- From 4th to 6th March at Italian Exhibition Group’s Rimini Expo Centre, 32 Start-ups and innovative SMEs
- In the same hall, the Green Jobs & Skills initiative will make the encounter between job supply and demand easier
- Wednesday 4th March, the Lorenzo Cagnoni Innovation Award will be given to 7 exhibitors for the most innovative projects
Rimini, February 27, 2026 – The energy transition requires places where ideas can be translated into concrete applications and new skills that can transform theory into industrial practice.
With its Innovation District, KEY – The Energy Transition Expo becomes the epicentre of sustainable innovation, consolidating its role as a growth accelerator and development platform for young Italian and international enterprises operating in the energy sector.
The new layout of the IEG (Italian Exhibition Group) event, scheduled to take place from 4th to 6th March at Rimini Expo Centre, confirms that an entire hall, D4, will host innovation. Within this space, the Green Jobs&Skills initiative will foster the encounter between supply and demand for jobs that involve new sustainable skills.
Another feature will be the BEX - Beyond Exploration stand to promote the new expo-conference on space economy and commercial space flight, organised by IEG in collaboration with the Emilia-Romagna Region and scheduled to take place from 23rd to 25th September at Rimini Expo Centre.
AN OPEN INNOVATION ROUTE
The Innovation District was conceived as an authentic open innovation route to connect start-ups with consolidated companies and potential investors, thus encouraging product and service innovation and the establishment of new sustainable businesses. The area aims to promote companies that invest in research and development, giving visibility to their most advanced solutions and functioning as a catalyst for the technological evolution of sectors involved in the energy transition.
THE START-UP & SCALE-UP AREA
Within the Innovation District, the Start-up & Scale-up area will feature the most cutting-edge ideas and projects in KEY's seven product sectors: solar, wind, hydrogen, energy efficiency, energy storage, e-Mobility and Sustainable City.
Presenting these will be 32 innovative Italian and international Start-ups and SMEs selected from the 67 companies that responded to the Call for Start-ups organized by Italian Exhibition Group in collaboration with ITA - Italian Trade Agency, ART-ER (consortium company from Emilia-Romagna active in supporting innovation and entrepreneurship), Fondazione MAI (part of the Confindustria system), ANGI (National Association of Young Innovators) and Plug and Play Tech Center, the largest global open innovation and venture capital platform.
The seven most innovative young companies, one for each sector of the event, will be awarded a plaque of recognition.
The solutions on display will range from energy efficiency to electric mobility with a strong presence of Artificial Intelligence applied to energy management to monitor consumption in real time, detect anomalies and optimize resources, thus reducing waste and maximizing savings for large factories, companies, citizens and energy communities. Projects featured will include highly innovative heat pumps, gravitational storage systems that capture and conserve energy, advanced monitoring technologies that integrate satellite images, drone surveys and terrestrial sensors, innovations that automate technical project management and improve the performance of existing systems, such as self-cleaning treatments for photovoltaic panels, and integrated platforms to install and monetize for electric vehicle and e-bike charging points. These will be joined by models based on the collaborative economy that connect companies with citizens who want to invest in solar energy, and services to help users understand, conceptualize and create the business opportunities that sustainability and the energy transition enable. The research will bring solutions for developing reactors that make the most of catalysts, and recyclable thermoplastic materials for wind turbines to the show.
THE LORENZO CAGNONI INNOVATION AWARD
On Wednesday 4th March at 5.15 pm in the Innovation Arena, the seven KEY exhibitors who presented the most cutting-edge projects, one for each of the event’s product categories, will be awarded the Lorenzo Cagnoni Innovation Award with an official plaque in recognition of the excellence achieved. The initiative is designed to promote all those companies that have committed years to the development of increasingly innovative products and services in the field of energy transition.
GREEN JOBS&SKILLS: TRAINING TRANSITION PROFESSIONALS
Employment in the energy sector is a major source of global job growth. However, the supply of new, qualified workers is not keeping pace with market needs.
To help bridge this gap and encourage the encounter between job supply and demand in the energy and sustainability fields, KEY 2026’s Innovation District will include the Green Jobs&Skills initiative, in collaboration with Green Factor, which targets recent graduates and school-leavers from technical institutes, young professionals, workers who want to focus on sustainability, and companies looking for talent.
For those who wish to enter the green job market, the project is an opportunity for career orientation.
The event’s official website, accessible from desktops or via apps, includes a digital space specifically for “green jobs”. Here, exhibiting companies can promote a vertical event aimed at talent acquisition. Interested students, professionals and researchers can pre-register for the presentation and send their CV or cover letter directly via the platform.
The entire day of Friday 6th March will be dedicated to training and career orientation. Furthermore, in collaboration with ENEA and CNA, a Hackathon will be launched in which energy students at Technical Institutes from all over Italy will compete for three days.
ABOUT KEY 2026
Event: International trade show; Organisation: Italian Exhibition Group S.p.A.; Frequency: annual; Edition: 4th; Dates: 4-6 March 2026; mail keyenergy@iegexpo.it; Website: http://www.key-expo.com; Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/keyexpo/; Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/key_expo/; LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/keyenergy/
PRESS CONTACT KEY - ITALIAN EXHIBITION GROUP
head of media & corporate communication: Elisabetta Vitali; press office manager: Pier Francesco Bellini, Marco Forcellini ; international press office coordinator: Silvia Giorgi; press office coordinator: Luca Paganin; press office specialists: Nicoletta Evangelisti, Mirko Malgieri; media@iegexpo.it
MEDIA AGENCY: Smartitaly Communications
Sara Scatena, s.scatena@smartitaly.it, mob. +39 338 7836985; Francesca Pericolo, f.pericolo@smartitaly.it, mob. +39 327 986 1860
