Silvia A. Conca Messina is attending the First World Congress of Business History / 20th Congress of the European Business History Association (University of Bergen, Norwey, 25-27 August 2016), where she organised a session with Takeshi Abe (Osaka University/Kokushikan University, Japan) on A cross-border élite:  Nobility and business in European and Asian contexts. She’s presenting a paper (with Roberto Tolaini, University of Genoa) titled Opening a debate: Nobility and economic transformation in 19^th century Northern Italy.