The Annual Technology Innovation International Conference was successfully held in Thessaloniki, Greece, from 22nd to 24th of April, 2009. The conference was co-organized by SEERC, Greece, and Technology Innovation International, Luxembourg.
The theme of this year's conference was "Regional Excellence in Innovation: Case Studies from around the World", and was held in conjunction with the 2nd International Conference on Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Regional Development (ICEIRD 2009).
The event attracted more than 120 participants from 30 different countries, including innovation and technology professionals, academics and researchers, representatives of regional development agencies, governmental agencies, science parks, and incubators.
Welcome speeches were addressed in the conference opening by Prof. Loukas Ananikas, Secretary General of the Ministry of Macedonia-Thrace, and Prof. George Tsiotras, Secretary General of the Regional Authority of Central Macedonia.
Among the renowned keynote speakers were:
- Marguerite Gong Hancock, Associate Director of Stanford Program on Regions of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SPRIE), USA
- Prof. Spyros Lioukas, Athens University of Economics and Business, Greece
- Prof. Merle Jacob, Research Policy Institute, Lund University, Sweden
- Cheryl Perkins, Founder and President of Innovationedge, USA
The speakers addressed a wide range of topics on Technology and Innovation and their talks were followed by stimulating discussions with the audience. The conference programme and speaker presentations are available from the TII website (http://www.tii.org) under "Past Events". The next Technology Innovation International Conference will take place in April 2010 in Germany.
Keynote speech by Marguerite Gong Hancock (Associate Director of Stanford Program on Regions of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Stanford University)
Mr Nikos Zaharis (Director, SEERC), Prof. Loukas Ananikas (Secretary General, Ministry of Macedonia-Thrace), Prof. Elias Carayiannis (Associate Director, GEFRI - George Washington University), Prof. George Tsiotras (Secretary General, Regional Authority of Central Macedonia), Dr. Panagiotis Ketikidis (Vice Principal, CITY College)
TII 2009 Communication Sponsors:
- Makedonia Newspaper
- Thessaloniki Newspaper
- Inderscience Publishers
- ICT plus Portal
- Athens Plus News