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On March 12th - 13th 2013, we at EKT had a major part to play in encouraging co-operation between
Greek and foreign businesses by co-ordinating the international ‘B2B Networking Event’ in Athens
for Enterprise Europe Network -Hellas. The event, an initiative of the Greek Government and the
European Commission, took place within the framework of the 2-day workshop Development
Strategy Europe 2020: forwarding Entrepreneurial Collaboration in Greece.
Attendance from national and international businesses surpassed our expectations with more than
300 Greek and 110 foreign businesses from 25 countries taking part. 1300 bilateral meetings took
place in order to establish common ground for commercial, technological or research collaborations,
to find new customers and suppliers as well as to discover new technologies and products.
Businesses that were represented came from a variety of sectors: the food industry 22%, ICT 22%,
energy 18%, key enabling technologies 17%, the pharmaceutical industry and Health Sciences 11% and
tourism 10%. The countries with the largest number of businesses participating were Germany Italy,
Belgium, the UK and Cyprus, closely followed by Austria, Turkey, Poland and Bulgaria. Interest was
so keen that, even though the meetings lasted from early morning until late evening, participants
remained enthusiastic.
Thewelcomespeeches for theeventweregivenby theVicePresident of theEuropeanCommission,Mr.
Antonio Tajani and Dr. Joanna Drake, Director of Promotion of SMEs competitiveness at DG Enterprise
and Industry, European Commission. They highlighted the need to promote entrepreneurship and to
foster the outward-looking approach of SMEs.
1.300 Bilateral Meetings
for business collaborations in Greece
