Three days dedicated to curiosity, research, and excellent science communication ended with extraordinary results for the ninth edition of Focus Live. The festival by Focus, hosted by the Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci, drew over 20,000 attendees, confirming the public’s great enthusiasm for a format that successfully combines scientific rigor with an accessible and engaging language.

The central theme of this edition, declined in the plural under the title “Intelligences”, guided a schedule of over 100 all sold-out events, distributed across Main Stage, Speakers’ Corner, Minds’ Corner, Area Kids, and experiential area. Scientists, researchers, philosophers, artists, and sports champions took turns exploring the many ways in which the mind, technology, nature, and human behavior are able to learn, communicate, and find solutions.

The extraordinary response from the public was also reflected on the digital front, where content shared across the web and social media generated a total audience of over 10 million users. The story of Focus Live does not end with the conclusion of the event: the entire video content production will remain available online and on Focus social profiles, continuing to offer scientific insights and archive materials for the community.

“This edition exceeded all expectations, confirming how much the public feels the need to explore knowledge with curiosity and rigor,” states Gian Mattia Bazzoli, director of Focus. “The theme of “Intelligences” allowed us to open extraordinary windows onto the future, showing how science belongs to everyone. Special thanks go to the thousands of people who filled the rooms, to our partners, scientists, guests, and the editorial staff who made this incredible collective journey possible.”

Among the most exciting moments of the festival was the opening with astrophysicist and astronaut Umberto Guidoni, who analyzed the mechanisms of thought in orbit, followed by a live and exclusive connection from Houston with ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano, engaged in a dialogue with the audience in the hall directly from his training center. The upcoming lunar challenges were then further explored by Paolo Attivissimo, tracing the future of space exploration. Among the many meetings, the public was able to travel across the frontiers of knowledge thanks to contributions from physicist and science communicator Massimo Temporelli, who explored the boundaries of physics and innovation, and Enrica Maria Porcari, Chief Information Officer at CERN, who shared the challenges related to data management and knowledge in the largest scientific infrastructure on the planet. The combination of physiology, mind, and sport featured Olympic champion Filippo Tortu, who spoke about the science of sprinting and the interplay between speed and psychology, and world freediving record holder and researcher Mike Maric, who guided the room in discovering the potential of conscious breathing.

The packed program successfully intertwined diverse languages, from music to history to cognitive analysis, thanks to contributions from additional exceptional guests. Musician Faso was the protagonist of two events, the first combining music and neuroscience in a lecture-performance co-curated with orchestra conductor Enrico Melozzi, and the second revealing the physics hidden behind every throw in the science of baseball for children, while historical communicator Guido Damini offered fascinating perspectives of reflection on the past. Room was also given to mind traps and evolution with Massimo Polidoro, who traced the origins of Homo sapiens between imagination, luck, and the contemporary management of fake news.

The two highly anticipated evening special events also met with great success, selling out immediately. Journalist and podcaster Pablo Trincia conducted a historical and psychological investigation into the figure of Caligula, analyzing it through the traits of narcissism and psychopathy, while on Saturday evening the hall transformed into an interactive arena for the game show Sfida ai… cervelli!, which saw the audience compete in real time in three teams led by Federico Basso, Davide Damiani, and basketball player Pippo Ricci.

The success of this edition is also due to the many hands-on experiences. The Cavallerizze became an immense laboratory where universities, research centers, and scientific partners offered the public interactive stations dedicated to robotics, artificial intelligence, biomedicine, and virtual reality. In the outdoor area of the Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci, many activities were offered to the public, from the Italian Air Force self-propelled flight simulator to the Moon VR Experience. Over these three days, ample space was dedicated to the Area Kids curated by Focus Junior, featuring numerous activities to bring children and young people closer to science through robotics, mathematics, and nature.

Focus Live thus confirms its position as a primary benchmark for the dissemination of scientific culture thanks to the consolidated synergy with the Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci, cultural partner and co-producer of the event, and the support of main partners BYD and Eni, along with all the institutional and scientific partners who enriched the event.

See you in 2027 for the tenth edition of Focus Live!

PARTNERS OF FOCUS LIVE

Main Partner: BYD, Eni
Partner: Alice Ceramica, Banca Ifis, Barilla, Humanitas University, Jordan Oral Care, Pedrali
Content Partner: AIRC, Federchimica, Fondazione Fair, ILIAD, Mondadori Education, Opera San Francesco
Technical Partner: La Lucerna Educational
Official Color: Giotto
Cultural Partner: Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia

This edition of Focus Live saw the support of several institutions, research centers, and universities: ASI, Accademia Degli Scacchi, Italian Air Force, Business and Roads, ESA, IKON, Immersiva, INAF, Mondadori Book Store, Novi Education, Oribitx, Space Center Huston, Think About Science, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italian Institute of Technology, Human Technopole, Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies of Pisa, Smonto Lab, Polytechnic University of Turin, European Commission, University of Milan, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart.

Production and organizational secretariat are managed by Left & Right.

Focus
Focus, the monthly magazine published by Mondadori Media spa, is the leader brand, with its extensions, in the scientific dissemination sector in Italy with a total unique audience print + digital of over 5.3 million (source Audicom – March 2026) and a monthly circulation of over 104 thousand copies (source: Ads, January/April 2026).

Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci
The Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci is today the most important technical-scientific museum in Italy and one of the main ones in Europe. Located in an Olivetan monastery built in the early 16th century in the heart of the city of Milan, the Museum was founded in 1953 by engineer Guido Ucelli, with the objective of recounting the “becoming of the world” starting from a unified view of culture represented by Leonardo da Vinci, to whom the Leonardo Galleries are dedicated, constituting its historical identity value. The Museum’s mission is to contribute to developing scientific citizenship, namely the set of knowledge and skills useful for understanding and discussing the implications and interactions of science and technology on daily life and their interactions with other sectors of knowledge and society. Today it is a Private Law Foundation supported by public institutions, and the main Milanese universities are part of its scientific council.
https://www.museoscienza.org