IMoC: All about a promising event

IMoC stands for International Mobile Congress. Our slogan is “Mobilizing technology” as we talk about a big technological event for people from all around the world either interested in or connected with mobile technology or innovation.

It all started when the last semester began at the Communication, Media and Culture Department of Panteion University in Athens, Greece and more specifically during our Event Management sessions in Ad ’n’ PR Lab.

It was Ms Athena Fradelou who guided us (my teammates Lambrini Tsiligianni, Eleni Georgiou, Maria Staikopoulou, Amalia St, Andromache Efstathiou, DBounias and me) with her knowledge and experience, helped us, inspired us and finally briefed us about our task for Event Management. We were actually asked to prepare and organize a module of a mobile conference similar to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and apart from the actual performance of the event that has to do with the budget, the agenda setting, the speakers, the sponsors, the partners etc., we had also to “build” a strategy before that, so this will have a meaning, and a communication and marketing plan so people will find out and attend our event.

First, it seemed to be a huge and really challenging mission to be accomplished. The list of the deliverable tasks on a weekly basis felt like hard work to do. It was a realistic project plan, though, and as soon as we got to work and started brainstorming and planning, it got more and more interesting. It felt like we were at the beginning of something new, of a creation that was evolving day by day, week by week. Of course, we had our weekly sessions with our mentors, Ms Athena, who gave us tips and feedback for our up to that time work, and Ms Betty Tsakarestou who coordianates and leads Ad ’n’ PR Lab.

The birth of IMoC

First of all, we had to name this “child” we gave life to. So, we created our brand: International Mobile Congress or else, iMoC, a congress for mobile technology which is aimed at people all around the globe. At the same time, we created the logo and the design our event would have in general:

Then, we had to give our event a shape, to describe it in details while following the 5W method. According to the last one, we answered the 5W questions: what, why, who, when and where. At first, we changed our answers many times. As we talk about an organisation, everything matters, even the smallest details, so if anything changes in our answers, that will affect the whole event. As a consequence, the answers to those 5 questions were constantly changing and improving as they are fully connected and interdependent to each other.

So, let us unfold together the context of those final answers we gave while completing our mission leaving the answer to “what?” as the final one.

Why?

An important question before building something so big like this congress is to find the reasons why; why will this congress exist, why will it take place in Greece, why is all that?

The culture of ancient Greece and the Hellenistic world has made hundreds of inventions in the field of science and technology, as well as improvements to existing technologies.

During the Hellenistic period, the founding of the Library of Alexandria as a research institute highlighted the work of valuable inventors such as Archimedes, Philon the Byzantine, Iron, Ktisibios and the earlier Archant Tarantinus.

Examples of inventions in the field of mechanical technology were the watermill, the first steam engine, the new gear inventions and the screw. At the same time, the invention of the vertical water wheel, the turbine, the Archimedes screw and the piston and suction pumps were of great help to agriculture. In martial technology, the ancient Greek inventions were the catapult and the gastrofelt. In metallurgy we have the hollow casting of bronze, in the topography the binoculars, in the lighthouse infrastructures, the central heating, the Euppaline trench, the Diolco and the hydraulic installations. In the field of mobility great advances have been the invention of the crane and the odometer. In addition, the spiral staircase, chain drive and shower are some of the other ancient Greek innovations.

One of the most important inventions, however, was the “Antikythera Mechanism” which was the first computer engineer. It is dated to the 2nd century BC. , thus constituting an early miracle of microtechnology.

Today, with the aim of attracting new investments in Greece, efforts are being made by the Ministry of Development and Investment to stabilize the Greek economy and facilitate project licensing.

The promising and dynamic sectors for the Greek economy are those of renewable energy, the pharmaceutical industry, technological services, agri-food and waste.

Well-known overseas groups, with an international presence and growth prospects, have already begun investing a small amount of capital in our country. Relative mobility has begun in the last six months and is now maturing with the first contract signatures. Pfizer, Tesla, Volkswagen, Cisco, SAP, Amazon and eBay are the best-known companies that either enhance or deploy their business in Greece for the first time.

Greece’s geopolitical position in SE Europe and the good climatic conditions offered for renewable energy plants combined with the de-legitimization of ΔΕΗ and the electrical interconnection projects of the islands already underway are a strong lure for all investors. Greece can still focus on exporting technology services. A recent example is that of Team Viewer, a German company that chose Ioannina as its headquarters to export worldwide technology services, with the prospect of creating a HUB with 200 engineers, while another notable deal was that of Taxibeat joining its group. Daimler.

When?

But when would the event suitably take place? After some research, we decided that the International Mobile Congress (iMoC) would start on Thursday 14th of May and it would end on Sunday 17th of May of 2021. We talk about one year later as the project started on March 2020 and the congress requires a whole year preparation.

First of all, while planning the dates for the congress, someone can use the process of elimination which means rejecting other dates or months throughout the year. First, the end of the year, for example, is not the appropriate time for such an event, especially for the European target group, as it is the month of Christmas and New Year Holidays. January, as well, would not be a good time because people recover from holidays and dive into work as the new year came in. November, on the other side, is neither a suitable month because Americans celebrate Thanksgiving and that would cause a big loss for the conference as they constitute a big part of our potential audience but also of our partnerships during the event. So, briefly, after a quick research, winter (and November) is out.

Summer season, on the other hand, can host various events but mostly cultural and for entertainment because summer months means vacation for most countries, especially in August. Also, the great weather of Greece during summer can be a strong appeal to those who would like to combine their participation in a conference with a nice trip and thus boost the Greek tourism even more, but that could be a distraction, at the same time, and would make the conference look like a really exhausting event and an obstacle to their vacations. Besides, weather in Greece during summer may be great but only for the vacationers, because otherwise it can be really hot and lead to inconvenient conditions. So, summer is out as well.

All the above lead us to hold it in spring or fall season. As for the weather, those months offer the most convenient circumstances as it is not too hot, like summer, and not too cold, like winter. So, fall season, on the one hand, can be a chance as people are refreshed after their vacation — some can be still on vacation, though if it is for September — and it is the period that many things start, such as for schools and universities, but that, at the same time, may be the reason why September and October could not be considered because it is too soon to leave for a conference; it is the time when most people set up their programs.

As a result, spring is thought to be the suitable season for such a big event. Therefore, we thought we should avoid some dates during spring and generally throughout the year in which other big established conferences will take place, that have to do with the same industry, such as SXSW Conference in March (https://www.sxsw.com/conference/ ), GDC (Game Developers Conference, https://www.gdconf.com/ ) in March, the annual developer conference Google I/O ( https://events.google.com/io/ ) in March, the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February ( https://www.mwcbarcelona.com/ ), the developer conference of Apple WWDC in May (https://developer.apple.com/wwdc19/ ), the Media, Entertainment and Technology IBC show in September, in Amsterdam (https://show.ibc.org/about-ibc-new). So, it is easy to understand that March is a busy month apart from the fact that there are Greek national holidays in that period such as Clean Monday on 15th March or the Annunciation on 25th March.

Between other major celebrations of Christianity, Easter is a big holiday on 2nd May for Orthodoxy and on 4th April for Catholicism, so the first and last week of April and the first week of May are also excluded. But we had also to consider other celebrations of different religions all over the globe as we talk about an international event. Islam, for example, has some significant holidays; Ramazan is one of them and it starts on the 12th of April and ends on the 11th of May as well as the Festival of Breaking the Fast (Eid al-Fitr) on 13th May and the Festival of the Sacrifice (Eid al-Adha) on 20th of July 2021. Those dates must be considered as they would affect a large part of our audience from various countries and continents. The same stands for other events that happen in Asia or India such as the Qingming Festival, Holi, the Maha Shivaratri or the Dragon Boat Festival. Eventually, it is of great essence that the event would not coincide with any major religious event or any holidays and with any other significant conferences of the same category, either. That is the reason why those specific dates were chosen.

Besides, May is a month suitable for travelling around Europe, especially to a Mediterranean country like Greece where it is in the heart of spring, colours become brighter and the weather becomes warmer but not too hot (average temperature 25 degrees) while the days become longer and the nights are perfect for going out. In that way, a guest who would visit Greece because of the Congress, could easily combine it with some rides around the city or evening walks. In addition, there is accessibility and easy transportation from the airport to the centre of Athens, especially during that period that the number of tourists in the country is not on its peak. Eventually, it would be easy as well, for the guests to book their tickets and move cheaper and more conveniently compared to the vacation period.

As for the hours that the congress would be conducted, they were chosen in a way that guests would be able to sleep well as the conference will start at 10 in the morning — not so early — and they will have the time as well at the end of the day to enjoy their evening in Athens and reclaim the energy consumed during their day at the conference.

Where?

All this sounds nice but a strong factor for an event is the place where it will happen. First, Greece was chosen as the country which is going to host the event as it has been the homeland for a big evolution of the civilization and for many innovations as written above. It has been the country, especially when we are talking about ancient Athens, where various sciences like philosophy, geometry, mathematics, were born and developed. Furthermore, the technological achievements with the great example of the Antikythera mechanism, a hand powered analogue computer for calendar and astrological purposes, are definitely relative to the mobile conference and can be a motive for this congress to be established in Greece.

Additionally, Greece geographically is in the middle of three continents and connects Europe, Asia and Africa. Through this congress, visitors from different countries and cultures will have the chance to visit a country with great ancient history while giving Greece the chance to be pointed out with a first-time event.

As for the city that would host the event, Athens was chosen as the most suitable option. Since it is about an international event, a big airport like Eleftherios Venizelos could serve our guests from so many different countries. Apart from that, the amount of people arriving in Greece requires a venue big enough for all of them and hotels to host them, as well. The place where the conference will take place, the accommodation and the accessibility are significant factors that led us to choose Athens. Besides, Athens is the capital of Greece and is the most popular Greek city for its sightseeing, the archaeological sites and the ancient monuments, so it would be a great place to start for an event of this extent that invites people from all over the world while promoting the Greek culture.

As far as the site that was considered the most appropriate is concerned, it is thought that the iMoC could take place in Metropolitan Expo. Metropolitan Expo is the biggest modern centre of expositions and conferences in Greece and it is located in Spata, very close to the Athens Airport, Eleftherios Venizelos. The place was chosen for two main reasons that make it the best option possible for a such a big conference; firstly, the accessibility and secondly, its large capacity for thousands of guests.

As far as the accessibility and transportation are concerned, someone can easily move from the airport to the centre via 5-minute drive, via taxi or via internal transport shuttle buses that move during the day connecting the airport with Metropolitan Expo. Public transport is also an easy option as the centre is next to subway and suburban railway stations; a guest who would prefer to stay in the city centre can move in about 35 minutes via car to the centre or via public transport easily and with low cost, too.

The second reason why Metropolitan Expo was chosen for the congress is the total footage of 160.000 square meters of which 50.000m2 is the total of the enclosed areas and 100.000m2 are offered for the parking area. There are three large halls of 12.000 to 13.050m2 each and one of 6.200m2 which can host in theatrical arrangement up to 15.000 guests. There are 2 restaurants and 7 coffee shops totally in the halls that could host our guests during their coffee or lunch time. The congress is planned to take place mainly in the hall number 2 which actually is 12.500m2 and can host up to 14.500 guests — large capacity is needed for the major speeches. There are also different meeting rooms

reserved for special occasions, such as workshops or VIP meetings that will occur through the congress.

In addition, there are two main gates that correspond with two lobbies large enough to serve our guests efficiently during their registration (totally 1.050m2).

As for the parking area, there are two parking lots of 100.000m2 total space that can host up to 5.000 cars for free. Apart from that, other significant facilities offered to the guests as well as to the organizers and exhibitors are wired & wireless internet connection, audio system, medical room, air condition system, fire detection and protection, cloakroom, bus, train and subway routes screens, rest rooms, info kiosks, and last but not least, accessibility for disabled people.

Who?

The answer to this question has to do with anyone who has any relationship with this event; from the team — us, the speakers, the sponsors, the partners, to our clients and audience. Many people with different roles for each to play and many different organisations, companies and businesses are needed for such an event.

The team

SixPawnsEvents — which was our little hypothetical company before our new entry, DBounias, came in and so we became seven — is a newly formed organization with passion and vision for the future of technology. We aim to create the most fun, unique, interesting and much talked about events and conferences around technology. Our first great project is iMoC, International Mobile Congress. You will find everything you need to know about iMoC in the following pages, but for now we would like you to know the people that helped one way or another to make this idea possible, and hopefully as successful as we aim it to be.

Committee President — Eleni Georgiou

Sponsors, Finance & Partners — Andromache Efstathiou

Experience & Production — Marilou Karakosta

Communication — Maria Staikopoulou

Speakers & Guests — Amalia St

Volunteers — Lambrini Tsiligianni

Crisis Manager — DBounias

Our Speakers

Jack Ma — Alibaba

Alibaba is Chinese world’s larget e- commerce market place. It owns 7 research labs that focus on AI, machine learning, network security. Sense Time: AI startup known for facial recognition, Alibaba is the main investor , Cloud based AI & AI chip.

Dr Edewede ORIWOH

Quod Orbis — Associate Cybersecurity Consultant at Quod Orbis University of Bedfordshire

Dr Pedro Lopez

University of Chicago — Human Computer Intergration Lab He creates wearables that uses electrical stimulation to help uses muscles perform tasks. Leader of the Human Computer Integration lab, which focuses on the the research question: what if interfaces would share part of our body?

Pedro’s team materializes these ideas by creating interactive systems that intentionally borrow parts of the user’s body for input and output; allowing computers to be more directly interwoven in our bodily senses and actuators.”

Andrew Makarov

Augmented Reality Solution Arcitect at MobiDev. More than 8 years of development experience directed at building innovative mobile apps with integration of innovative technologies like Augmented Reality, The Internet of Things, Data Science and Machine Learning. Active speaker at world’s top tech conferences: MobileTechCon (Germany, 2018, 2017, 2016), DevFest (USA, 2017), SmallBusinessExpo (USA, 2016).

Alex Lebrun

Bot trainer at Facebook. Alex Lebrun is the co-founder of the voice recognition startup Wit.ai, which has been sold to Facebook. He now works for Facebook as a Bot Trainer and also uses his expertise for the virtual messaging assistant “M” with which it is possible, among other things, to make orders and reservations. It’s a self-learning algorithm supported by people.

Eve Maler

Chief Technology officer at IAM provider Forge Rock. She is a renowned strategist, innovator and communicator on digital identity, security, privacy and consent, with a focus on fostering successful ecosystems and individual empowerment. Maler drives privacy and consent innovation for the ForgeRock Identity Platform, enabling user-controlled and compliant data sharing across web, mobile and IoT contexts. She leads the User-Managed Access standards effort and guides the ForgeRock implementation of UMA and other privacy and consent solutions. She also directs the company’s engagement in standards such as Health Relationship Trust (HEART) and provides expert advice to public and private forums such as the US Health and Human Services API Task Force.

Tyler Cooper

The Editor-in-chief at BroadbandNow. BroadbandNow and its analytics arm, BroadbandNow Research, cover social, economic and political issues related to broadband technology such as digital inclusion, municipal broadband, telecom legislation, emerging technologies and the impact of broadband on everyday life.

Kevin Matheny

Senior Director Analyst at Gartner. Kevin Matheny is a Senior Director Analyst with Gartner for Technical Professionals. Mr. Matheny covers application architecture, integration and development, focusing on microservices architecture, API design, API management, application integration, agile methods and agile transformation.

Bernd Harzog

CEO APM Experts Provide product strategy consulting services to modern monitoring and analytics vendors, and provide product acquisition consulting services to large enterprises. Also seeking the next great company to join and make a difference. Specialties: Executive leadership of software startups, product strategy, product management, strategic marketing, deep knowledge of the systems management and applications performance management industries for virtualization and cloud computing.

Anjali Sud

Anjali Sud is an Indian American businesswoman and the CEO of Vimeo. Sud was appointed to the position in July 2017, after previously leading the company’s primary business focused on video creators.

Vimeo was one of a handful of companies with early access to AIA, and has worked with Google to get its video player Instant App released by Google I/O. In the process of getting a 15MB full app down to a 4MB AIA feature.

Josh Sackman

President and Cofounder of appliedVR, a digital medicine company using immersive technology to address large societal issues, starting with the pain crisis. Bachelors of Science in Business Administration from University of Southern California. Masters in Business Administration in global business from IAE in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Bilingual in Spanish.

Brendan Iribe

One of the video game industry’s most successful entrepreneurs. He is currently the CEO of Oculus VR, the Irvine-based developer of the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. Oculus VR recently made worldwide headlines when on March 26, 2014, Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) announced that it was acquiring Oculus VR in a deal worth approximately $2 billion.

Aaron Pulkka

Experienced Game Developer (Disney, Sony, Activision, etc.) interactive entertainment producer with a Master’s degree in Computer Science & Engineering and more than 20 years of game development experience, including design, programming, and publishing for Disney, Sony, THQ, Vivendi Games, and Activision. He also has 10 years of Virtual Reality development experience.

Kenichiro Yoshida

Has been serving as President, Chief Executive Officer, Representative Executive Officer and Director in Sony Corporation since April 1, 2018. He is also a member of Nominating Committee of the Company. He joined the Company in April 1983. His previous titles include Executive Officer and Executive Vice President in the Company. He used to work for So-net Corporation.

Constantinos Daskalakis

Greek theoretical computer scientist. He is a professor at MIT’s Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department and a member of the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. He was awarded the Rolf Nevanlinna Prize and the Grace Murray Hopper Award in 2018.

John Granger

Senior Vice President, Cloud Application Innovation, IBM Global Business ServicesIn this role, John is responsible for operational discipline and profit performance across GBS, the consulting and professional services unit of IBM. He also leads the Cloud Application Innovation team, helping clients transform their businesses at scale with quality, speed and consistency across end-to-end enterprise application implementations, cloud application migration and modernization, and application maintenance. He leads the GBS network of global delivery centers and has championed delivery transformation through automation, agile and DevOps methodologies.

Michael Saul Dell

American billionaire businessman and philanthropist. He is the founder and CEO of Dell Technologies, one of the world’s largest technology infrastructure companies. He is ranked as the 27th richest person in the world by Forbes, with a net worth of $31.0 billion as of October 2019. Dell Boomi is an on-demand cloud-based and on-premise data integration software. This software uses a graphical interface with minimal coding that let users configure and automate application, B2B, and data integrations. Users can connect applications and services such as NetSuite, Workday, SAP, Microsoft Dynamics GP and many more. Its hefty price tag per month is its major setback.

Houlin Zhao

International Telecommunication Union Secretary General information and communication technology (ICT) engineer who has served in a variety of senior management positions at ITU, began his second, and last, four-year term on 1 January 2019.

Balázs Bertényi

Has participated in 3GPP for over 15 years, gaining technical experience as a contributor in SA groups and in RAN. He has a wealth of leadership experience in 3GPP, serving terms as Chairman of SA Working Group 2 (2007–2011) and as Chairman of the 3GPP SA Plenary (2011–2015).

Colin Willcock

Chairman of the board of the 5G Infrastructure Association, graduated from the University of Sheffield, UK, with a B.Sc in Phyiscs in 1986, an MSc. In Astronomical Technology from the University of Edinburgh in 1987 and a Ph.D. in Parallel Computation from the University of Kent at Canterbury in 1992, joined Nokia in 1999, and is currently Head of Radio Network Standardization. He has participated extensively in standardization activities at ETSI, ITU-T and 3GPP, and also has extensive experience of European research having led a number of European projects.

Craig Federighi

Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. Federighi oversees the development of iOS, iPadOS, macOS and Apple’s common operating system engineering teams. His teams are responsible for delivering the software at the heart of Apple’s products, including the user interface, applications and frameworks.

Jeff Gennette

Was elected chief executive officer of Macy’s, Inc. in March 2017 and assumed the role of chairman in February 2018.Gennette is the chairman of the NRF Foundation board of directors and a member of the NRF executive committee. Gennette, a native of San Diego, is a graduate of Stanford University.

Partha Narasimhan

Chief Technology Officer at Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company. He has been with Aruba since the inception of the company in 2002. At Aruba, he has led wireless product development in Engineering and later became the CTO for enterprise networking. Since the acquisition by HP, he has been the CTO for the networking organization within Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). He currently leads a team that is responsible for technology vision and strategy for networking, spanning both campus and data center networks.

Megan J. Smith

The third Chief Technology Officer of the United States (U.S. CTO) and Assistant to the President, serving under President Barack Obama. She was previously a vice president at Google, leading new business development and early-stage partnerships across Google’s global engineering and product teams at Google for nine years, was general manager of Google.org., a vice president at Google and the former CEO of Planet Out. She serves on the boards of MIT and Vital Voices, was a member of the USAID Advisory Committee on Voluntary Aid and co-founded of the Malala Fund.

Richard Meeus

Has over 20 years of experience in designing and building secure solutions. He has been responsible for delivering some of the world’s largest enterprise security solutions — and was at the forefront of delivering solutions in the DDOS protection space. As Security Technology & Strategy Director at Akamai, Richard is passionate about retail, understands that customers are increasingly demanding a personalised experience and works with retailers and brands to help them understand the increasingly complex cyber security threat environment and the measures they need to take to protect their own and their customers’ data.

Roger Magoulas

VP of Radar at O’Reilly. He works to support O’Reilly’s mission to spread the knowledge of innovators by using qualitative and quantitative methods to track technology adoption trends and communicate those trends both inside the company and to O’Reilly’s customers.

Rufus Grig

Chief Strategy Officer at Maintel. Since joining the business in May 2016, Rufus is responsible for overseeing three key aspects of the business. Maintel’s product and service offering, in-house product development, and go-to-market strategy. Prior to his current role, Rufus was CTO at Azzurri Communications and was previously Managing Director of Callmedia. Rufus is recognised as an industry expert in his field and is a frequent conference speaker, contributing regularly on the subject of the future of the telecoms, UC and contact centre markets.”

Our Sponsors

We separated our sponsors into four categories: Olympians, Titans, Giants and Heroes. They would be categorized as written above depending on the amount of money they would deposit and after the formation of the sponsorship packages as made using Microsoft Excel, where we presented each category with the corresponding profits and the equivalent amounts. We also composed some module sponsorship letters that would be sent to each possible sponsor.

Sponsors’ List

New Technologies/ Android Sponsors: Huawei, Lenovo, Dell Technology, LG, Sony, Samsung, HP, China Mobile, Intel, Panasonic

Telecommunications & Development Sponsors: Forthnet, IBM, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Cosmote, Vodafone, KDDI, TATA

Consultancy Services Insurance Sponsors: EY, Allianz General Insurance, Accenture

Support Sponsors: Mastercard, Citibank, Deloitte, Eurobank, Paypal, HSBC, American Express, Protergia

Mobile Apps & Gaming Sponsors: ΟΠΑΠ, Vermantia Group, Logitech, Tik Tok

Food & Beverage Sponsors: Βίκος, Coca Cola 3E, Nespresso, Diageo, Red Bull, Unilever, e-Food, Attica Catering,Αθηναϊκή Ζυθοπϊία

Travel & Automotive Sponsors: Hilton, Sofitel Athens Airport, BMW, Hyundai, KIA, Emirates, Toyota, Taxi Beat

Venue Sponsors: Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, Μέγαρο Μουσικής Αθηνών, Τεχνόπολις

Virtual Reality Installations Sponsor: SAP

Lounges Sponsors: Europa, Praktiker

Communication Sponsors: Startup.gr, Kαθημερινή, Fortune Greece, Cosmote TV, ΕΡΤ

Our Partners

Our partners came from a variety of fields. They are institutions, embassies, educational institutions, cultural organizations, telecommunications companies, airlines and insurance companies.

Municipality of Athens

More precisely, among the institutions would be the Municipality of Athens, which has created the Athens Digital Lab as the first municipal early stage incubator. In addition, for the seventh consecutive year it hosts the Athens Science Festival in Technopolis, which deals with technical intelligence and its impact on the future. The Municipality of Athens promotes and supports innovation and technological developments and would contribute to the communication of the event.

Ministries and Embassies

The ministries that would be potential strategic partners were the Ministry of Economy and Development, the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Digital Governance. Ministries’ contribution would be valuable as they facilitate and mediate communication between states. They are also supporters of technology investment in our country, making significant efforts to facilitate investment processes. Embassies include those of China, Japan, South Korea, the United States, Canada, Russia, Germany, France, Spain, India, Belgium, Italy, Greece, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia, and Saudi Arabia. strong allies. Finally, the Athens Chamber of Commerce would also help in developing the relationship of Greek entrepreneurship with the innovation of the future.

Attica Urban Transport Organization (OASA)

OASA would facilitate the movement of congressional visitors, if there is congestion, while providing space for congressional promotional material.

El. Airport Venizelos

El. Airport Venizelos would facilitate the transportation of visitors, providing the necessary space for VIP Buses on arrivals. In addition, it would serve the registration of foreign visitors to the specially designed stand of the conference.

Educational institutions

These include the Department of Informatics of the Athens University of Economics and Business, as well as the National Kapodistrian University of Athens, the Department of Communication, Media and Culture of the Panteion University and the Department of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering of the Technical University of Athens. University representatives woudl be the volunteer team of the conference, made up of young students who are interested in technology and innovation.

Cultural Institutions

The cultural institutions that would be partners of the conference are the Acropolis Rock Museum, the Acropolis Museum, the Benaki Museum, the Museum of Ancient Greek Technology, the Museum of Natural Sciences and Technology, the Goulandris Museum, the Eugenides Foundation and the Edge Foundation and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation. The collaboration with them would take place in the context of highlighting the Greek element of the conference, with organized visits to these venues, dinner of special guests at the Acropolis Museum, as well as Awards Event and cocktail party at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Lighthouse.

Airlines

Aegean Airlines, Qatar Airlines, Emirates, Aeroflot, British Airways, Air China, KLM would be our strategic partners. On the flights to Greece there would be brochure material for the conference and a promotional video for it, as well as for greek culture.

Media

The media and media platforms that would meet the communication needs of the conference are LinkedIn, CNBC, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Forbes, Center for Strategy and International Studies (CSIS), Business Insider Intelligence, BBC, SKAI News, Kathimerini, In.gr, Ant1 Media, Naftemporiki.gr.

Telecoms

The telecommunications companies that would become our strategic partners are OTE — Cosmote, Vodafone Hellas and Wind Hellas. These companies would serve the network needs, with free wifi, in order to cover all conference functions as well as the public. In addition, they would provide free 4G network to all attendees, who would actively participate in the event’s interactive activities, do networking and contribute to the event’s communication on social media.

Software & Computer Systems

Support for Software and Information Systems would be managed by SingularLogic, Intralot, Cisco Systems and Applify, which would provide integrated information systems throughout the conference. More specifically, they would design and develop the website and application, as well as the ticket booking page. In addition, they would design the operation of the automatic Registration Booths and the Help Guides, which would be installed at the conference and would include 3D Maps.

Our Clients

Our clients would be separated in different categories depending on what they would pay for. They would have the opportunity to expose their products and services in kiosks specially formed.

Each of them would pay a rent to us, and then take the place they want. The choice of their position in the kiosk space and its size would depend on the amount they were willing to deposit. There would be options for large, medium and small kiosks, with the larger ones and closest to the entrance costing more.

Our partners and sponsors could have their own kiosk and the price for them would differ depending on other benefits and agreements. For example partners that belong to “Olympians” would have a lot more opportunities than a non partner of us.

Target Audience

Our event is all about technology and especially upcoming mobile trends and innovations. So we aim to attract all these people that show interest in any of these topics.

The congress would have a more professional character and we would like to get the attention of professionals from the field of mobile technology, app developers, start-uppers, IT members, researchers, telecom companies, online and mobile marketing companies, leaders of the industry. In that way guests and companies that would be there to speak with potential clients or investors wouldn’t spend their time on ideas with zero background.

But besides these professional categories we would like to give the next generation a safe place to develop and communicate their ideas. We are determined to give opportunities not only to great experts but also young minds that are willing to run a company, or expand their horizons and ideas but maybe don’t have the opportunity to get in touch with the elite of the industry. Of course, applications of non- professionals would be examined carefully, and in order to get accepted must fulfill some criteria that would be available for everyone to read before applying.

So as to reach our target audience, we designed a marketing and communication plan via the following channels:

1.TV

We proposed a TV spot that would promote our conference in Greece with the best possible and creative way. The spot would be aired on the Ant1 and SKAI channels in the afternoon and in the evening. Specifically, from 7.15 pm, shortly before the afternoon news begin, until 9.15 pm when the evening zone starts. The spot would be aired every two weeks starting from the second week of February to the last week of April (two weeks before the conference’s inception). At the same time, various reports would be featured in Ant1 and SKAI Tv news referring to the congress.

Our target group is mainly technology and innovation entrepreneurs who work until the late afternoon. Therefore, between 7–9 pm they are more likely to be home. In addition, they are a group of people who keep up-to-date on news in the technology field and generally on social and economic issues.

2.Radio

For the radio advertising, we would also promote the event with a creative radio spot, which would be aired during morning hours from 7–9 a.m. These are the hours in which our target group is heading to their work every morning. The frequency of the radio spot would be every two weeks, starting 3 months before the beginning of the event. In addition, our partner stations would mention our event on their broadcasts, in order to inform their audience about iMoC. Some of them would also host an interview from the event chairman or a gold sponsor.

Partner Radio Stations: Bloomberg- USA, BBC Radio 6- UK, Future Tense- Australia, SKAI 100.3- Greece, Thema 104.6-Greece, First Programme 91.6- Greece, CNBC Radio.

3.Newspapers & Magazines

We selected newspapers and magazines from all over the world with great recognition and expertise in the field of technology. The media we selected would publish articles and tributes to the event providing all the necessary information about the iMOC. These articles would be updated every month as the event prepares. Newspaper and magazine advertising would start five months before the beginning of the event and would end after the event termination with a report article. There would be articles such as “10 Reasons to attend iMOC” and interviews by the event chairman and the gold sponsors. At the same time, online newspapers, besides articles and interviews, would have sponsored Ads to iMOC for a period of 5 months before the beginning of it.

Traditional Newspaper & Magazine List: Καθημερινή, Το Βήμα, Το Έθνος, Τα Νέα, Real News, Wired Magazine (USA), Computer World (UK), MIT Technology Review (USA), Digit Magazine (India), South China Morning Post (China), China Daily (China), The Japan Times (Japan), The Moscow Times (Russia), The Australian, New York Times (USA)

Online Newspaper & Magazine List: in.gr, naftemporiki.gr, iefimerida.gr, iTech4u.gr, fortunegreece.com, wired.com, technologyreview.com, Computerworld.com, digit.in, techinasia.com, scmp.com, japanesetimes.co.jp, economictimes.com, themoscowtimes.com, bbc.com, theverge.com, theaustralian.com.au, nytimes.com

4.Email- Newsletter

The event’s email marketing would be very frequent and consistent. All newsletters would be personalized base on attendees’ profession and nationality. Their full name, profession or company they work for would always be mentioned. We want our participants to feel the exclusivity that we provide. All the newsletters during the campaign would include iMOC’s website and app links and information.

The campaign would start from December 2020 and would end two weeks after the event’s closing. All the e-mails would be sent during weekdays on morning hours between 8–11a.m, because these hours they are more likely to check their emails as they arrive to work.

Newsletter Chronological Plan:

December- First Appearance

Week 23–20

•Soft Launch of iMOC: Inform about the identity of the congress, the content, the purpose and the audience.

•Greece’s Involvement in Mobile Technology: Explain the reasons why iMOC is taking place in Athens.

• Social Media Accounts + Blog Release

January- Pre-event Period

Week 19–15

•Key Announcements about the dates of the congress and the chosen venue.

•Key Partnerships newsletter release

•Biggest Sponsors newsletter release

•Exclusive Sponsor offers

•Keynote speakers confirmation

•Social Media+ Blog Update

• Early Bird Booking Announcement (for the tickets, we created another Excel document with different prices for early bird tickets, VIP tickets etc. with different benefits for each selling period, accordingly)

February- Event Launch

Week 14–11

•Official Launch of iMOC / Save the date !

•Official Launch of Website + App

Ticket Booking available for everyone

•Press Release

•Social Media+Blog Update

• Newletter about accommodation+ tourism partners. Where to stay and what to do during the congress. Museum and tours discounts included.

•Exclusive Sponsor offers

March- Promotion Season

Week 10–6

•Promo Video release

•Social Media+ Blog Updates

•Interview from Congress Chairman

(About sponsors, exhibitors, partnerships, speakers, program and workshops etc.)

•Content related posts+ articles from relevant media

•Exclusive Sponsor offers

•Gold Sponsor Interview

•Speakers update+ more information

•Workshops revelation

•Official Program Release

April- Promotion Season

Week 5–2

•Ticket Booking Reminder

•Program Reminder

•Social Media+ Blog Updates

•Promo Video

•Newsletter about food and beverage partners

•Newsletter about Congress Accessibility (how to get to iMOC)

•Newsletter about key timings (workshops and speeches hours)

•Key Exhibitors Release

•Exclusive Sponsor Offers

May- Last Call

Week 2- Congress Start

•Final call to Register

•Social Media+ Blog final blast

•Program Reminder

•Instructions of registration and transportation process

• iMOC’s Influencers Team Release

May 13–16- Days of the Congress

•Newsletter about Congress Highlights

•Social Media+Blog Updates

May- Post-Event Period (17/5–31/5)

Week 1–2 After the End of the Congress

•” Thank you for attending” email and survey

•Social Media+Blog Summary

•Post Event Report (include key trends and findings)

•Post-event Video

•Key Findings from survey

What?

We wanted to create a congress on innovative mobile technology, which would attract important players of this industry. The whole experience, starting from getting informed about the event up to evaluating it after it is over, would be consistent with our goals, as its planners, and it would have a certain flow that not only would it not tire the attendees, but would generate their creativity.

The whole process starts when the attendee learns about us through our communication plan; we will describe this one below. Then he has the option of visiting our website or downloading our application.

The website was created via wix.com with the following link which leads to our website’s protoype: https://eleni4698.wixsite.com/imocongress

Through the website the visitor could be informed about the congress, its topics, the speakers, the workshops that would take place during the congress, the whole program, numbers regarding the industry, reasons to attend, the venue and the access to it and a booking section to buy his ticket.

Our app, a prototype that was made via Proto.io, would include all the above, plus a questions form, notifications about the owner’s program, maps of the venue and a kind of internal conference app that could be used during the speeches for Q&As and any interactive experience, as well as networking bookings. The meetings would be available to book three months in advance to the event, because that way the attendees would be able to secure their place and their time with the person they want to talk with.

Booking:

The attendee would have to fill in a form requesting the following personal information:

• First and last name

• Sex: Male / Female / Not identifying with any of the above

• Organization/ company and position

• Email address and phone number

• Country of residence

• Linked-In profile URL (there would be an option to sign in using linked-in, from which we would gather all the information needed.)

• Which of the ticket types he would like to buy

• Optional participation in workshops.

• Any form of disability

Their pass would be available not only in the event’s application, as well as other apps like Eventora/ Viva Wallet etc.

1. Transportation from foreign countries:

Inside every flight towards Greece, with companies we have booked as partners or sponsors, there will be in front of every seat brochures of the event and possibly a video, when it comes to aircrafts with screens.

Upon the arrival at the Athens International Airport:

The moment the visitor arrives at the airport, he would walk in a special line with the event’s colors on the floor, which would lead him, after he claims his luggage, to a special registration spot. There would be a machine that, when scanning his pass’s QR code, it would print his event ID Card. After printing the card, the computer would welcome the attendee, and taking into consideration the date and time of his arrival, would inform him about the weather conditions and would propose to him some activities to fill his time until the event.

The next step is to board on the special buses we would have rented in order to transport our visitors to the venue. During the 5–10-minute ride, the screens inside the buses would pose questions regarding why the event is held in Greece, but without providing the answers.

2. Transportation from other regions of Greece:

If they come by plane, the same process would take place. Otherwise, they could access the venue by metro or the suburban railway, which have as terminal the Airport. They would be guided by signs to reach a spot from which buses would transport them to the venue in a regular basis. Inside all the previously mentioned means of transportation, which would be partners of ours, there would be filled with the campaign for the event.

Arrival at the venue:

The buses would leave the visitors right in front of the Metropolitan Expo gate. In the place of the path leading to the entrance, there would be a tunnel-like structure, build by screens. On the bottom, whoever steps on the floor would be able to see his footprint in the event’s logo’s colors. On the sides, a live history of mobile technology would appear, which would be the answer to the question posed in the transportation buses’ screens.

Entering the venue:

The first step would be to go through a security check, the system of which would be like the one used in airports, in order the check to be quick and efficient. The ones that would not have received their personal event ID card yet, would have the chance to do it upon entering the event, at the special registration desk.

The venue:

When entering the Metropolitan Expo, the hall one sees in front of them is hall number 4. In that hall, all the workshops would take place and there would also be the VIP booths. The VIP Booths would be the ones belonging to our Olympians Sponsors (the golden ones).

The next hall is hall 3:

This hall, which is the largest one, would include all the sponsors’ stands. Every stand would have a part where business meetings would take place, and a big screen for a possible presentation.

Next to it there is hall 2:

The speeches would take place there. The stage would be a circle in the middle of the hall, on a higher level. The attendees would be seated around the stage, the top of which would have big screens for everyone to be able to see the speaker. After each day’s schedule, this hall would host any celebration event.

The last one is hall 1: It would be the food and beverages’ hall, available during the whole day. A part of it would be an exclusive restaurant for our VIP guests, the speakers, the Olympian Sponsors and the ones that have purchased the golden pass. In the rest of the hall, there would be stands for coffee and other beverages, catering and a bar. In the middle there would be tables and chairs for the visitors to enjoy their food and drinks.

The program

The following is the official program for the four days of the congress.

What would also be included is a schedule of the extra events that would accompany it.

Extra Events

Tech-nopolis

When: May 15th&16th , 2021

Where: Texnopolis, Gazi

What: AI & Mobile Technology Festival for young people, organized and under the auspices of the Municipality of Athens, in collaboration with iMoC. Target Age: 10–35

Why-Who: We want to support young people in technology, motivate them to take part in the mobile tech conversation and in world festivals, learn more. We want to organize a big event, during the iMoC Congress, in order to broaden the celebration of technology all over the city and for all ages.

Stavros Niarxos Coctail Party

When: May 15th, 2021 / 21:00

Where: Stavros Niarxos Foundation Cultural Centre

What: A cocktail party with molecular drinks and gastronomy

Who: VIP ticket holders, our guests, the speakers, representatives from our partners and sponsors.

Dinner at the Acropolis Museum

When: May 16th ,2021 / 21:00

Where: The Acropolis Museum Restaurant

What: Honorary Dinner

Who: Our Guests, Honorary Guests, Speakers, Big Sponsors’ CEOs and Presidents.

For the 4 days of the congress, the Acropolis and the Parthenon, as well as the fountains in Syntagma and the Stavros Niarxos Foundation would be lighted up in the colors of the event.

Of course, we could not organise any of that without budgeting first. We created another Excel as well for the earnings and the costs of the event in detail. Actually, we realised that without budgeting we could not manage any crisis that could have occured, like the pandemic that hit the whole world in 2020 for example. And that’s exactly what happened; the module event we have been organising has to be postponed or cancelled because of a global crisis according to our mentor, so her question is “What do you do now? How do you manage the upcoming crisis that will certainly affect your event?”. Our answer after some reasearch and several meetings with the whole team is summarized below.

Crisis Executive Summary Document

We have been following the virus breakout extremely closely since the first reports having as our utmost priority the safety of delegates, speakers and workers. Consulting with top epidemiologists as well as our communication team, to be better prepared for any possible outcome, we initially came up with two different scenarios, contingent on the spread curve:

a. A two-staged approach, i)Postpone the conference ii)Cancel the conference for 2020

b. Cancel the conference for 2020 immediately if the problem is generalized

Delegates: Given the fact that Early Bird Regular / Early Bird VIP ticket categories have sold out and that no other ticket category sale has begun, we decided to give aforementioned ticket holders the following options:

i) Full Refund

ii) To retain their ticket, towards the 2021 conference, with at 5% discount, to be credited to them at the beginning of next year’s event

For regular tickets (non early bird), ticket sale hadn’t opened when we decided on cancellation, so there are no further actions needed.

Speakers: As per contract commitment, paid speakers had received a 10% downpayment during booking, which we decided to let them keep, toward their attendance for next year’s event. We deemed this necessary to maintain our partnership with them and act in good faith. In return, we asked to have priority on their availability when next year’s dates are set in stone.

Sponsors: The agreed upon disbursement of sponsor funds was already decided on a gradual manner. That means that leading up to the event, different chunks of their budget would be unlocked. We have already received 20% of their budget, with the clause of the amount being non-refundable and calculated against exposure given by us in all advertising materials leading up to the event.

Partners: Since partners whose contracts do not provide for any financial arrangements, we made sure to notify them personally about our safety priority, and how we hope to work together again with them for next year’s event.

Coverage against loss of profits / activating force majeure clauses with contractors: All infrastructure and services contracts had a force majeure clause providing for a full refund in case of emergency cancellation, which we activated towards vendors such as catering and the venue. Travel and accommodation is due for a full refund due to the pandemic itself. The lion’s share of our expenses leading up to the event comes from legal counselling and the advertising agency. We have decided to honor our contractual commitments through to the end and not renegotiate. The reasoning behind it is that a) there will inevitably be extrajudiciary disputes that we will need the legal team to settle and b) we still need the advertising agency to carry out a plan that will maintain our image and create a bridge with next year’s event. Costs accrued and loss of profit is covered by our insurance cancellation policy that we had provided for in our budget.

In addition, we proposed a brief communication plan for the changes that have occured. In that case of cancellation of the event, our clients would be informed via emails, social media, press releases and of course there would be a cancellation notice on our website and app, as seen below:

Finally, this was the case study of our memorable event that SixPawnsEvents, our team, has prepared as a module and which needed to be hypothetically cancelled. It has been a meaningful experience giving us a strong background for future plans that may come true as we faced this project as a realistic one with all the difficulties that could accompany it.

For all this, we would like to thank Athena Fradelou and Betty Tsakarestou for everything they have done so this lab can be conducted.