The Hitachi Social Innovation Forum 2017 will take place in Milan on Wednesday 18 October, and the company will use the event to showcase its contribution to social innovation via its recently launched digital company Hitachi Vantara.

The new US$4 billion business entity was launched in September and established to unify the operations of Hitachi Data Systems, Hitachi Insight Group and Pentaho to leverage the Group's social innovation capability in terms of operational technologies and information technologies.

It has been established to serve as a collaborative partner in data, as well as to offer IT applications, analytics, content, cloud and infrastructure solutions to customers in various industries including finance, government, manufacturing, power/energy and transportation.

At the heart of Hitachi's social innovation strategy is co-creation, the underlying theme at the Social Innovation Forum.

Speakers scheduled to present at Forum include Toshiaki Higashihara, President and CEO, Hitachi, Ltd., Hicham Abdessamad, President and CEO, Hitachi Consulting & Deputy General Manager, Hitachi's Social Innovation Business; as well as0 Luisa Arienti, Amministratore Delegato di SAP Italia; Aldo Bisio, CEO of Vodafone; and Carlo Calenda, Minister of Economic Development of Italy.

Ryuichi Otsuki (Hitachi Vantara CEO) and Asim Zaheer (Hitachi Vantara CMO) will also be in attendance.