Participation in the BEYOND 4.0 International Expo

I was excited to be part of the team to represent NEUROPUBLIC at the Beyond 4.0 International Expo. The event took place between 14-16 of October 2021 at Thessaloniki, Greece. The team was great, consisting of people from our Marketing, Sales, Software Development and Technical departments, covering all different dimensions of the company's services.

Compared to the Thessaloniki International Fair, in which I also participated one month earlier, the visitors seems to be more focused / targeted and close to the theme of BEYOND (while in TIF visitors were mostly a generic audience - probable due to the generic character of the Fair). 

The schedule was packed as BEYOND was open to the public between 10.00-20.00, leaving us only a limited time for sightseeing and other activities. On top of that, the weather during BEYOND was awful (ranging from light rain to heavy thunderstorms), so it was a good things that all Stands were indoors. The bad weather was probably the main factor that prevented potential visitors from visiting the Expo, but still there was quite a crowd on Friday and Saturday - and this indicates the importance of the event.

View of the cloudy and rainy area outside the BEYOND 4.0 Expo

The exhibitors fell under two main categories: Innovative (and some not so innovative) companies working on digital solutions mostly for the public sector (Regions, Local Governments etc.) and the Public Sector itself (ranging from Municipalities to Regions), showcasing the digital transformation steps that they have implemented so far.

We (as NEUROPUBLIC) had the opportunity to present our digital services for the public sector, both through a dedicated presentation at the central stage of the Pavilion and through direct communication with potential stakeholders who approached our Stand. At the same time, we had the opportunity to see the offerings of the competition and see how we compare with them.

Our Stand was impressive: large, bright and conveniently located at the center of the Pavilion, right next to the central stage. It was full of useful material, like leaflets and other printed material, videos playing on three different large monitors and many of my colleagues available to discuss with visitors of our Stand. Plus, two lovely promoters were always available to hand out informational material to the visitors.

I don't know if it was due to my academic background. but most of the discussions I had during the Expo was with Professors, Researchers and students from various Universities. I enjoyed learning about their projects and outcomes, their work and collaborations, no matter if they came from the Earth Observation, IoT or any other domain. I also had the opportunity to visit their Stands and see their work.

Big thanks to my colleagues from our Northern Greece office, who helped a lot with lots of things, from our transportation to the smooth operation of our Stand!