Skipping breakfast this morning allowed me to take advantage of every second I had with my bed. Today was the earliest we had to meet as a group, which was at 8:45. We walked to catch a tram, and watched what felt like 100 other trams of the wrong line pass by us, all packed full of people. Finally, our line came, and, surprisingly, the cars weren’t packed full of people. Matteo got us all on and explained that we would have to wait 30 stops, so it would be a pretty long ride compared to what we normally do.
After a short walk, we arrived to our media visit, Enel. Enel is a huge energy company, so it may have seemed odd to us at first to go there for a media visit, but we quickly learned they have an amazing internal communications department. Within the company, there is a intranet service, a video service and a few others to ensure quality communication for the employees of the company. They have a high tech TV studio to produce packages and journalists to convey news happening within the company. After a short presentation, we split into groups of five to do a mock interview in the TV studio. I acted as the journalist asking questions, and Kelsey was my interviewee. Francesca, Sydney and Allie did the production work. As this was only my second or third time on camera, I felt nervous at first, but after realizing it was just a mock production, I felt more at ease. We were also able to see more of the internal communications facilities when we were broken into these smaller groups. I found it fascinating that a company who focuses on energy has such a high tech and highly used communication system. In the U.S., big businesses comparable to Enel struggle with communication. It would be interesting to see this system implemented into businesses in the United States because it would definitely be useful to help build stronger communication within companies.
After Enel, we had some free time, but it wasn’t enough to go out and explore and be sure we would make it back in time for our next event planned that night. I used that time to take a nap and freshen up.
That night, we went to a a special cooking class where our video production students filmed our class making gnocchi and ravioli. I loved this because I know as soon as I get home, I’m going to miss the food here so much, so now I know how to make it. It was a fun night. We did have to say goodbye to our tour guide Andrea, which was sad. Tomorrow, we head to Assisi. The WiFi has been spotty, so pictures will come soon.