Carla Rinaldi in Billund, Denmark for the LEGO Idea Conference 2022

Carla Rinaldi, president of Fondazione Reggio Children, is these days in Denmark, in Billund, where the LEGO Group has its headquarters, to take part in the international conference of the LEGO Foundation, the LEGO Idea Conference, first in presence after the years of the pandemic.

An event bringing together hundreds of partners from all over the world, including researchers, government representatives, educators and practitioners to discuss and explore how to give as many children as possible the opportunity to learn through play and develop the skills they need now and in the future.

"After the 25th anniversary of the collaboration between Lego and Reggio Emilia - comments Carla Rinaldi - which we celebrated last year, this common research on education, learning and play continues, allowing us to explore and interpret new realities together".

Among the main speakers Anne-Birgitte Albrectsen, ceo of the Lego Foundation - recently in Reggio Emilia, in delegation with Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, owner of third generation, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of Fondazione Reggio Children - Catherine Russell, Executive Director of UNICEF; Charles North, Interim Managing Director of the Global Partnership for Education. Interventions touch on early childhood development, financing the transformation of learning systems and inclusive learning systems, with particular attention to children in conflict and migration areas.

During the Conference, the LEGO Prize 2022 was awarded to Maria Adelaida Lopez, artist and executive director of AeioTu, a social enterprise in Colombia that recognizes children as protagonists and co-builders of their learning, through a philosophy similar to that of Reggio Emilia, which the new winner recalled in her thanks. 

Thomas Kirk Kristiansen, fourth generation of the Lego property and president of the LEGO Foundation, highlighted Lopez’s role in "supporting learning through play in early childhood development in Colombia and Latin America". "It is a joy to see that the new Lego Prize is awarded to an experience so close to the spirit of Reggio Emilia and the Reggio Children’s Foundation," comments Carla Rinaldi. 

 The award was preceded by a dialogue on creativity and coexistence in communities, between Carla Rinaldi, pedagogue, Unimore teacher and LEGO Prize 2015, and Mitchel Resnick, LEGO Prize 2021, professor of learning research at MIT Media Lab in Boston, and Scientific Advisor to FRC.