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On Sunday, June 1, 2014, the award ceremony for the “Italian Brand Ambassador 2014” will take place in New York.

This is a first time initiative aimed at honoring those whom with passion and great effort have contributed to the promotion of the Made in Italy abroad.

“The Italian Brand Ambassador Award couldn’t be celebrated elsewhere if not in the US, which has always been a country that loved and encouraged the Made in Italy,” said Carlo Calenda, Vice Minister for the Economic Development. [3]

“Today more than ever the Made in Italy represents the patrimony of the world culture, indeed its ‘brand ambassador’ must be international. Only by these means we will be able to strengthen our brand and penetrate those markets where there is hunger for Italy,” he concluded.

"The growing trend of Italy in the United States is our flagship," affirmed Riccardo Monti, President of the Italian Trade Commission (ICE) [4]. “We are growing in terms of volume, relations and consequently in sales. The Italian Brand Ambassador Award is the summary of all these activities.”

“It’s the first time in the world that a non-Italian will be awarded as the Ambassador of the Made in Italy,” said the Director of the ICE USA [4] Pier Paolo Celeste.

“I think that the ‘Italian Brand Ambassador’ represents a jump in quality among the relationship between Italian products and the markets that receive them.

The award winners this year are figures of the world business of goods, they represent companies whose incomes, in terms of volume, are comparable to the GNP of certain States.  This is the real goal,” concluded Celeste, “we are entering more and more markets, not only with our products, but also with our empathy and leadership, the real levers of the third millennium.”

During the event, the invited guests will enjoy the performance of the young and talented Italian jazz musician Gianluca Pellerito, who, together with his quintet is not a newcomer to the music scene, since he made his first appearance when he was only 8 years old at the Umbria Jazz Festival.

At the age of 14 he was the youngest artist in the world who performed at the Blue Note. At 15 he played for Mayor Bloomberg, at 16 he was invited by the Kennedy family to play at the Kennedy Center in Washington. He and his quintet also performed during the 2012 Olympic Games in London as well as during the great opening of Umbria Jazz Festival in 2013.

Sponsors of the first edition of the Italian Brand Ambassador 2014 are: Emirates Airlines [5], Colavita Group [6] and Monini Group [7].