My take on the 5th Panhellenic Congress on the Development of Greek Agriculture

The 5th Panhellenic Conference on the Development of Greek Agriculture was the latest of the series of Conferences organized by GAIA Epicheirein in collaboration with various organizations. It took place at the Candia Maris Resort & Spa Crete, an impressive complex at Heraklion, Crete.

This year's theme was "Digitization: The Future of European Agriculture" - you can read a sort overview here (English).

I found myself contributing to the coverage of the event, being a part of the social media team (and focusing on my favorite Twitter). Using the hashtag #GAIACongress18, we created a cloud of tweets while an additional cloud was created through the #GAIACongress2018 hashtag by third parties (I admit we hadn't circulated the hashtag of the event beforehand so this was a minor casualty). 

My workflow was pretty much a typical one: I was taking photos of the event with my smartphones and kept tweeting using my Bluetooth keyboard which was paired with them. I also used my 11,6-inch tablet with its keyboard for managing the Facebook pages and responding to emails.

Τελευταίες ετοιμασίες λίγο πριν την έναρξη του 5ου Πανελληνίου Συνεδρίου - σας περιμένουμε! #GaiaCongress18 pic.twitter.com/LY5xYuKvw1

— Gaia Επιχειρείν (@Gaia_Epixeirein) October 25, 2018

What I (also) did during the Congress

On top of that, I was around the gaiasense booth that was available at the exhibition room of the Congress; we had a TV screen for playing the gaiasense videos, a huge banner, numerous leaflets and of course our loyal telemetric station (which tends to be around in all recent gaiasense-related event, from the Thessaloniki International Fair 2018 and on!). I had the opportunity to explain the gaiasense concept to participants of the event and talk about the features of our custom telemetric stations.

Among these, I managed to find some time to be around our DataBio Horizon 2020 Big Data Lighthouse Project stand and help our charming Italian partner Anna Bozza from CiaoTech to keep up with questions and requests about the project from Greek stakeholders (many of which were not exactly fluent in English). The stand was really well-thought, with project dissemination material (T-shirts and hats stood out of the crowd!) and drew the attention of various participants of the event.

In between, I got engaged in discussions with friends and colleagues, talked about gaiasense and smart farming in Greece to media, arrange an interview with the national TV channel ERT the day after (a challenging task, considering it should take place about 100 km away from our hotel and I had no car or other mean of transportation available), give a hand to the dissemination of our projects during the Congress (such as our Greek ones SmartPeach and SymbIoT, and our LIFE GAIA Sense EU one) and last but not least, deliver a presentation about our DataBio project, focusing on the Greek pilots! 

My DataBio presentation

Right after the end of the main event (the Congress), GAIA Epicheirein, CiaoTech and NEUROPUBLIC had arranged a brief session focusing on our DataBio Horizon 2020 Lighthouse project at the main room of the Congress. I had prepared a set of slides about the project itself, its aims and objectives and work so far and a second set on the smart farming pilots taking place in Greece - which NEUROPUBLIC coordinates and implements. 

Despite the fact that the session took place by the end of a long day, the audience was more than we initially expected, consisting of various types of Greek stakeholders (farmers and agricultural cooperatives, agricultural advisors and agronomists, other agrifood chain partners). The presentation went pretty well, I received a number of questions during the session and got into related discussions afterwards.

Wrapping up

It was surely a long and busy day, with many tasks running at the same time, various requests to be fulfilled and many-many discussions with stakeholders. In the end we managed to keep things under control and deliver what we had to deliver (plus arrange some things for the next day, like the aforementioned TV interview).

By the end of the day, we had to disassemble everything, pack it up (including posters, roll-ups, banners, leaflets and even our pretty heavy telemetric station), load everything on our pick-up truck and catch up with the rest of colleagues for a nice, traditional Cretan dinner in a small village outside Heraklion.

We knew that we had accomplished our goals during these two days at Crete (the gaiasense event and the 5th GAIA Congress) and this made everything easier for us.

gaiasense at Heraklion: A challenging but successful event

On October 24th 2018, NEUROPUBLIC organized an open event for the gaiasense smart farming system at Aquila Atlantis Hotel, Heraklion, Crete. The aim of the event was to present various aspects of the gaiasense system (e.g. technological, business, policy & CAP) to stakeholders from Crete.

Background

There was a lot of preparation behind the event: Presentations were made from scratch with the help of a (talented) graphic designer and multiple rehearsals took place before the event. Demos of the gaiasense applications and tools were prepared, based on predefined scenarios (to save time). A new (stunning) video was prepared highlighting the concept of gaiasense and various activities related to its operation, media coverage was arranged, invitations were sent to key stakeholders and a ticketing system was set up for organizing the attendance in the best possible way. The agenda was carefully thought and prepared, ensuring that representatives from all aspects of gaiasense would have the time to talk and discuss their contributions.

We even had our famous telemetric station packed and loaded onto the gaiasense pickup truck (and then unpacked it and set it up at the event room - a really challenging task!), loads of posters, roll-ups, banners, leaflets and other dissemination material packed, unpacked and set up as well; everything set up in a couple of hours.

The event

I admit it; participation was higher than I expected: We had booked a room seating about 150 people and by the beginning of the event we already had people standing and leaning on the walls. There were mostly agricultural advisors, farmers and agricultural cooperatives, and other stakeholders interested in innovation in the agricultural sector.

(Partial) view of the audience from the panelists' table

Everything went smooth and according to the plan; of course, there were some minor glitches here and there (e.g. a specific app wouldn't work over the existing WiFi network so we had to skip it at the last rehearsal), but this is expected during a live event. The sound was fine, videos went out great, the audience was really interested in the presentations and there were some questions after each session.

What made the event more interesting was the fact that we had decided to skip the typical set of (usually boring) slides for the description of the four dimensions of gaiasense - we also skipped the typical sitting /standing on the podium and we went for a PechaKutcha style of presentation, so we had the opportunity to look at our audience instead of the laptop screen, using a wireless microphone.

The specific session was apparently my favorite one; not only because it was me and my colleagues working closely and presenting the gaiasense dimensions in a complimentary way, but also due to the fact that it was really different than the rest. I personally had the opportunity to present not one but two of the gaiasense dimensions - and right after that, to demonstrate the main gaiasense software tools. It was a real marathon for me, but I think it came out pretty well.

It was also interesting that aspects of gaiasense like its role in the new CAP as an instrument supporting the implementation of its measures, its role as a tool for agricultural advisors (agricultural advisory services will be a key component of the new CAP) and its European dimension were also presented by colleagues and collaborators.

Wrapping up

In less than 2,5 hours we managed to present almost everything related to the gaiasense smart farming system, including the technological, the methodological, the scientific and the policy aspects of gaiasense. The pace was so quick, based on short sessions and the constant change of speakers, that the audience could not help but follow the flow. Their interest was expressed in the form of discussions that took place right after the event. It was a really dense period and an even more dense event - but it went really well and this made up for it.

The end of the event was not the end of the activities: We had to pack everything and send it over to another hotel, where the 5th Panhellenic Congress for the Development of Greek Agriculture would take place (and gaiasense would also be represented with its own booth, posters, roll-ups and other dissemination material). Press releases had to be prepared and sent to media, photos had to be organized and I also had yet another presentation to make - this time on the DataBio project and its smart farming pilots in Greece (that NEUROPUBLIC is responsible for).

It was a day to remember, that's for sure.

Presenting the benefits of smart farming for the olive sector at Copa Cogeca

I was excited.

I was invited to the meeting of Copa Cogeca's Working Party on Olive Oil and Table Olives, to make a presentation on how smart farming can benefit the olive sector. It was a great opportunity for me to present the work that we are doing with NEUROPUBLIC's gaiasense smart farming system. A Facebook reminder (the "On this day" feature) informed me that it was only a couple of years and two days ago when I first attended a Copa Cogeca event (the annual Farmers Congress, that was collocated with the GAIA Congress in Athens, Greece).

I was stressed.

The meeting would take place on the day that we were submitting a pretty important proposal for a project to take place in the Region of Western Greece. I was responsible for the communication with the partners of the proposal, the collection of all necessary documentation and certificates from their side (both in digital and printed version) - and since we are talking about Greece, you can only imagine the amount of paperwork required...

I was also responsible for uploading all necessary information on the web-based proposal submission platform - for all partners - and in general for the successful submission of the proposal, in full and on time. On top of all that, I needed to find time for preparing my slides for the Copa Cogeca meeting.

Both were equally important; I needed to find time for both.

What I did was to work on the submission until Friday, ensuring that everything would be ready for its submission on Monday, leaving only minor parts to be completed by my (always willing to help) colleagues. Then I could allocate time over the weekend for my slides; a challenging task, considering that weekends are usually full of errands and time with the family.

Being at Copa Cogeca's premises is a privilege!

On Thursday and Friday, I made use of my commute time to work (a good 2-hours daily) for building the structure of my presentation. I also filled parts of it with existing material, carefully crafted by me or my colleagues. I knew I had limited time to prepare my presentation and therefore I needed to get the most out of existing resources, making sure that they would be a perfect fit for the specific purpose.
 
Over the weekend, I made good use of my free time and materialized what I had planned in paper during the previous days. And it worked. I soon had a presentation consisting of more than 20 slides, telling the story I wanted to tell. I reviewed it a couple of times, made some revisions and I was ready to go. The (relatively) long travel time also allowed me to go through it and make sure that I would deliver it in a decent way :-)

When I finally reached the Copa Cogeca headquarters at the center of Brussels, I felt confident; I had gone through the slides several times, I had my story ready and some additional points to mention without additional slides. Meeting my colleagues from Greece right before the meeting helped me relax and feel more comfortable.

@vprot from our strategic partner @Neuropublic presenting the @gaiasenseGR #smartfarming system solutions for smallholder olive growers in the @COPACOGECA Working Party on Olive Oil and Table Olives: #smartfarming is a valid & valuable solution for all EU farmers & agri-coops! pic.twitter.com/JW1I0ph96o

— Gaia Epicheirein EU (@Gaia_Brussels) October 8, 2018

The presentation went pretty well, with an audience of about 20 people - mostly representatives of olive cooperatives and organizations from Mediterranean countries (Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal), as well as Croatia. It took me about 20 minutes to make my presentation and to provide some additional information during the interactive session right after; the parallel translation in the languages spoken within the Party helped things a lot. It was a great experience for me and therefore I would like to thank the Chair of Copa Cogeca's Working Party on Olive Oil and Table Olives and the rest of the Working Part for the kind invitation.

Some interesting info on the trip itself

It was a one-day trip to Brussels, and since it was booked on the last minute, I didn't have the luxury of many options - and none of the available options was a direct flight. Instead of taking the 1-stop flight at 06.00, I opted for the 2-stop flight with Swiss Air at 06.30, which allowed me to rest for 30 precious minutes more in the morning. However, this would be tricky, as I heavily depended on the accuracy of the flights (and my latest experiences were not exactly positive). I arrived at 12.45 in Brussels and at about 13.45 at the Copa Cogeca premises, early enough to catch up with the meeting starting at 14.30.

The flight back home was easier, with just one stop in Zurich. I am glad that everything went well travel-wise, so I was able to reach my destination on time.

I finished my day having taken 5 flights, 1 bus (to the Copa Cogeca premises), 1 train (to Brussels airport) and a short drive to and from Athens airport; on top of that I walked more than 5 km in total in between my destinations, according to my smartwatch :-)

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My collection of boarding passes for the day. Look carefully; there are 5 of them :-) #flyswiss #swissinternationalairlines #swissair #boardingpass #businesstrip

A post shared by Vassilis P. (@vprot) on Oct 7, 2018 at 8:13pm PDT