic and academic barriers through doing things together, the same do-ocracy that runs everything we do at neu [nòi].