The Greek Chapter of the British Computer Society organised their New Year’s event at the British Residence in Athens, on 27/3/2014, inviting their members and distinguished speakers to a discussion about Innovation Clusters and Startup Initiatives in Greece.

The DHM, Andrew Staunton welcomed Iain Thompson, the Vice President of the British Computer Society (BCS), and the guests. Mr Staunton referred to the British Government’s ambition to make Britain “the most digital nation to G8”, by encouraging Innovation and Enterpreneurship. He pointed out the government’s support to Tech City, one of the UK’s most dynamic areas, attracting high levels of investment.

The Vice-President of BCS, Mr Thompson referred to  the international role of  the Institute to foster links between experts from the global ICT industry, academia and business to promote new thinking, education and knowledge sharing, as well as accreditation of IT qualifications and professional standards.

Their speeches were followed by additional presentations from:

• Prof Vasilios Makios,General Manager, Corallia Clusters Initiative, Vasilis Trapezanoglou, Innovation expert and Advisor, Eurobank EFG, EGG
• Sotiris Nosis
  Founder & CEO, Datamation – Co-founder, CTO, Taxiplon
• Aristos Doxiadis
  Economist and Venture Capital Executive
• ·         Dr Ioannis Kanellopoulos
  Practice Leader, Software Improvement Group – Orange Grove

The event was attended by over 130 members of the Greek branch of BCS, and guests from the ICT industry, who participated in the discussion regarding Innovation Clusters and “Tech Start-Ups Bloom in Recession-Hit Greece” referred by the TIMES magazine a few days ago.

The organisers happy to note that the event assisted in encouraging more UK – Greek companies join the forces in  software & hardware development for business and scientific applications and also highlighted the UK example in boosting entrepreneurship in the ICT sector.