OUR place to live

There is a city that has been voted as the capital of innovation 2018, has developed unique initiatives, for social inclusion, education, culture, digital tech as well as community economic development. Ring any bells? What If we tell you that this city brings out 2,500 of history? Yes, it is Athens. Great things have happened here the last decade but indeed most citizens haven’t heard of. But what does make all these great initiatives to pass by, is it just luck of communication, or is it something deeper?

During the past 5 months, occasioned by the course Cultural Marketing headed by professor and mentor Betty Tsakarestou, for the MSc “Information Society Media and Technology” under the department Communication Media and Culture of Panteion University, we have been studying city branding, global indexes as well as the city of Athens to place our capital in the global map. A challenging period not only for Athens who struggles to overpass social and economic outcomes of the financial crisis but for all cities due to the new global health crisis.

While thinking about Athens it is easy to point out that it has a unique location including landscape relief and coastal front as well as excellent climate, scoring 95,18 on the climate index. It is also easy to recognize the cultural and historical significance, it is known as the cradle of the western civilization, and has ranked 1st in the cultural and creative city monitor. Entertainment is also a highlight of the city, 5th out of 30 in nightlife cultural vibrancy index. Innovative creative industry is something that you may think Athens could outweigh, but yet it ranked high, 78 out of 500.

On the other hand, we have unemployment, 69.9% of respondents priority areas, while fulfilling employment is at 30.1 %. Financial difficulties are a major problem since the city ranked 29 out of 40 in the creative economy, 39 out of 40 in enabling environment, 23.31 out of 100 at businesses creating new jobs, and 31.84 at employment finding services available. Another major problem could be corruption, 14.36 out of 100 at Corruption of city officials, an issue of concern, while it was at the 45.5% of respondents priority Areas. Green development is also a big issue since it scored 35.5 out of 100 at Recycling services, 24.80 at green spaces are satisfactory while green spaces were in the 39.8% of respondents priorities, and recycling at 26.8 %.

While recording the web scene, we discovered during many searches, the major initiatives of Athens including This is Athens (a constructive interview given to the team by the helpful director of marketing and communications, E. Kalogiorga), SynAthina, Athens Culture net, Innovathens / Τexnopolis, Serafeio, Sygrou Net. Those important stakeholders seem to produce great content but yet we found it hard to discover and recognize all those acts. We also discerned the lack of online interaction since the above websites are mostly designed to inform rather than convert, so the action buttons are quite hidden in the tree content and the filling forms are sometimes confusing.

The Bootcamp

To gather our findings and combine a strategy for modern Athens based on them, the team (Konstantinos Mamouzelos, Evakadillari, Kelly Dafni) took part in a virtual Bootcamp scheduled on 13–14/6/2020. We performed design thinking and created a business model canvas that led us to a strategy proposal for Athens.

We ended up that Athens is in a positive development phase, despite the COVID crisis and there is an increasingly positive attitude towards the city’s image. A vibrant Metropolis, with great location and surroundings, with open, extroverted and highly educated people. Athens has a profound cultural and historical significance, combined with a well-developed tourism industry and great weather.

The major problems are the city’s high unemployment due to the global financial crisis, lack of green and public spaces, and a communication gap among Athen’s initiatives.

So what can be done to improve the Athens scene? The idea is to find a way to feature all the great things that happen here as well as point out what could be done to further develop Athens based on our findings.

Step 1 Agility

To connect the initiatives, the city should be addressed as a contemporary corporation. Methodologies used for product management could be performed for optimal results. The creation of a Product Management Team to coordinate Athens initiatives (This is Athens, Syn Athina, Innovathens, Culture Net, Serafeio, Startup ecosystem, etc) would be necessary to promote interaction within teams. In that way, it will be easier to determinate OKR’s and KPI’s that align with Athen’s primary goals.

The use of product management tools such as Asana, Jira, Monday, etc is essential for the daily basis interaction within different teams to create communication channels for the city’s stakeholders. To communicate and promote Athen’s actions we should also create a media team.

As for Athen’s central portal, the idea is to design a new website “Athens our place to live” that would be completely designed for interaction and unify the above initiatives under the umbrella of Athen’s official website. The proposed segments would be for Citizens, for Businesses, for Visitors.

Having optimized the existing actions we should consider what is more to be done. What could make Athens more attractive for those who live here, those who could choose to move or return, and those who could invest? Making actions to improve the city’s Weaknesses could be a great opportunity.

Step 2 Green City

We strongly believe that the way we shape cities is a manifestation of the kind of humanity we propose in general. Aiming to a green, open, and lively city, Athens should create more walkable and car-free streets, create and prioritize bicycle networks to reduce Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) by each citizen. Having also Humanscale neighborhoods in great consideration to strengthen a sense of community and connectedness, all the above could have a huge impact on air quality and economic vitality. Replan the city with the pedestrianization of roads such as “Megalos Peripatos of Athens”, connect it to the coastal zone, and plant trees along the way. Furthermore, expand this measure to many suburbs within 15 years. It is crucial for social well-being and environmental impacts to transform Athens from a city of cars to a city of walkers and transit.

We should preserve and/or restore existing public spaces such as Olympic Village Swimming pool and Parko Tritsi, constantly researching to identify potential places for park creation, cooperate with Athens partners and have citizens or businesses adopt the initiatives. We look up to increase peoples engagement as our motto “Athens OUR place to live”, stands for.

Additionally, the city must develop high-quality public transportation instead of new highways focusing on a more transit-oriented environment (walking, biking, transit).

Key Partners: Regional Union of Municipalities of Attica (PEDA) and the Municipality of Athens, OASA/OSE, Private Sector and International partners

Step 3 Unemployment, Finacial crisis, Innovative city

One of the main goals of this project is to make Athens an attractive city for innovation and ICT firms permanently. Our idea is to turn Athens into a green tech hub, attracting companies and NGO’s working on renewable energy sources. Greece is known for its rich renewable energy sources, thus, along with its booming startup scene, it is the ideal place for the implementation of such a project. This goal can be achieved through a series of key activities. Those activities we can assist in the resolution of some of the city’s main problems, as mentioned above. High unemployment rate, lack of green and public spaces, as well as the communication gap among Athens initiatives. As we focus on attracting tech companies, our actions can be combined with the actions described above, which aim to make Athens an environmentally friendlier place. Moreover, these propositions aim to help Athens become more innovative and attract further investments.

Our first proposition includes creating an integration team, whose goal will be to make the city’s product management agile. As seen before it is highly important to eliminate vertical obstacles within Athens initiatives and have a horizontal daily basis communication, together with the segmentation of tasks. So it is important to assign a team tracking and recording the proposed project. The team will open communication and discussion channels between the city’s stakeholders. Therefore, it will create discussion channels, to connect with the start-up scene.

Secondly, we propose interacting with Financial, Development, and Investments Ministries to create circumstances for business relocation. Opening a dialogue with the government for tax perks is vital for the attraction of investments.

Thirdly, we recommend investing in infrastructure improvement. Activities such as restoring municipality’s buildings, so that we can create a property pool available for renting or creating open spaces to enable outdoor meetings for companies, would be very profitable. Additionally, maintaining and creating green spaces is very important here too. Creating more green spaces would make Athens more attractive to future investors, as it would provide the ideal surroundings for their companies. Creating connections and interacting with Universities, is also very important, as universities can provide the basis for innovation and growth, together with the talent pool. Finally, we propose assigning to a team the communication with businesses as well as the talent pool listing.

The implementation of our proposals requires some key resources. The resources we suggest are the utilization of human resources available in municipality and partners, together with the European and public fundings. Private fundings would also be very helpful. Another form would be the exploitation of the city’s properties, such as its buildings and public spaces. Last but not least, the strengthening of cooperation and voluntarism programs would be vital.

The outcome

As mentioned above, during this project we conducted a multi-month study of the city of Athens, trucking down its main strengths and weaknesses, as well as its opportunities. We see and understand that branding Athens is a task of the entire city.

Based on that analysis we created a vision of Athens as an agile and innovative city. We believe that our proposals can bring a positive outcome to the overall well being of Athens. First of all, the changes in infrastructure and green spaces will bring an environmental upgrade to the city. By making Athens a new innovative and green tech hub, we can create a new strong industry, which will bring unemployment reduction. Moreover, these initiatives would empower the city’s identity and create a new revenue stream. Finally, they will help boost the city’s tourism, by attracting a new form of tourism, business tourism, and new imminent permanent citizens.