The “INNOVATION GREECE 7.0” conference came to a successful conclusion
The conference on “INNOVATION GREECE 7.0: Reimagining the Future” was carried out successfully, with 124 speakers in 11 panels and 5 round tables. The Conference was held in collaboration with Panathēnea and Endeavor Greece, at NBG's Karatzas Amphitheatre, with 450 participants.
It was co-organized by NBG Business Seeds, NCSR Demokritos, the Archimedes Center of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, the Athens Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (ACE) of the Athens University of Economics and Business, HDBI, the Hellenic American Chamber of Commerce, Bayer Ηellas, Μetavallon, Uni.fund, and L-Stone Capital. The Conference communication was undertaken by the Advertising and Public Relations Lab, Department of Communication, Media and Culture of Panteion University.
The event was opened by Mr. Ernestos Panayiotou, General Manager of NBG Transformation, Strategy and International Activities. Welcome speeches were given by Mr. Dimitris Terzis, General Secretary of Research and Innovation of the Ministry of Development, and Mr. Charis Lampropoulos, President of the HDBI and Member of the BoD of EIF & EIB.
Dr. Spyros Arsenis, Head of NBG Business Innovation Development and Mr. Giorgos Marinos, Assistant General Manager of Innovation & Digital Partnerships participated in the panels on behalf of NBG.
For the first time this year 5 closed round table discussions focused on: Cyber Security, Robotics, Fintech, AI, and Crypto. The discussions were attended by top entrepreneurs, academics, executives of multinationals and startups, who shared expert views and enabled valuable networking.
Eight booths were showing at the event, where participants presented to the audience cutting-edge technology products and services. The booths included BibeCoffee, which deals in the digital transformation of professional coffee-making equipment, New Generation Hotelier, which provides robotic and digital AI solutions for the hospitality sector, Robenso, which has developed a robotic recycling system, Safe Size, which helps people find shoes to fit using 3D scanning tech, and the non-profit company Tyto, which installs barn owl nest boxes to enhance control of rodents in agriculture. Three university bodies and research centers also participated together with VR/XR in the Medical Training of the Faculty of Medicine | University of Thessaly, which was represented by Prof. Aristides Zimis, the ERMIS CubeSats and the robodogs Athena and Laica of the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA) headed by Prof. Vaios Lappas, and last, the quadruped robots for the identification and collection of waste of the Computational Vision and Robotics Laboratory (CVRL) headed by Prof. Panos Trachanias.
The event concluded with presentations for the Crazy Ideas, Brilliant Scientists thematic modules, and the Pitching Event. In the Crazy Ideas, Brilliant Scientists module, apps developed by companies and university laboratories were presented, which concerned the accumulation of energy in cement structures, advanced structures for aviation apps with autonomous ability to identify malfunctions, buildings as future mines, production of packaging materials from dairy waste, biodegradable clothing, and insect breeding applications for the automated management of organic waste. The audience prize was awarded to the Noema team, which develops biodegradable fabrics. The teams Adwork, Innovamater, Nestia.ai, Scheduluxe, and Wellberry competed in the Pitching Event. The Innovamater team was awarded the audience prize, the Wellberry team won a two-hour meeting with Bayer Hellas executives from the Pharmaceutical and Consumer Health sector at the company's offices in Athens, and 10 hours of mentoring by Endeavor Greece. The Hellenic Association of Innovative Application Companies of Greece (SEKEE) offered tickets to the Wellberry and Sceduluxe teams for the Mobile World Congress Exhibition (MWC 2026) that will take place in Barcelona (2–5 March 2026). All participants at the Pitching Event were given invitations for the Panathēnea 2026 event by the Panathēnea team.
The event was held as part of Smart Attica EDIH and was co-financed by the European Union.