Palazzo Costa Carrù della Trinità, at 17 Via San Francesco da Paola, is one of the most recently entered spaces in the Ultraspazio network. It is a place of great charm built in 1769, positioned in a strategic point of the city, a few steps from Turin’s main squares (Valdo Fusi, Carlina, San Carlo and Vittorio Veneto).

The palace is owned by Reale Immobili, which has entrusted Ultraspazio with the management of part of the rooms on the piano nobile, some of which have been earmarked for the training activities of Reale Group’s Academy. Since about a month ago, after three years of virtual programs due to the pandemic, the Academy has in fact returned to presence and found a home here, where it uses three rooms for training, three small lounges to manage subgroups, a break area, as well as having a large terrace overlooking the inner courtyard.

From 2010 to 2019, the Academy ran its operations in a building on the edge of the city, on Corso Giulio Cesare. “While we began to feel the need to rethink the spaces, with the arrival of the pandemic we also had to reexamine the modes of delivery,” says Lucia Borini, head of the Reale Group Academy. “In virtual training, for example, one cannot think of offering eight-hour daily programs, because it becomes too strenuous a commitment, both for the learners and the teachers.

But if the move to virtual was a great challenge, in terms of teaching and technology, a new one has opened up today. Returning to presence, in fact, is not a given. Experience has shown the undeniable advantages of the virtual in spite of the need for direct comparison and the networking opportunity to which it can give rise. “So today, in addition to virtual classrooms, we offer totally in-presence courses and are also experimenting with new hybrid modes, which allow for a return to the classroom while ensuring the possibility of distance attendance. The design of hybrid courses is even more complex and requires a great deal of effort in terms of technology and management to ensure the same level of potential learning for those who are present and those who are connected,” Lucia Borini further explains.

At the Costa Carrù palace, the multiple constraints of the historic building make it more complex to set up a technically flawless system: for example, environmental microphones cannot be used; however, Reale has found effective solutions to avoid congesting classroom dynamics. As the head of training activities points out, “with the pandemic, work and training have changed. We also wondered if people would be willing to return to the classroom, and to stimulate them in this direction, we created opportunities to meet, brought our colleagues here, to learn about this and other historic buildings of Reale Immobili. There has been great enthusiasm for these kinds of initiatives, especially just for the Costa Carrù palace, which is a truly extraordinary environment. We touched on the desire to get together and compare notes, which remains one of the main goals of all training activities.”

Technical, behavioral, regulatory, linguistic, managerial, wellness, sustainability, new leadership development, cyber security and much more training are the topics covered by the training plans in which all Reale Group employees are called to participate, mainly from Turin, Milan and Udine, but also from all over the country.

Palazzo Costa Carrù della Trinità is therefore set to become a crossroads for learners who, in the heart of Turin, will find a fascinating historical environment, efficient in technical supports and management, where the concepts of team, culture, sustainability are the hosts.