Innovation in Crete and the bodies that support it "Innovation Crete 5.0"

The 5th conference on “Innovation in Greece and the bodies that support it”, held in Heraklion Crete, came to a successful conclusion. The 2-day event was held on Thursday 28 and Friday 29 March, at the Heraklion Chamber of Commerce and Industry, with 64 speakers in 11 panels and 7 workshops, and attended by 235 participants. The conference was co-organized by NBG Business Seeds, Smart Attica ΕDIH, the PRAXI Network of the Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH), the FORTH Science and Technology Park of Crete (STEP-C), the Bizrupt organization, the H2B HUB of the Heraklion Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the EDIH SmartHealth, the 4Locals initiative, the ACEin of the Athens University of Economics and Business,  the Hellenic American Chamber of Commerce, the Hellenic Development Bank of Investments, Uni.fund, Μetavallon, Bayer Ηellas and NBG Pay, under the auspices of the Prefecture of Crete.

The event was opened with welcome speeches by Mr. Manolis Alifierakis, President of the Heraklion Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Maximos Senetakis, Deputy Minister of Development and Investments, Mr. Stavros Arnaoutakis, Regional Governor of Crete, Dr. Konstantinos Vavekis, Director of the FORTH PRAXI Network, and Mr. Charis Vlatakis, Head of NBG Group Business Strategy Sector.

A two-day Match & Develop a startup 5.0. Bootcamp for research teams and startups was held at the FORTH Heraklion in parallel with the conference. At the bootcamp, teams had the chance to discuss their ideas with local entrepreneurs, attend workshops, examine financing opportunities and receive mentoring by executives of the following funds: Uni.fund, Metavallon, Big Pi, L-Stone, Venture Friends, Genesis Ventures, and ΝΒG Business Seeds. The Bootcamp concluded on Friday with presentations by the teams before the panel of judges, at which the following gained a distinction: Kymatonics and Motonius companies, which won a participation in the Genesis Ventures accelerator, and BioMore and ArterEase Strider, which will participate in Level-up program launched by Bayer. The spin off of the Laboratory of Biological and Biotechnological Applications / Hellenic Mediterranean University BioMore qualified to go straight into Phase II of the 15th Innovation & Technology Competition of the NBG Business Seeds program. Last, the participants received Amazon service packages.